Linking to the best sites is one of the most effective ways to make traffic. I know it is a bit exhausting to search and encourage these sites to link to yours. And sometimes, you may think that linking is not the best strategy at all. You seldom get results because no one of these sites sent you any inbound links in return. But every hard work pays off when you had succeeded to convince these sites to link.

There are actually two faces of success once the linking strategy has been triumphantly achieved. First, quality inbound links are the major determinants of getting high ranks in search engines web pages (that includes Google). An enormous amount of quality inbound links could advance your site into the top 10 rank of a search engine result page (SERP).

Secondly, (and of course) the benefits of getting into the high ranking of search engines result to a major traffic in your website. There will be mass of traffic in your site once you attain your rank in major search engines. The number of people visiting your website doubles as you get both traffic from the search engines and from your referrals.

But the question still remains: How will you ever convince the sites to link? Like any marketing task, the linking strategy must also be executed with the right techniques. I have suggested several of these techniques for you to use in your linking strategy. Below are five of other techniques you could try to increase your rank in search engines and drive traffic to your site:

1. Email the webmaster for a link. If the webmasters site and yours does not compete, you might as well encourage the webmaster to link to your site. Give him a killer introduction on the benefits of both sites linked.

2. Offer a freebie in exchange for a link. You could offer the webmaster a free service, a free download, or a free testimonial. This is (in a way) slight bribing. But hey, freebies are not illegal online. Think that you are giving the webmaster a freebie because you really see value in his site. This is one way of thanking the webmaster for his link. But if you are not comfortable with this one, you could always resort to other techniques.

3. Offer a free article for the webmaster to use in his site. In exchange for a link, you could write contents for the webmaster, which may be use on their website or in their newsletters. A resource box will be provided at the end of the article, which contains information about you and the link to your site.

4. Give the webmaster the right to distribute your ebooks. You could produce and let the webmaster distribute or sell ebooks for you through their websites or in their newsletters. Of course, the ebooks have all your information in it.

5. Search for other complimentary sites to exchange links with them. Email the webmaster, whose site compliments to yours and specify the benefits of exchanging links with him. It is better if you already have his reciprocal link before consulting him with the URL of the page on your site with his link on it.

The doubt in the effectiveness of this marketing strategy is not because it is hard and unsuccessful. In contrast, getting other sites to link is the most rewarding and fun way to do marketing. You are searching for other sites that are not in competition to yours, but sites that share the same goals and interests as yours. This is also, in a way, building affiliates and partners in business. Remember that two (or more) heads are better than one.

Mary Ann Carolyn Dalangin-Tordecilla

Mary Ann Carolyn "Mean" Dalangin-Tordecilla has a natural passion for writing. Since childhood, she spent most of her quiet times writing poetry and short novels. This hobby led her to pursue a writing course in college. During her university years, she has been a Dean’s Lister and has reaped several special awards. These awards include: Best Student Advocacy Award of the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) of 2003 in the student-group-made commercial titled Beinte Cinco; and Top Ten Notable Thesis in Journalism in her thesis work titled, A Study on the Violence in Disney's Film Adaptations of the Grimms' Tales and its Effect on the Anxiety Level of Children. She also became an active member in various university groups, specifically the media and politics. By 2005, she graduated at the University of Santo Tomas with a degree of AB Journalism.

Aside from being a full-time writer, she also loves beauty and the arts. She appreciates the works of the Impressionist artist Monet and loves to paint landscapes and seascapes. She also loves to do photography of people, where the theme centers on the spirit of realism. Aside from that she simply enjoys life and hangs out mostly on the dance floor or by the beach.