Saturday, August 23, 2008

Role of Reciprocal links in SEO

After proving that link exchanges really work to help search engine rankings, I was bombarded with requests asking about my successful method for getting reciprocal links. Instead of answering each person individually, I decided to put up an article that will help everyone who is struggling with getting responses to their link request emails.

And that's the big problem with link exchange requests, isn't it? They are often ignored. If you have the words "link exchange" or "reciprocal link" or anything like that in the email subject, the email will be unceremoniously deleted by 95% of webmasters. The other 5% probably aren't worth trading links with.

Why is that? It's because thousands of webmasters are using automated tools to crank out the link request emails, trying to get links to junk sites that have little real content and even less value. Because of this, webmasters have been conditioned to ignore link request emails.

First, Don't Ask For Link: Pay A Compliment and Give a Link

I solved this problem by not asking for a link in my "link request" email. In fact, I don't even mention a link at all!

Does it seem counter-intuitive to not ask for a link request in my emails which are designed to get a link to my site? It probably does. But if you ask for a link, you'll just get your email deleted, so you need to take an alternate route.

My subject line is usually something like:

"I'd love to add your site to my directory!"

Then, in the message body, I tell the webmaster what I like about their site and ask them to add their site to my directory. (Note: You should always pay the webmaster a personalized compliment so that they know your request wasn't cranked out by a machine.)

Wouldn't you be much more motivated to open up an email that says the person would love to add your site to their directory than to open one that says "Link exchange request" or something impersonal like that?

They Add Their Link To Your Directory, And Then ...

Once the webmaster adds their link to your directory, only then do you ask for a link back. Once they've already been given a generous link by you, most often those same webmasters will return the favor. In fact, I generally see about a 70% reciprocal link rate.

For the other 30%, they are still a valuable addition to my directory, so I keep them in there, but I mark their links with the rel="no follow" attribute so I don't lose any page rank for a webmaster who won't return the favor.

Do The Math

In the typical, unproductive scenario, you might send out 100 emails asking for a link back. You might get 10% to open the email at all, and of those who do only 20% actually swap links with you. That's 100 emails times 10% who open, or 10 people who actually read the email. Of those 10, 20% swap links with you, so you end up with only 2 links. Ouch!

Using my method, I get a solid 50-60% who open the email, followed by 70% who swap links with me. So I end up with 100 times 50%, or 50 email readers, times 70%. So I end up with 35 links. That's more than 17 times as productive as the clunky old method.

But it still takes work, which is why I recommend using SEO Elite to automate the process of finding and emailing potential link partners.

For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website:-
http://www.the20seotools.com
http://www.seo.infozabout.com
http://wwwseoservices.blogspot.com

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Looking For The Most Successful Home Based Businesses

You probably have asked yourself at some stage, "what are the most successful home based businesses?" Well, the answer is that what is successful today may not be successful in a years time, as the online business world changes very fast. We all start out with the intention of being successful, but some fail to achieve this goal.

What may be popular today may be non-existent tomorrow. There is so much competition on the internet that it is difficult to keep a successful business going for very long. A small number of companies and opportunities manage to maintain consistent success over the years. However, there is always competition to be faced from energetic new businesses that have emerged recently. So what are the most successful home based businesses as things stand today?

One of the most successful businesses by far is the plug-in profit site. This business has been around for several years now and has helped a number of internet marketing newbies develop into some of the top internet marketers online. There are several programs that come with this business and amazing assistance from everyone within the business.

A successful home business that is fairly new is Success University. Although this is considered an affiliate program, it has developed into an extremely successful home based business that people can get involved with. With this program, you will learn everything you need to with motivation, leadership and marketing techniques. From there, you can teach others and sell the program itself to become very successful yourself.

One of the newest programs that can already be considered a successful home based business is Abunza. Abunza is an opportunity that offers you incredible support and amazingly delivers a 100 percent commission. This is something very few programs and businesses on the internet offer.

Now, this will require more effort and imagination, but why not start an enterprise from scratch, instead of just asking what are the most successful home based businesses at present. If you can get started working for your self, then that is often the most successful business idea you can have. The rewards from succeeding in your own small business can surpass being involved with even the most successful home business company on the internet, and can be well worth the time and effort needed to establish yourself.

The internet has opened up opportunities in many different ares, so look carefully for the best. You need to be a little bit careful here, as not all companies that are currently successful will be able to adapt sufficiently to survive as the business world changes. The safe route to take is to start your own business and develop it until you are successful on your own. Want to know more visit http://www.apteambuild.com/ and http://www.apteambuild.com/free-ebooks.html