golf wedding favors

Not All Links Are Created Equal
By Sunil Tanna, Sat Dec 10th

Every wise webmaster knows the more links you have to your site,the more traffic you'll get - so increasing the number of linksto his site, really is a webmaster's number one promotionalpriority. However a lot of webmasters get so enmeshed inbuilding up the number of links to their sites, that they forgetall links are not created equal - some links are far morevaluable than others.

It is absolutely essential to your success that you not onlybuild up the number of links to your site, but also be fullyaware of how to evaluate the worth of each link. This lets youcan concentrate your efforts on getting the most effective linksto your site, and guarantees that you are getting a fair deal inany reciprocal linking arrangements.

Here's a list of factors you should consider when assessing thevalue of a particular link:

* Permanent. A permanent link to your site is far more valuablethan one that is removed after a few days (or even hours, in thecase of some automated Free-For-All links pages).

* Placement. A link to your site from the front page (or evenone of the internal pages) from a high traffic site, especiallyone of the top few thousand web sites, is far more valuable thana zillion links from people's personal home pages.

* Relevance. Ideally the link to you should be on a page (orbetter yet a whole site) devoted to the same or a closelyrelated topic to your own. For example, all things being equal,a link to your golfing store from a golf tips site is much morelikely to produce results than from an auto, finance or gamessite.

* Descriptive. A link that explains your site and entices aperson to click, will get far more traffic (and better quality,more interested visitors) than a non-descriptive link. Comparefor example: "Joe's Golf Store" versus "Joe's Golf Store - Tourquality golf clubs at discount prices, complete guide to everygolf course in the USA and Canada, and free pro golfing tips"

* Low Competition. A link that is buried among 500 others on thesame page will not get many clicks. A listing on a page whichalso lists 10 or 20 direct competitors (example: other golfstores selling to the same market), is less valuable than being"exclusive" in your particular category (example: being the onlygolf store on a list of resources for golfers).

* Context. Links usually work better if place in some kind ofrelated context like an article for example. Be prepared to helpout people placing your links in a context that works byproviding free articles, which explain your topic (not the

sameas blatant self-promotional!) or simply being prepared to answerquestions.

So the next question is how to build up the number of highquality links to your site - here's a few ideas to get youstarted:

* Swap links with others' sites. Every link swap you set up willeat up a slice of your time - so concentrate on finding siteswhere it's clear the link will be valuable to you. Be polite,add your link to them before you approach them, and don't be toopicky if it's you who is doing the approaching (just don't askfor a link if you're going to make a bunch of rules).

* Evaluate link requests. If you have a links page (and probablyif you don't) and a reasonable amount of traffic - you willundoubtedly get link swap requests from other webmasters. Take amoment to look at their site and their links page beforedeciding if it's a good deal for you.

* Add a "link to us page". Create a page on your site, whichincludes information on how (detailed instructions), and why, tolink to your site. Make it easy, make it valuable to otherwebmasters (by for example giving them free content), and overtime the number of links to you will grow.

* Pay for links. Start your own affiliate program and pay othersites to link to you. You can pay them a percentage of the salesthey generate for you, or for each visitor they send. The nicething about this is if you make your program reasonably flexibleand the commissions in line with your goals, then affiliateswill figure out ways to send you the kind of traffic you want.

* Create your own free downloadable information product (likeE-Books or software for example). Make sure it ties in with themain theme of your site - is valuable to users - and then listit at every shareware and freeware directory you can find (thereare literally hundreds of these). Most will link directly to thedownloadable file - but many will also add a free permanent linkto your home page (or your page about the product). It's worthknowing that some shareware and freeware sites likehttp://www.zdnet.com/downloads/ and http://download.cnet.com/have quite incredible amounts of traffic.

Whichever strategies you use to build up links to your site,always be sure that the time you put into establishing each linkis in balance with the value of that link. Keep things inproportion, use your knowledge of "link value" to youradvantage, and get linked for mega traffic!