Linking

Having quality links coming into your website is another piece of the puzzle necessary for your website to be successful.

Linking has always been a challenge for me because I know having the wrong kind of links can hurt my websites.

Here are some of the linking stradigies I've used successfully.

	Directory Listings
	Reciprocal Linking
	Article Marketing
	Social Networking

Directory Listings

Directory Listings take a bit of time and patience but are well worth the effort.  Using your favorite search engine, type in free directory listings.  Start submitting your site to the different directory's you find within your search.

Some directory's will require a link back to their site in order to include your site in their directory.  This is more of a reciprocal link than a directory link.  You will want to keep this type of linking to a minimum. 

Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal Linking  is simply trading a link on your site in exchange for a link on someone else's site.  While this type of linking is common place on the internet you will want to make sure that any site you exchange a link with is a complement to your site and that your site complements theirs.

Always ask permission before linking and let the other webmaster know exactly where you are placing their link.

Article Marketing

Another great way to obtain one way links is Article Marketing.  I have never thought of myself as a great writer, however I have throughly enjoyed writing articles.

The key to article marketing is to write about what you know.  Chances are if you have a website, you know enough about that particular topic to write some articles.

Keep your articles between 300 and 1000 words and don't make the article a blatant advertisment.  Make sure you spell check and grammar check each article.

You can find free places to submit your articles by doing a searching this term, "Free Article Submission".

Once you have submitted your article and it has been approved, other webmasters and bloggers who read the article and like what you have said will post it on their sites.

They will also post your resources including the link back to your site.  This provides an excellent source of numerous one way links into your website.

Social Networking

Social Networking is another way to get those valuable incoming links to your website.  This is one you will have to work at and requires a good deal more time on your part in order to get the links coming in.