Forget link exchanges, exchange value

Getting traffic is a problem for all but the most successful websites. No matter how brilliant your graphics, how good your products, how persuasive your text or how enticing your offers you just won't sell anything to people who never see them.

The most effective way to get targeted traffic is to get high rankings with the search engines, especially the 'big guys' Google, Yahoo and MSN. Every web guru and wanabee will tell you that you need links into your site. Easier said than done.

The simple answer to the linking problem is to use a link exchange. There are thousands of them on offer, just do a search! However, virtually none of them can deliver quality traffic. If you generate links via spammy automation tools they won't deliver you any value. Why? Because search engines constantly improve their methods of weeding out sites that rely on cheap tricks to over inflate their value.

Links from related quality sites is what you need. Links from long 'link pages' are discounted by the search engines. Remember they are trying to deliver quality results to their searchers. If you can get a link from a page with just a few other links you will eventually get more, and better, traffic.

The idea of link exchange is that you send some of your traffic to another site hoping to get a return. So you need to do some research to see if exchanging the link is good value for you. Will the other site send more customers your way?

Free links are like free money, an illusion. You have to work to get good inbound links.

Finding and evaluating suitable sites is a tedious and often unrewarding activity. Higher ranked sites will only be interested in getting traffic from you. Sorting the good sites from the bad will take too much of your time.

There is an alternative to link exchange and it is called Value Exchange. The idea goes like this.

You register your site and list the keywords relevant to it. Registration is free.

When you login you can see details of other sites that match your chosen keywords and decide if you wish to contact them. The owners of the sites are prequalified, in that they are have indicated that they are in the market for links, and they understand that they don't want to be part of big link farms.

The Value Exchange Service come with plenty of simple documentation and help to ensure that you can set up your effective linking strategy without a steep learning curve. There are tools to manage your dealings with each site and to monitor the traffic on links back and forth. You will also get access to a valuable ebook to help you get the most out of your links.

You will not be pestered by sharp operators with dubious schemes.

Over time Value Exchange will help you will build range of quality links into your site that will deliver you visitors who are ready to buy.

You can access value exchange via this link
http://www.ozarticles.com/value

About The Author Darby Higgs is editor of OzArticles at http://wwww.ozarticles.com a clearing house of articles with Australian content. darby @ozarticles.com