Virtually all Webmasters these days are aware of
fact that exchanging linkbacks with other sites is an excellent method for building traffic.In fact, if you go about it right way, you can build a sizable audience for your Web site (even if you don't have much luck in achieving good positioning in search engines). I've had a good amount of success in building traffic to my sites over years, and linkbacks have been a key component of that success.
There's a number of tips and tricks I've learned over years about best way to benefit from linkbacks with other sites. These include:
1. Make it as easy as possible for other Web site owners to link you. One way I've tried to achieve this over years is by creating a page that has ready-to-use "cut and paste" HTML linkback code that Webmasters can grab and add to their pages, if they want to link one of my sites. In fact, I have no problems at all with linkback partners who wish to directly link to a button or banner image that resides on my server.
The way I see it, if someone is willing to link a site of mine, then I'm certainly willing to pay for necessary bandwidth. If you require people to actually grab a button or banner from your site and upload it to their site in order to link to you, then you're only adding another step. This may not seem significant. But I've found it can be for many site owners, particularly newbies. The fact is, most successful Web site owners tend to busy and pressed for time. Anything you can do to save them an extra step is significant and, over long run, will result in more linkbacks.
Another advantage of offering ready-to-use "cut and paste" HTML linkback coding is that you may find that a lot of Webmasters will link your site, simply because they like what you're offering. If you run a useful, worthwhile site, you'll find that a lot of other site owners will link you and not even ask for anything in return.
2. Forget full-sized banners. It's hardly news that banner ad market is pretty dead these days. That goes for banner linkbacks, as well. (Although some people refer to small buttons or icons as "banners," term properly refers to images that are usually around 468-by-60 pixels in size). The fact is, these days, banners get very few clicks, for most part. In fact, I've found that a well-worded text link can actually draw more clicks than a full-sized banner these days. And, what's more, a text link doesn't impact a site's all-important load time, unlike a full-sized banner. Besides text links, I find that 88X31 pixel buttons also perform well in linkback deals, particularly if you have an eye-catching design. Animated buttons tend to get more clicks than static buttons. But nevertheless, I always offer potential linkback partners a choice of several designs, both static and animated. If you offer linkback partners a choice of designs, you'll increase odds that they'll be willing to display your button.
3. Piggyback on other sites' search engine success. Spend some time at major search engines. Type in most likely keywords that you think people would use to locate your site. Then take a look at sites at top of search results. It's possible that your site will never achieve top search engine placement for a given set of ideal keywords. But don't fret: although you may not have direct control over search engines, you can benefit from sites that are well-placed. I've had a good deal of luck over years, working out linkbacks with sites with excellent search engine placement on desirable keyword(s). The fact is, if you can't be top site in a given search, you can have next best thing: to be linked prominently on that particular site.
