Is your site a "contender"? Or do you have a "limited presence"
online?
Maybe your site is a "900 lb. gorilla?"
What's with all the jargon today?
Glad you asked.
A slick new "Visibility Index" opened recently that you should
try. It measures your website's visibility on the web by
counting up all the links to your site. But rather than simply
telling you how many links you have across the world wide web,
this one rates you from "limited presence," to "contender",
"player" and even "900 lb. gorilla."
The site also lets you enter up to four other URLs so you can
compare yours to them. What's more, the results show your URL
among lots of popular sites on the web.
Not only is this free tool fun to try, it can reveal important
information about your web presence.
Give it a go at: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
I just ran my http://www.bizweb2000.com site through and it was
interesting to see it wedged between www.Coke.com and
www.SouthWest.com, but a bit shy of www.MarthaStewart.com and
www.GeorgeWBush.com. (See, I told you it was fun!)
But all fun aside, whether you find your site in the limited
presence category, or even "Contender" or "Player", you should
always be working toward one goal -- getting more links.
Not only do lots of links bring the obvious --- lots of traffic,
they also help you in another important race; search engine
ranking. Major search engines have been relying more and more on
link popularity as a deciding factor in where they rank sites in
their results pages.
- Could you become a gorilla?
OK, so how many links can you really get? Well, let's be honest.
A lot has to do with your overall business budget and
specifically, your marketing budget. If you think you can get to
900 lb. gorilla - that's half a million links - you could be
setting yourself up for disappointment.
Take a look at the "gorilla sites". Every last one is a giant
company with big marketing dollars, including presence on
television, radio, and the like.
So how about the next category down, "player" - with 100,000
links or more? Is it doable with a small or home business budget?
Why not! Sure, it would be quite an accomplishment on a limited
budget, but it is possible. You just have to have a plan. And
I'd like to help you with that right now...
- Put a powerful "get links" plan in place.
So how does a site start moving up the list?
Simple. Get links. Or better yet, have a powerful plan to
continually get links.
But getting other sites to link to yours takes a bit of
originality. You can't just slap up a "link to us" page and hope
the job gets done. (Well, you can, but don't expect too many
quality links!)
Here are three link strategies you should consider. They are not
used at too many sites, they work well and they can put you
ahead of most of the pack...
1. Pre-license all your best stuff.
If you ever create your own tips, articles or content for the
web or email newsletters, consider pre-licensing it to others.
If it's content you write, pre-licensing it for others is as
simple as including a short footer after your work. It looks
something like this:
"You have permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in
your ezine, at your website or in your newsletter. The only
requirement is including the following footer..."
*Article by Your Name. Visit www.YourWebsiteUrl.com for more
original content like this.
If you're a web designer you can use this strategy too! Simply
put a statement like that one above in your terms of use page.
Something like this...
"These images can be used freely. Please include the following
at your site..."
*Some images at this site, courtesy of Your Name. For more
original artwork for your website, visit www.YourWebsiteUrl.com.
Getting the idea? See how this continually works to get you
links? There are lots of websites in need of decent content.
Supply it and you can benefit greatly - if you do it right!
2. Bribe webmasters into linking up.
Another strategy that can work very well is the "bribe". In a
nutshell, you simply give something of value away to anyone who
links to your site.
There are lots of ways to do this, and you are limited only by
your imagination. Here's an example...
Just a few days ago I set up a new niche directory at my site
called the Internet Marketer's Resource Directory. But rather
than a run-of-the-mill directory, it's actually a link
generation tool that bribes my visitors into linking to my site.
It does this by offering two distinct rewards:
a. Marketers can get a free listing in the directory - a link
from my site to THEIR best Internet Marketing Resources.
b. When they reciprocate with a link back to my site, they get a
free book.
If you want to have a peek at how this works, see:
http://linksmanager.com/bizweb2000/
Now I'm not telling you about my directory to get you into it.
That's already happening by itself. (My little niche directory
has generated 100 new links in just three days.)
The message I want to get across today is this:
- Never stop looking for links
I've been marketing online for five years. But I never stop
looking for ways to grow links into my site. And there are
endless opportunities for ANY webmaster to do just that. You
just have to use your imagination then ACT on your linking ideas.
And there are lots tools available for you to use. Heck, I found
69 indexing scripts just today at:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/ Pick one
and run with it!
And if you're not cgi inclined, there are also web services that
can automate your link growth ideas. The one that runs my own
little niche directory is called LinksManager
<www.linksmanager.com> and it does everything from directory
creation, URL submission handling, email confirmations, and
reciprocal link checking. The system even gives away the free
eBook when reciprocal links are verified.
No matter how you do it, start growing your links. And
remember... the last thing you want is NO strategy. That may
leave you looking back a few years from now thinking, "If only
I'd had a link strategy, I coulda' been a contenda." Start a
solid strategy now and who knows, maybe someday your site will
be a 900 lb. gorilla!
About the author:
Article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing Jim's site is packed
with free help for anyone trying to start or grow a business
online. Get your free help today at: http://www.bizweb2000.com
