Where Have All the Good Links Gone?
Written By: Jack Humphrey

Do you ever get tired of those emails and web site advertisements that say things like “Hottest NEW trick to gain tons of traffic for free with no work!” Seems like these days, people think that the only thing that works has to be new, improved, and easy. 99.9% of the time, whatever tools people are promoting are simply duds. Gimmicks. Scams.

If there is any such thing as “old fashioned” on the web, reciprocal linking is it! Seems people have almost totally forgotten about the oldest form of advertising on the web. Guess what? It STILL WORKS!

Problem is, nowadays people are so busy tracking down the “latest, fastest” tactics for bringing traffic to their sites that they have totally forsaken the tools that work for things that are unproven, or just out-and-out junk!

Pop Quiz:
What can bring you more traffic? A top ten search engine ranking or a properly placed reciprocal link?

If you said search engine ranking you are dead wrong! Cyber-Robotics.com gets over 2 million hits per month and guess how many come from search engines? On average, less than 200!

So where do they get their traffic? Reciprocal links. Period.

Not FFA links mind you, but true, tightly themed reciprocal links from hundreds of other webmasters all over the globe.

Maybe I should re-title this article to “Revelations!” Sounds like heresy, I know, but I have tons of proof to back it up. See my Reciprocal Linking Primer article at webmastertraffictools.com for live server logs of people who could care less about search engine traffic and who are getting over 1 million hits per month!

It’s hard to argue against reciprocal linking when live log files are staring you in the face!

Building a good link directory for your site and getting reciprocal links TO your site from other high-traffic sites is the best thing you can do in the long run for your business. I say in the long run because this is not an overnight solution. Sorry, this one takes work.

Even after you have read what the experts on linking (there are very few) say about automating the process and eliminating wasted efforts, there is still that reality staring back at you at the end of the day: Reciprocal linking done properly takes work.

But why are we here in cyber space in the first place? Is it to build informative sites that no one visits? Heck no! We all want traffic and lots of it. And we want a regular stream of it. Not just the spurts of traffic that come from one-time ezine ads or joint ventures with other webmasters, but regular traffic you can count on, that brings buying customers to your site day in and day out without having to run ads, banner campaigns, or having to BUY traffic every week.

If you are serious about developing traffic that comes to your site 24/7 without worrying about going on vacation and coming back to a dead hit counter, you MUST educate yourself on what it takes to be a “Power Linker.” Devour the free information at Linking101.com. Become a part of linking forums. Read the two best ebooks on the subject at both power-linking-profits.com and linking101.com.

You can save a lot of time by making sure you know HOW to best set up a good link directory for your site and what sites you should and should not trade links with. A bad link can actually do damage to your traffic flow as much as a good link can increase it.

Use the free tools at webmastertraffictools.com to learn about reciprocal linking. Do a search on the net for “reciprocal linking” and “link exchanges.” Choose a program like Arelis or Linking101.com’s Directory Management Script to automate your link exchange. Make sure you are totally up-to-date on what Power Linkers are doing across the net to bring high-quality, pre-qualified visitors to their sites and you will be able to do the same for your site.

Fact: Once you are linked to by 100+ other similar sites you are going to not only rank higher in the search engines due to “link popularity,” but you are going to notice a significant increase in your traffic. Its work, but there is absolutely no other way to grab some serious (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hits or more) traffic as effectively as reciprocal linking.

Unless you are rich and can simply buy traffic, of course!

Jack Humphrey is CEO of WebmasterTrafficTools.com and author of “Power Linking Your Way to 1 Million Hits!”