Link exchange is doomed

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Link exchange is doomed

Long time ago I created a link exchange program at my site.
The original purpose was to improve my site popularity by
boosting its pagerank. That was a well accepted method
those days. I'll show you why it isn't anymore.

I did NOT want to link to just anybody. I have a content
driven site and my links should somehow be related to that
content and, if possible, should have extra value to my
visitors.

So I built a Partner Program using related topics and
called it Power Partners.
'Link exchange' and 'links' are bad search engine words.
Exchanging links just for the cause to improve website
popularity is artificial and if there's anything the search
engines don't like it's artificial manipulation of their
system. They want .....
valuable content!

As a sidenote, for the same reason I don't use these
automated traffic building software programs. I did that
once, long time ago, and I must say it really worked.
The software is great, no doubt about that.
But although I carefully re-designed the templates to avoid
duplicate pages, the end result was always some sort of
copy of a search engine page. And I figured that was NOT
what they wanted!
That's why I deleted these pages long time ago. Maybe
they've changed a lot these days, I don't know. All I can
say is that it was great software, it worked, but the end
result wasn't satisfying me (or the search engines).

Anyway, the fact that link exchange or links are bad search
engine words already should have got me thinking, but
there's a fine line of what a good linking strategy is and
what isn't. Over time it lead to a change in my linking
priorities:

1. provide quality info to my readers; this, by far, is
the most important reason to link outside and that's
exactly what search engines want you to use links for;
2. as a result thereof (maybe) attract traffic from
related sites;
3. as a (very positive) side effect increase my link
popularity at the search engines; this may result in
higher rankings for relevant keywords used in the anchor
text;
4. get spidered and listed at search engines that do not
accept website submissions (that's how I got into
Yahoo).

I've used excellent exchange programs like Value Exchange
http://www.anownsite.com/cgi-bin/u.cgi?ssve
(with a lot more powerful options if you own SBI) and a new
one called Link Metro
http://www.linkmetro.com/
(click those links and sign up immediately)
to build my Power Partners.

I also dare to link to pages with a lower PR than mine, IF
they contain valuable information. If that condition is
met, they probably will get higher rankings over time. And
another advantage is that they are easier to access to
exchange links with.

I'm sure I've made a few mistakes here and there. Approved
links that I shouldn't have added, so ....

To make it very clear what I expect from my Power Partners,
I've listed my conditions on my Power Partner pages .....

But people just don't get it. They request you to link to
their sales page, link farm, link directory, affiliate
banners page or whatever, They just want to exchange links
to .... well just exchange links. Because somebody told
them that it would get them higher search engine rankings.

That's not what I wanted at all. But it even gets worse
....

Now the search engines are going to WEED OUT

RECIPROCAL
LINKING.

If we look at reason 1 mentioned above, then why should I
link to a site that hasn't valuable content for my
visitors? And why in the world should anyone link to my
site if they can't find great content?
We only do that because of reason 2, 3 and 4. We exchange
links, only to have search engines list us higher and we
skip reason number 1.
That's exactly why search engines are going to weed such
links out. It's just ARTIFICIAL reciprocal linking.

Mind you, search engines do not hold you responsible for
who's linking TO you, because you can't influence that.

But they DO hold you responsible to whom you are linking
to. So you have to be careful here and certainly watch out
for pages with PR 0 (or without any PR at all), because
they may have been banned by the SE's. Linking to such
pages may get you banned too, although I do not exactly
know when or on what criteria.

So, what should you do instead? Here's the answer ....

Instead you should look for Value Exchange (I'll give you a
valuable resource in just a moment).

What you want to do is link to related high quality info
sites (not directly competing) from within your content
rich pages using their keywords in your anchor text.
To me this seems quite easy to do, because at your site you
simply can't cover all topics. If you have a page about
ebooks, link to a great cover designer. Don't do everything
yourself.

As a result of this new search engine approach towards
reciprocal linking, I'm taking the other way around. Right
now I'm adding content to my Power Partner pages.
That's rather easy, because the topics are related to the
content of my site. I only add a few snippets of valuable
content there, refer to my webpage where more info can be
found and list other resources being ......
my Power Partners!

Another appproach is taken by Allan Gardyne, famous Aussie
affiliate expert. In his latest newsletter issue, he writes
about how you can exchange a valuable PR5 link with him if
you meet his conditions.
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/newsletter257.shtml

Of course Ken Evoy (who else?) is on top of this matter. He
just published a new book about how to get links the right
way called .... Value Exchange

This is a powerful, important book, because in his
SiteBuildIt business, Ken tracks the rankings of thousands
and thousands of pages, so he knows exactly what he's
doing!

You can download this superb ebook for free. If you signed
up for Value Exchange above, you may have seen the download
already. If not, here's the link to Value Exchange again.
http://www.anownsite.com/cgi-bin/u.cgi?ssve

Look in the middle of the page, download it from there.
Oh yeah, and sign up for this service.

Link exchange is going to change. Don't say I didn't warn
you.
About the author:

Case Stevens has developed many sites for others and made
several ones for himself. He studied direct marketing and
tested many marketing strategies.

Now he's here to share his experiences and know how with
you at An Own Site
and in his newsletter Affordable Online Strategies