Missing Links - Don't Overlook This Promotional Tool

A good deal of the material available on site promotion deals with submitting your site to Yahoo! and various search
engines. For some webmasters, the all-consuming goal becomes achieving and maintaining a top 10 or top 20 listing.

While a high listing in one of the major engines would be great, not everyone is going to be able to accomplish that.
After all, only...well....10  sites out of the hundreds of thousands out there will be in the top 10, right?

Should you hang it all up if you don't make it into that elite group? No way!

You should always submit your site to the major search engines and do what you can within reason to try to ensure a
good listing, but don't put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. There  are other ways to promote your site and
these other methods might just work as well as, or in some cases better than, search engines and directories to refer
people to your site.

The promotion method I want to discuss in this article is linking.

There are basically two types of links: reciprocal and non- reciprocal.

Reciprocal links are agreements between site owners to display each other's hypertext links. This is the online
equivalent of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours".

Non-reciprocal links, then, are links to your site that another site owner has placed on his or her page without
requiring you to do the same. These types of links are what I strive for as a site owner.  The reason is simple: it's
free advertising; you don't have to do a thing except reap the benefits of any additional traffic.

I'm going to outline a few ways to cultivate each kind of  link and some DOs and DON'Ts in each category.

*RECIPROCAL LINKS*

One of my visitors emailed me just today asking what he could do to get more site owners to trade links. As a site
owner myself, I've been approached by many people and I've discovered quite a few things that discourage me from
swapping links with other sites. Based on my experience, I want to offer a few pointers for those of you who are trying
to get a reciprocal link program off the ground.

I. Personalize your contact email

I can't tell you how many sites I've *never* even considered exchanging links with simply because I received a
"form letter" from the owner. You've received these, haven't you? Something along the lines of: "Hello fellow webmaster!
I visited your site today..." By the second line, it becomes painfully obvious he or she did nothing of the sort.  If you
don't care enough to find out my name and send me a personal email, why should I care to link with you?  My name is on
the front page (and every other page) of my site!  How hard is it to address the email to me and not some generic group?

II. Target

You've sent out email to various site owners and you've gotten a bite! The owner of the "Greater Hemhaw Bat Roosting
Habitat Study Page" wants to trade links!

Slow down, kid, let's think about this for a moment.  If your site is devoted to constructing a bat house(yes, there
is such a thing, Virginia), you're in business. If your site caters to software developers, do you really want to include
that link on your page?

Am I being a bit facetious? Maybe so. The point I'm trying to convey is you should only negotiate reciprocal links with
sites that have content which complements yours.

The reason for this is twofold: first, it is a great resource for your visitors to be able to find information
that you may not have covered on your page.  Afraid you'll lose them forever? If your content isn't good enough to get
them to return, you never really *had* them in the first place. The second reason is you won't be filling up your
space with loads of (for your visitors' purposes) useless material. Don't you think sites that are just haphazard
collections of links already take up too much space?

III. Remember the Golden Rule

An especially memorable email that just warmed the cockles of my heart said something along the lines of: "Don't try to
hawk any of your [you-know-what]. Just do what I'm asking you to do and get back to me." OK, so I paraphrased a bit -
but that was the gist and the general tone of the correspondence. This person was "requesting" a free service
I offer.

Remember the Golden Rule? Do unto others...

People who operate web sites are usually fairly busy.  Many of the site owners I know are great people and often
respond quickly and (invariably) politely to requests from visitors. I think that most of us not only don't mind email
from visitors, we thrive on it!

That being said, successful sites receive lots of email so you stand a much greater chance of getting what you want if
you use a little common courtesy in your correspondence. Email is very impersonal. What you consider efficient may
be interpreted by the recipient as curt. You needn't be excessively wordy, but make an effort to phrase your
requests or comments politely and I'm sure you'll get better results.

IV. Location, location, location!

I believe it's best to have a separate links page. Don't showcase someone else's page on your site's prime "real
estate".

If possible, organize your links into categories and give a short description of each to help your visitors as they
peruse them.

V. Birds of a Feather...

You should guard your online reputation as closely as possible. Your credibility is a major asset.

Don't exchange links with sites that do business in a manner contrary to the way you do business. I think many
visitors feel by displaying another site's link, you're endorsing that site or product; even though this may not be
the case. If you exchange links with a "shady" site, it will reflect on your site to some extent.

In the "real world", you're often judged by the company you keep. It's not so different online.

*NON-RECIPROCAL LINKS*

There are few pointers I can offer in this area. The main way to procure non-reciprocal links is to develop and
maintain a good site.

You can actively encourage people to link to your site by providing banners, buttons, or other linking graphics for
people to use. A word of advice in this area: many people would like to link to your site, but don't have the faintest
idea of how to do so.  Provide easy to understand instructions on how to copy the graphics and provide the
HTML code you would like people to use when linking.

Institute a program that somehow rewards site owners who display a link to your site. One such technique that is
widely used is to have a "link contest";  usually a randomly selected site wins a prize. The prize can be anything from
free advertising to a free gift from your product line. Be creative! Pick something your visitors would actually want
in order to encourage maximum participation.

While these promotional tools may never eclipse Yahoo! in your list of referrers, you might be surprised at the extra
traffic that links from other sites can generate!

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