Increasing Link Popularity
Part 2

Managing your Reciprocal Link Program
No one will deny that it takes time to manage a reciprocal link program and do it well. There is software available for just such purposes and, if that's all you use the software for, it will be fine. However, much of this software is also setup to help you automate the task of requesting the reciprocal link, sending out "canned" Email to prospective site owners. Don't do it! You'll be wasting both your time and your money.

I have yet to subscribe to anyone that has sent me a "canned" Email requesting that I place a link at their site. On the other hand, I HAVE responded to a personal Email that pointed out how my site would benefit by having a link to his site. After reviewing his site, I agreed and added his link.

Creating Your "Command Center"
Software programs aside, it is very easy to manage reciprocal links just using a program like Excel or Word. If you're using Word, you'll want to create a table with 4 columns: URL, Email, Date, Status. In the URL column you will list the web addresses of those sites you'd like to have a reciprocal link with. (You can add an optional column for description, if you'd like so that you can note the type of site it is - banking, vendor, customer, etc.)

The Email column will hold the Email address to contact the site's webmaster or owner - this should be taken off the site by visiting the site - you will want to do this anyway to ensure the site's quality and relevance to your offerings.

The date column will hold the date that you last did something with this site - contact the webmaster or owner, check for link, etc. The status column will tell you what is happening with this request - Pending, OK, No Interest.

Once someone has agreed to put a link to your site at their site, add the extension to the URL column of the exact page where your link appears (i.e., http://www.somesite.com/links.htm). This will give you the ability to check that page regularly to ensure that your link is still there.

Now, the beauty of both Microsoft® Word and Excel is that they automatically create links when you type in a web address, so you can check to see if your site's link is still on a page simply by clicking on the URL in the column of your worksheet. You can even send an Email from the worksheet simply by clicking on it. So this worksheet becomes "Command Central" of your reciprocal link program.

You'll want to work this "Command Center" frequently - but just how often depends on your time and your market. Give careful consideration to the type of sites you like to have links to at your site. If you don't have a response from a site owner within a month, try a second appeal. Make sure you say that you are requesting this again because you didn't hear from them after the first request. It is imperative that your Email not sound "canned." Mention some specific reasons why you think their site would be a good fit and why you believe they will benefit from a link to your site.

Be Selective & Keep It Manageable
Remember that it's not just HOW MANY sites have links to yours, but the QUALITY of those sites, as well. So choose wisely and make your campaign only as big as what you have time to manage. It's better to have six quality links to your site - links that will benefit site visitors from your site as well as the other site - than thousands of FFA (Free For All) links which offer no benefit to a site visitor.

Once you have some sites that are willing to trade links with you, make sure you reciprocate with a link to their site, as promised. Often a simple "favorite links" page is the easiest to maintain, but make sure that a link to that page exists in your main navigation bar. There's no sense in having a link page that no one can find. Remember that the main objective to adding this link is to benefit site visitors - search engine ranking is secondary. If you only plan on having a few links, you might be able to list them at the bottom of your home page - perhaps with company logos.

Track Your Results
Now you'll want to test the links program by scanning your site statistics. Referrer traffic will tell you if anyone is coming to your site as a result of these reciprocal links. The statistics will also tell you how many of your site visitors are going to your "favorite links" page, if that's where you placed your links.

If you notice a site that was sending you traffic has stopped sending traffic, check their page to make sure that your link hasn't been deleted. If it has, approach the webmaster with a query of why - be kind, it may have been a mistake when updating the page.

If you find sites that have never sent you a visitor over a period of 3 months, it might be wise to ask the site owner if he's gotten any visitors to his site from your site. If he hasn't, perhaps the link isn't as good a "fit" as you thought and you both might want to terminate the arrangement. However, site traffic or not, if the link isn't costing you anything, keeping it may still be a wise choice since it will improve the overall link popularity of your site.

Maintenance
Sites come and go. Many a person has thought that a website would be his key to fame and fortune and then gave up when his expectations were not met. For that reason, it is imperative that you check the links at your site at least once-a-month. You can check on a PC by doing a "right-click" on the links of your web site page - this will give you the option to open the link in a new window so you don't have to keep hitting the "back" button to go back to your link page. Alternatively, you could set your links on this page to automatically open in a new window so that site visitors never really leave your site. That is accomplished by adding the code "target=_blank" in the href anchor. So a link would look like this: <a href="http://www.somewebsite.com" target="_blank" > (note the underscore before the word blank - this is necessary for the coding to work.).

So without spending another dime, you have all the tools you need to run and maintain a proper reciprocal link program for your website. All you need now, is the time. Or you can hire a company like Web-Kare to manage all of your Internet marketing which includes link programs, pay-to-include search engine submissions and pay-per-click search engine advertising.