Reciprocal links are links with other sites, which are generally related to theme of your website. The concept is simple you link to site, and that sites webmaster returns favour and links back to your site. For some reason or another you always receive a lot more traffic from sites, then you give out.

This method of traffic building is very important and its free, its simply a matter of contacting right webmasters and getting right links. However a full blown 'link-hunt' can be time consuming but benefits it can bring are huge. Among them are:

Highly targeted visitors

Better search engine rankings

The visitors that come from related websites are highly targeted and you have a much better chance of selling them your product or service, because they have come to your site through a link on a related website you know they are interested in your sites theme, otherwise they wouldn't be on a site that is linking to you and furthermore they definitely wouldn't click through if they weren't interested. So these are prime prospects for your product or service and best of all you don't have to pay for a single one.

Also it is worth telling you that it is very unlikely that once a link is up on someone's site that it will be taken down. This means that once a link is up, chances are it will be sending you free visitors for its lifetime, free visitors = free sales = more profit.

Reciprocal linking is my personal favorite form of marketing, even though a good Search Engine campaign will bring in much more traffic than any number of links can. I say this because it's ideal for sites just starting out as you can see visitors (AND SALES) coming in within days of contacting webmasters for links. Especially if you can secure any high traffic links.

Let's get started!

Step 1 CHOOSING THE RIGHT EZINES A good place to start is by looking in ezine directories. Most directories either have search capabilities or ezines are listed in specific categories. I like to use a directory that gives information such as when listing was updated, number of subscribers, first issue date, if publisher accepts free ads, and rates for paid ads.

Two directories you could use to start your search are:

http://www.ezinelocater.com/

http://www.freezineweb.com/index.html

The freezineweb listing gives all of above information and much more such as ad rules, ads per issue, articles excepted, ad swaps, etc.

You can also enter a search directly into a search engine such as Google - http://www.google.com For example, if your product were vitamins, you could search term "health ezines". If vitamins were distributed by an MLM program, you could also search "MLM ezines" or "Network Marketing ezines".

Look at sample issues, if possible, and subscribe to those ezines you think will be best for your ad. Read a few issues to get feel of kind of content ezine covers.

At this point, you should be able to make a list of targeted ezines that contain quality content. Content that you feel many of subscribers are reading. Include number of subscribers for each ezine.