Copyright © Herman Dias http://www.Money-Earner.com

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the
first tool that potential customers use to find the products and
services they need. This is why link popularity is so
imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have
no possibilities of making any sales.

You’re probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a
link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to the
ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it
determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered
into a search engine. So, you’re probably wondering, how do I
make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to
sites that have links to their pages from related, quality
sites. It’s a simple formula, but a very important one. Google
created the system, and now virtually all the most popular
search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to
achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is
almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search
engine. But don’t be discouraged; there are tried and true ways
of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that
just linking up with a large number of other websites will not
achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite
effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites
that are nothing more than “link farms” - pages containing line
after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may
aggressively discriminate against your website if you are
associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you
are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about
your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to
appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor
quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely
destroy it.

So let’s get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all
the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open
Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related,
you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that
it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well
spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free,
but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed.
Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a
lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate
category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if
your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in
the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to
“Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State.” BIG MISTAKE! All you have
to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the
“Fine Alpaca Wool” category. You will not only associate
yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to
locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to
yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your
customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your
competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site’s
visitors. Let’s look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up
to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your
visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to
link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related
site that will be relevant to your website’s traffic, you are
increasing both of your site’s business prospects - and both of
your sites’ link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to
do some research when you are looking for possible linking
partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search.
Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers
will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria
are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a
links or resources page. Go to these sites and objectively
assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics,
and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are
linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the
crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out
to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own
links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it
shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their
reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact
the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by
email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your
message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right
off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your
site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will
read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you
appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have
actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a
random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask
them to check out the link for themselves. It’s a good idea to
mention that they will not only benefit from the increased
traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also
increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link
popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so
you don’t sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you
can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites,
be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have
added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link
appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month,
and if your site is still absent from their links page, it’s
time to remove their link from your own links page. The only
time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you
believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your
business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications
complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines
frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is
not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time
and a good deal of work. There is no way around the
labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which
is why search engines regard it with such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or
you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to
keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until
you achieve link popularity stardom!

NOTE:You have full permission to reprint this article within
your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article
fully intact and include the “About The Author” resource box.
Thanks!

Online forums are a great place to meet people, learn things
and, most importantly, build traffic for your web site. You can
build heaps of traffic to your site by just following these few,
simple guidelines.

Help People Every Chance You Get

Whenever someone posts a question to the forum, answer it.
Challenge yourself to see how many people you can help in an
hour or try and see if you can be the first person to answer.

Be honest and offer real advice. Don’t just post a quick line
asking them to call you for help. People who use forums want
answers - TODAY. They’re banking on having anywhere from 5 to
500 people on the forum ready to answer their question.

The better your answer, the more likely they’ll click over to
your web site!

Answering questions will help you to build a reputation for
yourself as the expert in your field. The more information you
give away, the more you prove that you know what you’re talking
about.

Don’t be afraid to give a lot of information away. You might
feel that you risk losing work this way but, really, you risk
losing work by failing to prove that you know your business.

Be Friendly Towards Everyone, Even if You Disagree With Them

Heated arguments are commonplace in forums - learn how to
express your opinions without being rude or insulting.

When someone disagrees with you, present your views and then, as
Dr Stephen Covey says, agree to disagree, agreeably. Agree that
you feel differently about the subject and then agree not to
argue about it any more.

Eventually, people will come to know you as “the nice person
that knows a lot about …”. That sort of reputation can earn
you lots of traffic as well as lots of sales!

Contribute to the Forum as Much as Possible

Whenever you come across something you think will be useful to
other members of the forum, post it. Let everyone know how you
found it, where it came from and write a short summary of what
they’ll find if they follow the link or download the article.

This might sound like a lot of work but, in most cases, it’s
really easy.

You establish yourself as the professional in your industry.
This really helps people feel confident about doing business
with you. Confidence equals clicks and clicks equals Sales!

Use a Compelling Signature

A signature is the space at the end of every post where you can
provide your personal information like a name, email address and
web site address. You usually just have to configure it once and
then it will automatically be added to every post you make.

People often use signatures to “advertise” themselves. The key
here is to make it short and compelling.

For example, “We create web sites” is short, but not compelling.
You probably won’t get any clicks with such a boring signature.

Offer a solution to a problem or pique their curiosity with a
question-based link. Make people curious or excited about what
they’ll find if they click on your link.

Here are 2 good examples:

“Are you losing sales because of these 10 critical web site
mistakes?”

“Discover the secrets of online marketing with my free course”

As long as what you’re offering is relevant to the forum or
discussion, you’ll find a lot of people clicking through to find
out more.

Link Back to Your Own Web Site

Whenever you post something, try and find a helpful way to link
back to your web site. For example, if someone asks a question
on how to finance their start-up company, give them a tip or
two, and then link to an article on your web site for more
information.

This is called in-context linking and is, by far, the best way
to build your web site’s traffic and search engine ranking.

This works because search engines like Google decide how
important your web site is by how many different web sites link
to it! Essentially, by being active on forums, you’re voting for
your own web site in a very effective & ethical way. Bonus
By following these simple steps, you’ll soon find hordes of
people clicking through to your site to learn more about what
you do and how you can help them.