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Let me ask you a question... How do you get hundreds, or even
thousands of targeted sites to point their traffic directly at
your website? There are a few steps that you can take...
Step 1: Research your linking prospects.
Who would you most like a link from? Surf teh Net for a websites
that deal directly with your target market and collect the
personal contact information for the website owners. You should
collect these information:
- The website's URL
- The address of the web page on that particular site where
you would most like a link
- The name of the website owner
- Their e-mail address
- The date you visited their site
- A brief description of what site is about
Step 2: Organize your list into table or database.
This is very important. By setting up a simple database right
from the start, you will be able to merge the information you
have collected into template letters, and keep accurate records
of exactly who has linked to you and who hasn't.
If you have Microsoft Access you can easily set up a tracking
form or you might also be able to set up a database table in
your word proccessing package.
Step 3: Rate your prospects and divide them into 2 lists.
As you collect information on sites that you would like to
solicit links from, be sure that you divide them into two
separate lists:
- First list. The short-listed site
Your first lsit should be a list of those sites that you would
most like to obtain a link from. They will usually be highly
targeted and be a common meeting ground for your Ideal
Customer.
- second list. Sites of secondary interest
This second list sites will still related to your target market,
however they're either not as focused or they have low traffic
counts. While links from secon list sites can still be very
valuable, chances are they're not worth the same amount of time
and attention your Short-Listed sites are. Your second list will
likely be quite large.
Step 4: Write a personal e-mail to your first list.
Once you've collected the personal contact information of sites
that you would most like a link from, you can then sit down and
begin writing each individual site owner a request for a link
exchange. The letter should include...
- A positive comment about their website
- A brief description of who you are and why you're
e-mailing them with an emphasis on the "win-win" nature of your
proposal
- Specific details about how a link to your site will
benefit their visitors/customers/subscribers
- Where on their site your link would be of greates benefit
to their clients
- A brief discussion about how they can link to you that
make it extremely easy
- Your contact information
... and anything else you believe might help you to get the link.
Step 5: Write an e-mail to your second list.
When you contact your second list, you should be just focused on
making your e-mail personal... the more personal the better.
With that said, because you will have more second list names
than first list names, you won't be able to spend as much time
individually crafting each and every e-mail. Your best bet is to
develop a template letter that you can "plug" the site
information into. This can still come off as very personalized,
but you shouldn't be quite as worried about making it incredibly
site specific.
Step 6: Be persistent!
If a site that you really want a link from doesn't respond to
your initial offer, e-mail them back. Tell them how this is a
mutually beneficial way to do business. Tell them your market
research has shown that your customers have direct interest in a
product or service like theirs based on their interests. And
remind them again that their customers and subscribers would
probably be interested in the information that you provide at
your website because it's going to help them in some way.
Emphasize again thet this is truly a win-win situation for both
of you.
It's extremely important that every link request you e-mail is
personalized. Like I've said before, sending a personalized
"Dear Joe" e-mail as opposed to a generic "Dear Friend" or "Dear
Everyone" e-mail increases the response by a drastic 64%!
The easiest, most cost-effective way I know to personalized
"link exchange requests" is by using a software called
"Mailloop" to merge the personal contact information you
collected (i.e. e-mail addresses, website titles, URLs, names,
dates, etc), into a custom e-mail.
This powerful software can save you literally days of work! If
you did this manually, you wouldn't have time for any aspect of
your business!
For more detail information about Mailloop, you can check at:
http://www.advancetactics.com/mailloop.html
Copyright 2005 Syahriansyah
About the author:
Syahriansyah is the owner of http://www.advancetactics.com. His
website offers an idea
for home based businesses. Feel free to check all the guides
and articles.
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