Driving a top position on the web can pay dividends for years ahead. The national exposure via TV and/or radio gives you an edge to gain this coveted position, and the timing is especially advantageous when you are rolling out your commercials in the beginning of a campaign.

Linking your sites to others has been a topic of special concern over the past few issues. Read on!

There are programs that basically are intelligent robots that goes out and finds link partners, contacts them, and then organizes them in a neat little directory. Once you publish the directory to your web site, you'll contact the site owners through the program. Let them know that you found their site to be of special interest and have already included their site in your Link Directory.

You'll ask them to link to you as well and tell them that if they do, they'll get moved to the top of their category and receive extra traffic. Asking another webmaster for a reciprocal link is standard practice on the Internet. Webmasters have been asking other webmasters for reciprocal links since the beginning of Internet time.

There are some things to consider when you ask for that link that I want to cover in detail. Please read this section very carefully - it is very important.

Issue 72: Search Engines are Nothing More Than Links to Your Site »

If you follow just a few simple guidelines, you'll never have any problem using a robot program. Thou Shall NOT SPAM! If you include unrelated web sites in your link directory just because you want to send an email and possibly get a link, then you are spamming in mind and spirit. The webmaster who receives this kind of email is not going to be a happy camper because your web site does not remotely match their web site and has nothing to offer their visitors.

The webmaster is most likely just going to delete your email but if you catch them on a bad day, he might report you to the email spam cops for spamming. The email spam cops are even tougher and meaner than the search engine spam cops.

DO NOT commercialize your email in any way. It shouldn't look like spam or people will think it is. Do not include ANY links in your email signature except link to your website. Keep it short and to the point. Just ask for the reciprocal link and get out of there!

Continued After Christmas »