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Internet Marketing Strategy:44 Link Popularity Secrets
About the Author: Robert A. Kearse is editor of THE TAX TORPEDO Work At Home Newsletter. Each issue features valuable FREE tools and resources that you can use as subscription incentives to build your own opt-in lists. Articles on Internet marketing strategy. Plus, extraordinary bonuses for new subscribers! Published every two weeks. http://100FreeWorkAtHomeTools.com/freenewsletter.php
-Quality targeted traffic from backlink & reciprocal
link partners
-Sustained long-term free search engine traffic
-Recognition as an authority in your specific field
There are enormous benefits to be had if you master and use these link popularity secrets. These 44 linking strategies and tactics are organized into three sections:
Link Popularity Resources, Tools, & Techniques
(1-11)
Backlinks (Incoming Links)
(12-37)
Reciprocal Links
(38-44)
(1-11) Link Popularity Resources, Tools, & Techniques
(1) (1) (1) (1)
You will need a comprehensive script to manage the many tasks of a complete link popularity strategy.
First step:
Download and install Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant (LMA):
http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/software/link-management/ The best link popularity software.
Other leading link building products are:
Arelis4
http://www.axandra.com/
Reciprocal Manager
http://reciprocalmanager.com/
Zeus
http://www.cyber-robotics.com/
...but all have significant price tags attached.
LMA is the Rolls Royce of link popularity software.
In a class by itself!
Oh yes, did I mention that it is free!
This link building software is the best option for building a niche directory for a mini site or niche site.
Even if you currently use other link popularity software, you should add LMA to your Internet marketing arsenal.
Download now or bookmark this page:
http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/software/link-management/
For an example of a link directory established with LMA see the "Work At Home Website Directory" that I have started to develop on this website:
http://100FreeWorkAtHomeTools.com/lma/directory
(2) (2) (2) (2)
Read this important article:
Keyword Phrases In Linking text: http://linkingmatters.com/linkingtext.html
Linking text, sometimes called anchor text is the clickable text that takes people to another page or resource.
Mastering the skill of using keyword phrases in your linking text is one of the critical secrets to understand in developing an effective link building strategy.
Take special notice of the importance of using this technique in your INTERNAL links within your website!
(3) (3) (3) (3)
You should be aware of the penalties search engines can inflict.
Vary keywords in linking text:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_1287.shtml
In your linking strategy you should offer multiple anchor text options for other webmasters to choose in linking to your website.
Change these options AT LEAST ONCE PER MONTH.
(4) (4) (4) (4)
Subscribe to these link popularity newsletters:
http://linkingmatters.com/Newsletter_Subscription.html Linking Matters Newsletter
http://www.linking101.com/newsletter.htm LinkingNews Newsletter
The dynamics of what's effective on the Internet can change at a frightening pace. Subscribe to these ezines and keep current.
(5) (5) (5) (5)
Bookmark this website:
http://www.ericward.com/articles/index.html
Free articles on strategic link building, linking strategies and tactics, and link popularity.
Eric Ward is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in terms of link popularity on the entire Internet.
Visit this site on a REGULAR BASIS.
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Use keywords in your domain name.
The links that you are sowing all over the Internet will show up more often in search engine results, if you are using important keywords in your domain name.
Use the knowledge you gained from SECRET #2 concerning "keyword phrases in linking text".
(7) (7) (7) (7)
Download this ebook which contains a collection of link building tactics:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/131LinkPop.html
An array of link popularity strategies that you won't find anywhere else.
The strategies are not numbered so make a page notation for link building tactics that fit your situation.
(8) (8) (8) (8)
Download and install the Alexa Toolbar.
http://download.alexa.com/index.cgi?p=Dest_W_b_40_T1/
Important toolbar to improve your link popularity.
Use of the toolbar positively affects your Alexa ranking. Since some webmasters take into account your website's Alexa ranking the better your ranking the higher your success rate in getting reciprocal links.
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Install a robots.txt file in root directory of your website (server).
Google's robots (and other SE robots) need to track your links (both internal and external). Give them help and proper guidance with the robot.txt file.
For a valuable tutorial on this technique visit:
http://www.searchengineworld.com/robots/robots_tutorial.htm Robots.txt Tutorial
For other helpful robots.text info visit:
http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/robotcheck.cgi/ Robots.txt Validator
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum93/ Robots.txt Forum
Search engine spiders particularly need help indexing pages that are MORE THAN TWO LEVELS removed from the home page.
(10) (10) (10) (10)
Use this Text-to-Hyperlink Conversion Tool
http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl
If you have an HTML ezine or publish articles online, you should MAKE SURE ALL OF THE URLS IN THE ARTICLE ARE HYPERLINKED. Hyperlinking only the url in the resource box is not enough.
If your articles are online, and you have referenced your own website in the article, check to make sure the links are live.
You will find some article banks where the urls within articles are not hyperlinked. Whenever you encounter this state, alert the editor to the above easy-to-use tool.
Also, express your strong preference for articles with live links.
By the way, you can edit your own articles with some article banks to include live hyperlinks. Where appropriate use the above tool to make your article links live and improve your link popularity.
(11) (11) (11) (11)
Download this powerful free ebook on time management.
http://www.howtomanageyourtime.com/
This is a talking ebook, plus a written transcript of the audio.
You will learn the powerful concept of the TIME QUADRANT, plus 12 critical time management rules.
No one can take advantage of all 44 link popularity secrets in a couple of days or weeks. There are a tremendous amount of productive steps you can take overall.
Therefore, you should SET GOALS of completing a certain step or number of steps by a SPECIFIC DATE.
Once you have put all of these link popularity secrets in place, your website will become a powerful force on the Internet!
http://www.howtomanageyourtime.com/
(12-37) Backlinks (Incoming Links)
(12) (12) (12) (12)
Write and publish articles online.
Informed opinion has it that BACKLINKS, that is, one-way, incoming links are MORE VALUABLE than reciprocal links.
If the backlink is from a high PR, high traffic site, it should prove to be extremely valuable both in terms of traffic and link popularity.
The absolute best way to get backlinks from high quality sites is to write and publish articles online.
Therefore, I have included extensive data for you to utilize.
There are five main distribution channels for your articles that you should concentrate on:
(1)Article Banks or Directories
(2)Announcement Lists
(3)Ezines that have an online archive
(4)Ezine Editors
(5)Individual websites that publish articles
Article Banks or Directories
Here are a number of different sources:
http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/articlebanks.html
http://www.arcanaweb.com/resources/article-directories.html
Announcement Lists
http://www.homebiztools.com/article-lists.htm
http://1clickprofitst.com/article-directories.html
Yahoo Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce_list/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles4you2use4promotion/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articlesubmission/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-reprint-articles
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecontentarticles/
Ezines That Have An Online Archive
You should make it a top priority to start and build a file that lists ezines with an online archive.
SUBMIT TO THESE EZINES FIRST.
Use your judgement. How up to date is the archive? How many subscribers?? What's the Alexa rating?
By the way, if you ADVERTISE in ezines that have an online archive, any links in the ad that reference your own websites will add to your link popularity.
Ezine Editors
You will be using mainly ezine directories:
Some editors print their ezine online but do not have an online archive.
http://eclaunchsite.com/ECLezinedirectories.htm Important list of ezine directories.
http://www.internetmarketing-success.com/email-marketing/ezine-directories.htm Comprehensive list of ezine directories.
Copy and paste this list of urls in your email program and send it to yourself so you will have a hyperlinked list.
Here is a PAID alternative.
This list is selective so it should contain quality ezines with no out-of-date listings:
http://www.ezine-editors-list.com/
Individual Websites That Publish Articles
If you go to http://Google.com, type in:
"target keyword phrase + articles"
You will find websites where you can post articles for that keyword. As an example:
"link popularity + articles" yields this:
http://tinyurl.com/85z2j
Submit Articles To Web Rings
Here is an individual website that has integrated the online publishing of articles with submission to web rings:
http://www.e-syndicate.net/a17492.htm
Fee Based Article Distribution
Here are two paid article distribution services that I have used with good results:
http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/info/distribution/index.html
The service above was the first I used for the article below:
"Internet Marketing Strategy:The Advertising Co-op"
If you copy and paste the article title above, including quotes, at http://google.com, you will see the extent of this article's distribution.
Most of these links are BACKLINKS!
I manually submitted this article to about 10-15 websites, but it was very time consuming. After using Phantom Writers the distribution grew to about 250.
After six months I used isnare for further paid distribution.
http://isnare.com/distribution.php
This service has a very moderate cost.
Blog Posts Re: Articles
Look for June 20th post at:
http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?aid=733&ent=28
Click on "Oh no... here come the critics:
http://www.joltinc.com/blog/?p=3
Then read comment #12.
Then read comment #19:
http://www.joltinc.com/blog/?p=1#comments
Powerful stuff!
Critical Secret Re Article Titles
Article Marketing & Copywriting Secret: How To Make Your Article TITLE Sell
http://100freeworkathometools.com/archives/volume6_issue10.php
After reading this article you should realize that you can get two gigantic benefits from your online articles:
improved link popularity
free website traffic from search engines when your article shows up
If Your Writing Skills Are Poor Or Insufficient
Writing and publishing articles online has such a tremendous benefit, but what if you can't write well, or worse, don't feel you have enough knowledge??
Pick a hot topic and get a ghost writer!
A ghost written article means the article is published with your name as the author.
http://guru.com/category.cfm/505
The benefits you receive will more than make up for the cost when your ghost written article becomes widely distributed.
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Submit your website to these directory sites:
http://www.dmoz.org
The single most important directory listing you can have. There may be long delays in getting your site listed. Be prepared to follow up. A free listing but very powerful.
https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
WARNING: Paying the fee does not guarantee inclusion in the directory.
http://joeant.com
You can avoid the listing fee by becoming an editor.
http://www.Business.com
An important widely used business directory. To submit your site click "Advertise With Us" at bottom of page.
http://www.directory-pages.com/
A comprehensive resource that is very valuable if fully utilized. Ranks directories by how "powerful" they are.
http://www.best-web-directories.com/
Great structure. Offers separate FREE and PAID directory listings.
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Here are some meta directories that list directory sites where you can submit your Web site:
http://www.beaucoup.com/
Beaucoup.com is a large directory which lists more than 2,500 search engines and directories.
http://www.search-engine-index.co.uk/
This directory lists more than 900 specialized search engines and directories.
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List your link or niche website directory with these directories:
http://www.incominglinks.com/ Extraordinary resource!
http://www.directoryarchives.com/
http://www.wmdirectory.com/
http://www.internet-search-engines-faq.com/submit-url-free-directory.shtml Valuable resource! An annotated directory.
http://www.talkingcity.com/showthread.php?t=12 See multiple post re lists of directories by Megri
http://www.massivelinks.com/
http://www.incrawler.com/
Be sure to give your directory a name that includes important keywords.
Having a niche directory with a narrow focus can add tremendous value to your website since it can save an interested party a huge amount of time in locating valuable resources.
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If you have your own website or niche directory, PROMOTE IT!
Submit it to the directories of directories referenced above.
Advertise your link or niche directory using free advertising resources such as:
http://www.free-internet-advertising.co.uk/index.htm
http://freesoloads.100freeworkathometools.com
http://freeadvertisingforum.com
http://www.dailyclassifieds.co.uk
http://www.subscribeme.net
http://adlandpro.100freeworkathometools.com
The focus is not on promoting your overall website but on advertising your link or niche directory specifically.
Your intent is to promote and secure backlinks.
You hope that other websites, once they discover it, will want to link to a valuable resource, YOUR DIRECTORY.
So make your directory exceptional and link within it to high quality websites.
Your Promotion should be RELENTLESS.
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Submit your blog and RSS feeds to directories:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
For details on setting up your syndicated feed, read this article by William Bontrager:
http://www.homebiztools.com/syndication.htm
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If you have the appropriate files, submit your site to directories for .pdf files, multimedia files and image files.
http://searchpdf.adobe.com
http://www.blinkx.tv/
http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/submit.html
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List your ezine in these ezine directories. Make sure you have a SEPARATE sign-up page for your newsletter or ezine.
Such listings will give you a permanent backlink to your website.
http://emailuniverse.com/bestezines
http://ezinelocater.com
http://www.topezineads.com/demo.html
This site has a comprehensive list of ezine directories:
http://internetmarketing-success.com/ezine_directories.htm/
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Post to forums, blogs, and newsgroups.
When your website has appropriate useful information, your responsive answers to forum members' requests can include a direct link to the appropriate page of your website.
Your post must be DIRECTLY RESPONSIVE to the topic, not just an attempt to gain a backlink.
In addition, many forums allow a signature file, where you can include a backlink to your website. Use the knowledge from SECRET #2 in your signature file.
Here is a link to a site with solid information on forums complete with a list of active and prominent forums to investigate.
http://www.imarketing-university.com/internet-marketing-forums.html/ Valuable resource for Internet Marketing forums.
An extremely valuable FREE ebook on posting at forums can be obtained at:
http://100FreeWorkAtHomeTools.com/forumsupertips.php Link popularity and posting at forums
All of the powerful knowledge and wisdom in this ebook can be applied to posting at blogs and newsgroups.
Highly recommended!
*******
Google indexes the content of newsgroups.
An easy way to post messages in newsgroups is to create a Google account and to post via their Web interface:
http://groups.google.com
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Get free publicity, free traffic, and valuable backlinks through using free press release distribution services.
http://www.prweb.com/
http://www.prfree.com/
If you want a serious infusion of valuable publicity and public relations knowledge, an excellent place to start would be subscribing to George McKenzie's FREE Publicity Pro Newsletter.
Learn from a pro and master this knowledge, and your mastery should pay huge dividends, in terms of valuable backlinks, increased traffic and increased profitability.
http://www.publicitygoldmine.com/newsletter/
Key Paid Service
URLwire is one of the best fee based services available. URLwire is a web site announcement network started in 1994.
URLwire reaches the KEY ONLINE CONTACTS who specifically write about, review, and link to new web content.
An investment of your resources that rates to pay very big dividends.
http://www.urlwire.com/
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Post a helpful "comment" to Google Answers.
http://answers.google.com/answers
http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html
http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html#providecomments
Use your IMAGINATION!
You want questions that are relevant to valuable information and answers supplied by your website.
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Set up an affiliate program. Here is a source of affiliate scripts:
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Affiliate_Programs/
Make certain that the script you choose is reliable.
Under no circumstances should you start to use a script without asking on at least a couple of forums whether anyone has had experience with your script of choice.
You can also use affiliate management software such as easyClickMate. See the link below for a free ebook that explains in detail this strategy.
http://www.supertips.com/vm/
A successful affiliate strategy should result in thousands of backlinks from theme related websites.
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Develop a simple strategy to induce members of Furl.net to establish a public link to one or more of your website pages.
You want them to store your website page with the PUBLIC SAVE FUNCTION in their individual Furl.net accounts!
http://Furl.net
This free system is one of the absolute best information resource tools you can use to store valuable information in a format that you design and use with ease.
Highly recommended. Act now!
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Link to http://amazon.com
Have someone write a review of your website for Amazon.com, and you will be automatically included in the Alexa.com. data base.
http://alexa.com
The reviewer should first do a search with your complete url in the search box at the above link.
Then look for:
User Reviews for your website.com
Be the first person to write a review of this site on Amazon.com!
The reviewer clicks the hyperlink and writes the review for Amazon.com
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List your ebook for sale with http://amazon.com.
Click "Sell Your Stuff" from the top menu.
You will enjoy listings and links from other major retailers such as:
Target.com, CDnow.com, Borders.com, & Waldenbooks.com.
(27) (27) (27) (27)
Use testimonials as a linking strategy.
These are testimonials that you provide to webmasters of high traffic, high page rank websites.
Give genuine testimonials of appreciation for tools or resources of a particular website.
When you send the webmaster the testimonial, give permission to quote you using your FULL NAME and specific city, state, and country.
Politely, request that a hyperlink back to your website be included in the citation.
By the way, what Internet marketer has used this technique the most?
By a wide margin I'd say it's Joe Vitale!
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Write a review of a high traffic website.
Contact the webmaster and offer the free use of your review (in whole or in part) in return for a backlink.
Use keyword rich anchor text in your backlink.
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Develop niche website software where the user must leave intact a small notice that links to your website.
LMA uses this concept. Over time Duncan Carver, the originator of LMA, is likely to have hundreds of thousands of websites linking to his chosen website or sites through their use of LMA.
You must give this tactic some deep thought and try to come up with suitable software that would be installed on a user's website.
All you have to do is come up with the IDEA.
You can always go to an appropriate website and hire a programmer to develop the software for you such as:
http://www.guru.com/index.cfm
The return on investment could be huge!
Be sure to have a Confidentiality Agreement prepared, that interested parties have to sign and return to you before you reveal your software idea.
http://www.bitlaw.com/forms/nda.html
Make sense??
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Develop software that can be downloaded free from your website, and have download websites list it and link to it.
http://download.com
http://www.simtel.net/welcome.php
Also, post to forums, blogs, and newsgroups to alert them to your free software and state anyone can link to it.
As an alternative you may have the software resource, exclusively to be used at your site (no download function).
By the way, do you think it would be a good idea to make the linking text keyword rich?? (lol)
Remember to vary the suggested anchor text as you post notices around the net. (SECRET #3)
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Be Interviewed!
Complete with backlinks to your site or sites, of course.
Use your imagination. Radio, TV, print media, ezines, even an email interview.
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Join associations or trade groups within your industry. Make sure their online sites have good page rank and have backlinks to their members websites.
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B2B websites should have contract language that specifically requires a backlink in pages that have already been indexed by search engines. This contract language should apply to all:
partners
subcontractors
suppliers or vendors
resellers or affiliates
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Host a Top Site
You will need a cgi program.
"Top Sites" are a ranking system. Websites that sign up with your "Top Site" are given a text link or button with their id, and they post this link to you on their site.
The more visitors the website sends to you, the higher it ranks. You know which sites send traffic due to the cgi script and the imbedded id.
A source for scripts:
http://return.to/topsite1
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Host a web ring.
All the links on every Web ring banner point to your site and redirect to member sites.
You will need a script to host your web ring, and a source is:
http://return.to/webring1
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Use paid link text advertising.
Placing paid text link ads on high traffic websites that have a theme directly related to your website is a powerful strategy when used in combination with the above link building strategies.
Below are two good sources that have two different processes for you to achieve this goal:
http://www.linkadage.com Text link ads through an auction process.
http://www.linkworth.com Direct placement of text link ads.
Trade One-Way Text Link Ads that are Relevant and Human Edited.
http://www.relevantadvertising.com/
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Get backlinks from these 100 top rated websites:
http://www.pubsub.com/linkcounts_top100_inlinks.php
As part of your link popularity strategy you should make it a goal to get an incoming link from at least several of the sites listed in the 100 top websites.
Devise a strategy so that something you produce, an article, press release, etc., is picked up and linked to by one of these highly rated sites.
You can always benefit from news or media backlinks, but otherwise seek backlinks from theme related websites.
Knowledge that you gain from an authoritative source such as Publicity Pro Newsletter (see SECRET #21) should help you get backlinks from these high profile sites.
http://www.pubsub.com/linkcounts_top100_inlinks.php
(38-44) Reciprocal Links
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Use existing link partners and online ezine archives as sources for reciprocal links.
Search the resource pages and link directories of sites that already link to you. Seek links with high quality websites that would offer significant value to your website visitors.
Do AD SWAPS with ezines that have an online archive of past issues. Naturally, in your ad you will have an url leading to your own site.
Of course your ad will include anchor text rich in appropriate keywords!
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Find quality websites with this reciprocal link exchange:
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/tuition.html/
Take this step once you have installed LMA and are ready to request reciprocal links.
If you have other link management software in place, fine, but you should have a defined procedure for adding and maintaining links.
This exchange, originates from Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com, so you know it is a highly valuable asset. A good place for QUALITY reciprocal links.
Also, take advantage and download the free ebook, Make Your Links Work, while you are on this site.
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Sign up with these 4 additional link exchange programs:
First a point of clarification:
Your primary goal in using these exchanges is to find useful and valuable info and resources for your website visitors. A by-product of your listing valuable websites is increased link popularity.
SO LINK TO QUALITY WEBSITES.
http://linkpartners.com/ Valuable directory of quality websites that trade reciprocal links with other sites.
http://www.links-pal.com/how-it-works.html Join this human-compiled directory that lists websites who actively swap links.
Your referring page will need to have a page rank of 5 since that is the minimum required by this exchange.
http://coopadnetwork.100freeworkathometools.com This is a free-to-join coop advertising network.
You exchange text links within this network on regular web pages not inside link directories.
Highly recommended!
******
http://links-for-you.com/ This program emails willing reciprocal link partners to your inbox.
Taking advantage of these programs should be a very productive use of your time, because the other program members have joined with the specific intent of developing reciprocal links.
Be selective!
Approve links to quality sites that have a similar theme to yours or offer goods or services you know your website visitors would be interested in.
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I'll be the first to confess that I was on the Internet for five years before I knew that there was such a thing as The Google Directory?!?
You can use this directory to find websites with a high page rank and request reciprocal links with appropriate sites.
Check out the Google directory at:
http://directory.google.com/
If you locate the category or theme of the websites you want to target, they will be listed with the highest Page Rank (PR) websites at the top of the list.
Most of the sites near the top of the list will be PR4, PR5 or higher. These are the websites to target as priorities for reciprocal links.
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Obtain reciprocal links from websites that are linking to your competitors.
(A)Determine which websites are your main competitors. Make up a list.
(B)Sign up with Google alerts to determine who is linking to your competitors.
http://www.google.com/alerts (Due to technical difficulties you may have to "copy and paste" this url to bring the site up).
Enter link:www.yourcompetitorsurl.com in the "Search terms" box.
For "Type" choose web.
For "how often" choose once a day.
Be aware that you can use multiple queries and keep tabs on multiple competitors.
This is easily done by adding an "OR". For example:
link:www.xyz.com OR link:www.abc.com OR link:www.roi.com
(C)Request a reciprocal link from suitable sites that link to your competitors.
These requests should have a HIGH SUCCESS RATE since you know for sure the target sites are actively adding links.
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Find theme related websites that offer reciprocal links.
http://yahoo.com
Your search inquiry should look like this:
"Submit a link" + "Your keyword goes here"
So a request for websites based on the keyword phrase "link building" would look like this:
"Submit a link" + "link building"
Be sure to include the quotes.
You can use other phrases instead of "submit your link" including:
"add your site"
"submit a url"
"add a url"
"add a link"
This is a sound technique to use for niche or mini sites, because it can be very hard to get search engine traffic for a mini site.
Add the link to your site first, then invite the reciprocal link.
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Exchange teaser articles with other webmasters.
What's that??
A teaser article is one that has been cut short, and the reader has to go to another location, like your website, to finish reading the article.
If you get a few teaser articles on high traffic, high PR websites, you will get two huge benefits:
free targeted traffic
improved link popularity
I don't have to lecture you about how much more valuable TARGETED traffic is than random website traffic. Obviously, you want to tease an article of yours that is relevant to your website content.
You should tease both articles in the exchange.
By tease I mean deciding where the cut off point should be. In other words do all the work and present a completely done package to the other webmaster.
Of course, you will have keyword rich anchor texts for both links (yours and the other webmasters links) as part of the package. And you will explain the value of keyword rich anchor text to your reciprocal partner.
Lastly, make the links open in a new window.
Tease outstanding articles and you will definitely see positive results with this technique.
Final Thoughts
Implementing all these secrets will take a long time and considerable effort.
Therefore, break the overall task down into several small manageable steps (MINI-GOALS) that you can meet by a SERIES OF SPECIFIC DATES.
The time management resource detailed in SECRET #11 is a powerful force that you can apply to maximize the tremendous impact you should get from following these link building strategies.
Start RIGHT NOW!
Best of success!
Robert A. Kearse