Mr Beach Bum.com

This may be considered a bit old school by today’s “web 2.0 ” standards, but the good old fashioned method of swapping links with other websites in your niche (blogs included) is still one of the best ways for you to get your site “out there” in front of people.

A lot of people set up their blog or website and immediately go to town on setting up Adwords and other pay-per-click type solutions and spend a lot of money trying to get the word out. I am not saying you shouldn’t do some of that but you really need to think about how the web really works. Why do we call it a web anyway? The reason is because it is a mesh of links between sites and your true goal should be to become somewhat of a “hub site” that people will come to in order to find not only your wonderful content or service but even more information and services from your niche.

Even if you don’t ever become a true “hub site” you will still benefit greatly by achieving a high number of incoming links from other sites and this should be one of your primary focuses, especially early on in the start of your site.

 The challenge you will have is that there are a lot of big time sites out there that make it very hard to get a link from. They may let you link to them but you might have to pay to get a link back. Don’t just pay every time. Try to be creative instead. What could you offer them now that might be of value. Perhaps a free review or something in exchange for a link to your article?

You will need to have a links section on your site and this will quickly become one of the ugliest pages on your entire site, but it is also one of the most important if done properly.

Also, don’t be afraid to check out your competition from time to time. Look at their Alexa site info. Especially under “sites linking in”. If those sites linking into your competitor have high rankings then you may consider contacting them to do reciprocals with you as well because most of the time these same sites will be somewhat related to your niche just as they are your competitor. Don’t reinvent the wheel here people, there is no shame in using some of the same methods to reach success as those who have come before you. It will be up to you to differentiate yourself in the long run but when you are just starting out, all bets are off.

We will look at this in more detail in a future post but for now, think about who your #1 competitor is and go straight to alexa.com and check them out. See who helped them get where they are now and then you can start sending link exchange requests like mad! Good luck!