Tips for an Effective Link Exchange Campaign

Inbound Links are very important in Search Engine Optimization. They increase your Pagerank and your Search Engine Rankings as well. One of the most effective ways to build your links is by Link Exchange. Link Exchange plays a big role in Search Engine Optimization. We must properly do it to take full advantage of it. It is one of the best ways to market your sites, increase its traffic and gain higher PR. And the greatest thing about this is it’s free!

There are two Methods of Link Exchange that you can practice:

Reciprocal Link Exchange

This is so far the most popular way to exchange links. Acquiring link exchange partners can be a bit hard for new sites though. This is because most webmasters prefer high PR websites as link exchange partners. It is recommended that you submit your site to directories first and increase its PR if you have a new one.

Three Way Link Exchange.

This is one of the best ways to acquire one way inbound links. Let's say you have two sites, one of which was just recently launched and you want one way links for it to increase its PR and rankings. You can contact a site and offer him a link from your old site in exchange for his link to your new site.

Here are some Tips and Guides in doing Link Exchange:

1. Contact High Ranking, Related Websites for Link Exchange

Having a link from high-ranking sites is the best way to increase your search engine rankings. You might have a hard time contacting and convincing them to do link exchange with you but having a link from the first 20 sites of a related keyword is definitely worth it.

2. Avoid Link Farms

Always examine the sites before exchanging links with them. Avoid Link Farms or FFA (Free For All) sites as your sites will not benefit from them at all. In fact, there is even a risk that you might even be penalized for being in their pages.

3. Be in the Right Page & Category

Some sites have different pages for different categories of links. Make sure that the link to your site is placed under the right category and page. If your link is not placed in the right category, ask the webmaster nicely to move your link to the more appropriate one.

4. Initiate the Link Exchange

Do not hesitate to put up links to websites before contacting them to exchange links with you. I myself have earned a good number of links by initiating the link exchange. Just do a constant follow up on the ones that has not responded your offer and remove your link to them after three to four tries.

5. Slowly but Surely

Build your links over a reasonable amount of time. Keep in mind that Google does not like sites that acquire high number of inbound links over a short period of time. Try to make the build up of your links look natural.That is, do not concentrate on getting links from high PR sites. A new site with with good content that is complementary or related to your site, though it has a PR 0

6. Review your Links Regularly

Obtaining Reciprocal Links and One Way Links is not the end of Link Exchange. You need to spend some time reviewing these and see if they are still up and good. Some sites may no longer exist and you might be linking to a dead page, which is not good. Some may have also removed your link from them without giving you a notice. In this situation, try contacting them and ask for an explanation before removing your link to them.

Doing Link Exchange may seem to be a tedious task but you must carefully do it to acquire a good number of links and be able to take full advantage of the links that you acquire.

iTrader 101 - Facts, FAQ, and Complete Tutorial

I recently made a great post at Digital Point Forums. The post was about iTrader. Below is the exact article I posted in DP. It is one of the best I made. I posted it here too so people who visits my blog and does not know about Digital Point Forums can benefit from this article too. Check it out!

iTrader 101

“What is the meaning of this attribute ‘iTrader: (Number)’? I see this with many people. Still mine is zero. How can I increase this?”

Sounds familiar huh? I’m sure at one point, you have asked yourself a similar question and found yourself browsing several threads to find an answer (perhaps even posted an inquiry for this). There are also members here, both old and new, who still haven’t been able to fully grasp what iTrader is. Some have not even encountered it until now.

Since I consider iTrader as one of the excellent additions here in DP (especially for the regulars in the Buy/Sell/Trade section), I decided to do some research and came up with a small iTrader FAQ (to be updated as the need arises):

  • What is iTrader?

iTrader is like a reputation for trading. It is an eBay Style Feedback for the Buy/Sell/Trade section in this forum that was implemented by Shawn (digitalpoint) on Jan 26, 2006.

With this tool, users can rate each other or give feedback after specific transactions held at the B/S/T section. You can also leave a negative or positive feedback for people that you have done business with.

  • What does the number beside the iTrader stand for?

The number you see near the "iTrader" indicates the number of successful or completed business transactions (as a buyer, seller or both) that you have made in the B/S/T section. Consequently, the higher your iTrader is, the higher the positive transactions you have completed.

To view more information, feedback comments, and what category the user is (buyer, seller, or both), click on the number beside the user’s “iTrader”.






  • How do I find out how many iTrader points I have or someone else has?

Take note that this feature only applies for the B/S/T section. Thus, people can see your iTrader rating or feedback when you post in one of the B/S/T forums and you can view a person’s iTrader there.

It also shows when looking at a user's profile. Moreover, you can manually visit a specific user's iTrader by clicking on the dot beside the username, selecting their "View Public Profile" from the dropdown menu,





and replacing the destination link in the address bar from “member.php” to “itrader.php”.





  • How do I get one?

First, you should be able to participate in the B/S/T forum. Based from the FAQ, “you must have been a member for 14 days, not have an overall red reputation and have 25 total posts to post in the Buy, Sell or Trade section".

Then you need to be able to finish or complete a business transaction (as a buyer or seller). Keep in mind that a deal needs to take place because the URL of the thread has to be indicated when giving a feedback. Once this is done, you can then ask the person you dealt with for a feedback (or if that person is nice, he/she will automatically provide you with a feedback after the transaction). That person can either give you a positive or negative feedback depending on how good or bad your transaction was.

You’ll get this PM notification once someone gives you a feedback, and you can click the “on this page” link to view the rating summary.





As protocol, you generally should also give feedback to the person who gave you a rating.

  • How do I give one?

Similar with getting a rating, you need to be able to finish or complete a business transaction first (as a buyer or seller) to be able to give one. Once this is done, you can then leave a positive or negative feedback to the person you dealt with by following these steps:

1) Click the iTrader number of the member you want to give feedback to.





2) On the destination page of the iTrader number, click the “Submit Feedback For XXX” (XXX stands for the username).





3) You will then see the page below. Fill up the form accordingly. Make sure that you really participated in the Deal thread URL you placed in this form. The Additional comments field is not necessary but will help the recipient to know where he/she should improve, etc.

Once you have completed this form, click on the “Submit Reply” button to send your Feedback.






4) Feedback given!

Depending on your feedback (negative or positive), you will see a number change in the Feedback Score of the user you gave rating to. The short comment you placed on the form above will also appear under the “Rating Summary” table, along with your username and your part in the business transaction (buyer or seller).






You will also see this change in the iTrader number of the user you’ve given feedback to when you view any of his/her post at the B/S/T section.





  • How many times can I give or receive feedbacks in a day?

For “New Traders”, the maximum ratings you can give or receive in a day are three (3). New Traders, as defined by Shawn, are members with a score under 5.

However, once you are past the “New Traders” bracket, you can give out as many as you want. :)

  • Other helpful information

You can give feedback to multiple people in the same thread you posted – provided a deal or sale was made with each person, and that person replied in that thread (not made through PM). If no business transaction occurred and you still give them feedback, it can result in a ban.

Also, to prevent a user from inflating someone else's feedback, if a user posts another feedback for the same user, only the first one is credited towards their total score.

My thread in Digital Point is now a Sticky Thread. If you want to check out other DP members' comments, feel free to visit my thread there. It's in the Suggestion & Feedback section.