I Coulda Been a Contenda
Teacher: Jim Daniels

IIs your site a "contender"? Or do you have a "limited presence" online?

Maybe you're a "900 lb. gorilla?"

What's with all the jargon?

Glad you asked.

A slick new "Visibility Index" opened recently on the web and you should try it today. It measures your website's visibility online by counting up all the links to your site. But rather than simply telling you how many links you have across the world wide web, this one rates you from "limited presence," to "contender", "player" and even "900 lb. gorilla."

The site also lets you enter up to four other URLs so you can compare yours to them. What's more, the results show your URL among lots of popular sites on the web.

Not only is this free tool fun to try, it can reveal important information about your web presence.

Give it a go at: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

I just ran this bizweb2000.com site through and it was interesting to see it wedged between www.Macys.com and www.Southwest.com, but just shy of www.MarthaStewart.com and www.GeorgeWBush.com. (See, I told you it was fun!)

But all fun aside, whether you find your site in the limited presence category, or even "Contender" or "Player", you should always be working toward one goal - getting more links.

Not only do lots of links bring the obvious - lots of traffic, they also help you in another important race - search engine ranking. It is well known that major search engines have been relying more and more on link popularity as a deciding factor in where they rank sites in their results pages.

Could you become a gorilla?

OK, so how many links can you really get? Well, let's be honest. A lot has to do with your overall business budget and specifically, your marketing budget. If you think you can get to 900 lb. gorilla - that's half a million links - you may be kidding yourself.

Take a look at the sites in that column. Every last one is a giant company with huge marketing dollars, including presence on television, radio, and the like.

So how about the next category down, "player" - with 100,000 links or more? Is it doable with a small or home business budget?

Why not! If a cheapskate like me can get 25 percent of the way there, anybody can. Sure, it would be quite an accomplishment on a limited budget, but it's possible over time. You just have to have a plan! And I'd like to help you with that right now...

Get a powerful plan in place

So how does a site start moving up the list?

Simple. Get links. Or better yet, have a powerful plan to continually get links.

Getting other sites to link to yours takes a bit of originality. You can't just slap up a "link to us" page and hope the job gets done. And you can't just email webmasters with "wanna swap links" messages. (Well, you can do those two things, but don't expect too many quality links!)

Perhaps the best strategies for growing link popularity are yet to be discovered. Think original and you can be an expert in this new arena!

That said, below are a two ways that I now get lots of links. While I don't claim to have invented these ideas, I did put my own twist on them and I invite you to emulate these strategies at your site...

1. Pre-license all your best stuff.

If you ever create your own tips, articles or content for the web or email newsletters, consider pre-licensing it to others. If you're a web designer, you can do the same thing with your images, icons and the like. And then make the pre-licensing viral!

If it's content you write, pre-licensing it for others is as simple as including a short footer after your work. It looks something like this:

* You have permission to reprint what you just read. Use it in your ezine, at your website or in your newsletter. The only requirement is including the following footer with it...

Article by YOUR NAME, visit www.YourWebsiteUrl.com for more original content like this. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

If you're a designer you would simply put a statement like that in your terms of use page, like this...

* These images can be used freely. Please include the following at your site...

Images at this site, courtesy of www.YourWebsiteUrl.com You may use them at your site by simply including THIS same statement at your site.

Getting the idea? See how this works to get you links?

Even if one site uses your content, you could obtain an endless number of links without the linking sites even coming to your site!

There are lots of websites in need of decent content. Supply it and you can benefit greatly - if you do it right!

2. Bribe webmasters into linking up.

The next strategy that can work very well is the "bribe". In a nutshell, you simply give something of value away to anyone who links to your site.

When done correctly, this strategy can be extremely powerful. All you need to get started is a few banners or buttons that people can use to link to your site, and a way to automate all aspects of the "bribe".

Here's a link to my own NEW implementation of this strategy. (You may want to read the rest of this lesson before clicking in.)

What you'll find at that URL is a new area of my site called the Internet Marketer's Resource Directory. But it's more than a niche directory. It is actually a link generation tool that bribes my visitors into linking to bizweb2000.com by offering two distinct rewards:

a. Marketers can secure a link from my site to THEIR best Internet Marketing Resources in what will be my new high- traffic directory.

b. When they reciprocate with a link to my site, they get a free book just for participating.

Is it working? You bet!

The very first day it generated more than 40 new links to my site. (Let's see, 40 times 365 = 14,600 links a year. I may be able to get to 900 lb. gorilla after all.)

And here's the key to the early success of my new link- generating system... it's a new tool that automates the entire process called LinksManager.

LinksManager not only enabled me to create the directory in a few hours, it automates the entire "get links" strategy. In a nutshell, LinksManager is a Link Swap Automation tool, but as you can clearly see from my example, it can be much more. My new niche "directory" proves that.

Here's how LinksManager works: Through a web interface you create your "links page". When your website visitors start submitting their URLs, the system take over. It sends automated emails to all new submissions, checks their site for reciprocal links, sends email reminders if they don't reciprocate, and even gives away my book when reciprocal links are verified!

I'm quite impressed by the simplicity and the automation power this tool offers. Actually, I've seen nothing like it to date. And no, I'm not an affiliate. ;-)

OK, give it a look-see at: http://linksmanager.com/bizweb2000/

You'll find a rapidly growing "self-propelled" directory. Feel free to fill it with your best Internet Marketing resources. You're sure to get lots of visitors from the directory as other BizWeb eGazette subscribers do the same! (I'll also be linking to the directory from other busy areas of my site soon.)

While you're poking around, watch how the LinksManager system automates the entire process of getting new links. Pretty slick eh? If you like it, grab your own free demo of LinksManager by clicking the green "powered by" box at the bottom of each webpage.

Well, that about wraps up this lesson! If you take one thing from it, remember, a good "get links" strategy is a key to growing your business online. Use your imagination and develop a unique strategy of your own. I'll bet you can come up with something great if think creatively! Who knows, maybe someday your site will even be a "Contender" or better yet, a 900 lb. gorilla!

About the teacher:
Jim's site has helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Visit http://www.bizweb2000.com/new/d9078 for FREE "how-to" cybermarketing assistance, software, manuals, web services and more. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to their Free, weekly BizWeb E-Gazette: mailto:freegazette@bizweb2000.com