Link Exchanges

Website Promotion: How To Begin Link Exchanges By Email
As you probably already know, Email is an excellent marketing method because it has many incomparable advantages. It does not cost anything but can bring huge rewards. For instance, you can send an email to the Webmaster of other websites and ask him to set-up a reciprocal link. Reciprocal means that you must create a link pointing to the other web site and the other website also create a link pointing to your website. This is a very common way that many webmasters use in order to set-up a large number of link exchanges quickly and easily. In this article I will describe how to do this. There are several methods of discovering websites to set-up link exchanges with.
One popular method is to use the standard search engine results to discover a list of websites that contain similar material with your website or that contain content that will be beneficial to your visitors. After you find them you can then create a link to their website and send an email to the Webmaster to say you’ve created a link to their website and in return ask that they create a link to your website. Following exactly the same procedure with a large number of websites can be really beneficial.
Another way is to find a list of websites that are providing links to your competitor websites. This is really a very easy thing to do. For example you can use sites like Alexa or Compete that provide this type of information for free. Furthermore, you can perform a backlink analysis by using some of the major search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing. Then like before, create a link to their website and ask for a reciprocal link to your website. For instance, if you want to find the websites that link to www.apple.com you can type this in Google: link:www.apple.com or this in Yahoo: linkdomain:www.apple.com or this in Bing: link:www.apple.com
It is necessary to follow up the emails you have send to other websites so that you know which webmasters have then positively replied and which haven’t. I usually wait for 2 weeks and if during this period the Webmaster has not replied, I just remove the link I have created to their site. A spreadsheet can really help but if you want to create a significant amount of backlinks or do that for many websites, then you have to purchase a specialized product that will allow you to monitor your emails and speed up the whole process.
The top programs I am aware of are Zeus and Web Link. Both of them automate most aspects of this procedure. They can automatically send emails to several webmasters using email templates and for every single template they can use variables which enable the email to be more personal for each website. This means that you do not have to change every time the URL or the websites name. Another useful characteristic is that each email can change a little before you send it, so you do not send the exactly the same email each time. After you send the you start monitoring which websites have accepted you offer and provided a reciprocal link, and which have not.
Here’s a sample letter you can also use as your own template.
"Webmasters-firstname", can I share some of my websites traffic with you?
Hi " Webmasters-firstname ",
May I send you some of my website traffic?
I took a look at your site at "SiteURL" yesterday and I really liked it.
I particularly liked "make a personal comment".
Actually, my assistant and I liked your site so much, we went ahead and added your website to "Description for the page that hosts the link" Check your listing at "WebPageURL"
....And I tell you, I'd LOVE to trade links with you!
Would you consider adding a link to our site however you like?
Your site visitors may well be interested in .... (show them how linking to you benefits them)
Thanks for your consideration and please let me know what you decide.
Either way, keep up the good work
Sincerely,
And now let's take a look at a no, no example, a Junk Link Request
Hello Sir/Madam,
I visit your site today. Very nice website! I was wondering if you would want to exchange links. I have created a link to you located at "URL".
As you already know, all the major search engines, like Google for example, look at the backlinks and give sites credits for their incoming links. By exchanging links we will both improve our rankings.
Please link to me with the following information: "URL"
I hope this article has helped you improve your understanding as to how you can make use of email and effectively promote your website.