Linking Course

SOME PROS AND CONS OF "AUTOMATED" LINK EXCHANGES

by Rick Hendershot,
Linknet Publishing Network, http://www.sbo-linknet.com

There is no doubt that developing a successful link exchange program can be monotonous and time consuming. As a result, some webmasters, web promoters, and site developers turn to automated software packages or online programs to handle the hard slugging for them. In this lesson we look at some of these.

SOFTWARE THAT "AUTOMATES" YOUR LINK EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Link exchange software tries to automate various parts of the link exchange process-- whether it is helping you look for link partners, automatically sending link exchange requests to them, or, more typically, helping you create and maintain your link directory pages.

There are at least two major types of programs of this sort. The first type resides on your local computer and helps you organize links and link pages that you then upload to your website. The second type consists of a script that runs right on your web server and is usually database driven.

PROGRAMS THAT RUN ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER

One example of a link exchange program that runs on your local computer is *Dynamic Link Promoter*. According to the promotional literature..."It will help you maintain reciprocal links, generate new links from search engines, automatically send "personalized" link invitation messages, track and verify your link partners, create link pages automatically and promote them."

This program tries to find potential link partners by doing searches on selected keywords, and then listing its findings. Your job is then to go look at the sites and decide if they qualify as potential link partners, send an automated link request, and generate an automated link page entry.

I took this program for a test drive. After trying several times to do the initial search for link partners, I was either given an error message, or in some cases, a fairly feeble list of website matches.

Link page creation was equally unsatisfactory. There seems to be very little control over the format of the created pages, and they are simply placed in a folder on your local hard drive. You then have to upload and interlink them if you intend to create a link directory. This program has so little flexibility, it is difficult to see how it could be very helpful.

Another program of this type is *Link Exchange Manager*. It also runs on your own computer, but does not have the "search for possible partners" function. Instead, it has a significantly more robust set of page building tools. You create categories and sub-categories, then automatically create pages, update them with new link partners, and then upload them to your web server.

Pages can be created using your own web template. You just insert a small line of code in your template page where you want the site listings to show. When I tested the demo version it seemed user friendly and looked like it had promise.

In my estimation, the two most important things programs of this sort should have are

1. An interface with your website, so you can make entries directly to your pages, and

2. The capability for link partners to make their own entries to your directory.

After all, the point of automating the link exchange process is to relieve you of the drudgery of having to search out and post links one by one.

As we will see in the next lesson, this is why the new generation of link exchange programs run directly on your server and are often linked to a database where your link partner information is stored. The same data can then be organized and formatted according to preferences you feed into the system.

THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH LINK EXCHANGE PROGRAMS

The most serious criticism of the link exchange directories created by automated programs is that they are a type of SPAM. I define "SPAM" in this context as any content that is not meant to be read, but that simply exists to influence the Search Engines.

Directories that are assembled automatically and that often contain links to thousands of sites with no regard to the usefullness of the listings are, in my estimation, SPAM. And it is just a matter of
time before the Search Engines start to see it that way.

But more importantly, these directories do very little to enhance the exposure of your site or to increase site traffic. If you are spending time and energy building a large link directory in the hopes that this will give your site more traffic, you will probably be disappointed.

There are better ways to get inbound links than building large reciprocal link directories. Some of these techniques will be the subject of the remaining lessons in this course.

Rick Hendershot publishes the Linknet Network of websites -
http://www.sbo-linknet.com

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WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A LINK PARTNER

by Rick Hendershot,
Linknet Publishing Network - http://www.sbo-linknet.com

In this lesson we review the objectives of a fruitful link
acquisition program, and we suggest "Who you should link with."

WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE WITH A STRONG LINK PROGRAM

Rule #1 is that you should view your link acquisition program as a means of creating traffic for your site.

In other words, always ask yourself "What's in it for me to get a
link from site X, or exchange links with site Y?". You should be
expecting every link to give you at least one of three things:

FINDING LINK PARTNERS WITH RELATED CONTENT

by Rick Hendershot
Linknet Publishing Network, http://www.sbo-linknet.com

In this segment we want to discuss how to find related-content sites and how to exchange links with them. The purpose of these links is to establish your site as an authoritative source of products and information in your special niche. And of course you want to "feed off" the traffic of your link partners -- to get "target*ed traffic" -- visitors who are interested in what you specifically have to offer.

USE A SEARCH ENGINE TO FIND HIGH RANKING SITES FOR YOUR KEYWORDS

A pretty obvious tactic is to do a Google or Yahoo search on your
most important keyword(s). This will give you a list of the most
highly ranked sites in your area of interest. Some of these will
probably be direct competitors, and many will be sites with related informational content. Either way, write down the addresses of five or six of them, and start searching these sites for link partners.

SOME BASIC TOOLS FOR YOUR LINK PROGRAM

by Rick Hendershot,
Linknet Publishing Network - http://www.sbo-linknet.com

GETTING READY TO START

Before you start your link acquisition program, you will need a few tools. These will help you get going in the correct direction, right from the beginning.

1. GET THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR at http://toolbar.google.com.

This will help you do Google searches, see the Page Rank of
possible link partners, and check on "back links" of various pages.I will explain these things further in a future lesson. For now,just download and install the Google Tool Bar.

WHY GOOGLE VALUES INBOUND LINKS

by Rick Hendershot,
Linknet Publishing Network - http://www.sbo-linknet.com

Now that you know why inbound links are important to the success of your site, let's have a look at the importance Google gives to
links.

WHY DOES GOOGLE VALUE INBOUND LINKS?

The simple fact of the matter is that Google (and other Search
Engines) rank your site higher if it has a number of inbound links. The SEs assume that links to and from other sites indicate other site owners in your area of interest consider your site worth looking at. Therefore, the more inward pointing links you have, the more your site is viewed as important and a good source of information for your specific target audience.

LINK EXCHANGE PROGRAMS THAT RUN ON YOUR WEB SERVER

by Rick Hendershot
Linknet Publishing Network - http://www.sbo-linknet.com

Once you get serious about exchanging links you will realize that
categorizing and constantly updating your links is an
ongoing job. You will be tempted to create large directories of
hundreds of link exchange partners. And for that you really need a
"script" placed directly on your web server. Here is what these
programs can do for you:

WEBSITE DIRECTORIES AND LINK EXCHANGE SITES

by Rick Hendershot
Linknet Publishing Network - http://www.sbo-linknet.com

In the first four lessons we looked at the reasons for creating a
link acquisition program and sketched out some important things you should do before getting your link program underway. In the next two lessons we discuss two major categories of link partners:

1. Directories and link exchange sites, and

2. Sites dealing with subject matter related to yours.

DIRECTORIES AND LINK EXCHANGE SITES

In this lesson we want to discuss the first category: directories
and link exchange sites. Generally speaking, these are listings of sites, categorized according to subject matter.