Finding Willing Trading Partners
One of the easiest, and financially smartest, ways to build up text links is to trade them with someone else. People who are staring new websites and blogs for the first time often cannot afford to buy expensive back links from every big site in the market. Luckily, in just about every subject covered on the internet, there are some people willing to help for free. When looking to get linked to by more sites, look for trading partners first and you will have a higher PageRank in no time.
The first thing to do when looking for trading partners is to check forums and discussion boards where others may be looking for similar favors. Message boards like this one allow users to actively search and seek others willing to link to a site for free. Remember that trading text links means that you will be on the hook for posting a link as much as the other person is. For a beginning site, however, this is not a big deal. As long as the site you trade links with pertains to a similar or branched topic, your site or blog will look just fine.
Once you use the message board above to find a couple of trading partners, you have made a good start. But resting on your laurels this early is not a good idea. Each link to your site is like a vote, and as with all democratic functions, the sites with the most votes will win the most search results. Start searching Google and Yahoo for sites on similar topics. If you have a basketball blog related to the Boston Celtics, feel free to search other team blogs, such as the Phoenix Suns. Even other sports sites, like baseball or football, are good places to trade links with.
Most of these sites you search for will have e-mail addresses for the owner or main contributor to the site/blog. Send them a message and kindly (always be nice) ask for a back link. If you have a good site with interesting entries, chances are you will receive many positive replies. Most blog or small site owners know what it is like when first starting a new spot on the internet and are happy to help.
Get as many text links as you can through trade before even considering purchasing any. Good luck!
Filed under: Trading Text Links
