Let me ask you a question... How do you get hundreds, or even thousands of targeted sites to point their traffic directly at your website? There are a few steps that you can take...

Step 1: Research your linking prospects.

Who would you most like a link from? Surf teh Net for a websites that deal directly with your target market and collect the personal contact information for the website owners. You should collect these information:

- The website's URL

- The address of the web page on that particular site where you would most like a link

- The name of the website owner

- Their e-mail address

- The date you visited their site

- A brief description of what site is about

Step 2: Organize your list into table or database.

This is very important. By setting up a simple database right from the start, you will be able to merge the information you have collected into template letters, and keep accurate records of exactly who has linked to you and who hasn't.

If you have Microsoft Access you can easily set up a tracking form or you might also be able to set up a database table in your word proccessing package.

Step 3: Rate your prospects and divide them into 2 lists.

As you collect information on sites that you would like to solicit links from, be sure that you divide them into two separate lists:

- First list. The short-listed site

Your first lsit should be a list of those sites that you would most like to obtain a link from. They will usually be highly targeted and be a common meeting ground for your Ideal Customer.

- second list. Sites of secondary interest

This second list sites will still related to your target market, however they're either not as focused or they have low traffic counts. While links from secon list sites can still be very valuable, chances are they're not worth the same amount of time and attention your Short-Listed sites are. Your second list will likely be quite large.

Step 4: Write a personal e-mail to your first list.

Once you've collected the personal contact information of sites that you would most like a link from, you can then sit down and begin writing each individual site owner a request for a link exchange. The letter should include...

- A positive comment about their website

- A brief description of who you are and why you're e-mailing them with an emphasis on the "win-win" nature of your proposal

- Specific details about how a link to your site will benefit their visitors/customers/subscribers

- Where on their site your link would be of greates benefit to their clients

- A brief discussion about how they can link to you that make it extremely easy

- Your contact information

... and anything else you believe might help you to get the link.

Step 5: Write an e-mail to your second list.

When you contact your second list, you should be just focused on making your e-mail personal... the more personal the better.

With that said, because you will have more second list names than first list names, you won't be able to spend as much time individually crafting each and every e-mail. Your best bet is to develop a template letter that you can "plug" the site information into. This can still come off as very personalized, but you shouldn't be quite as worried about making it incredibly site specific.

Step 6: Be persistent!

If a site that you really want a link from doesn't respond to your initial offer, e-mail them back. Tell them how this is a mutually beneficial way to do business. Tell them your market research has shown that your customers have direct interest in a product or service like theirs based on their interests. And remind them again that their customers and subscribers would probably be interested in the information that you provide at your website because it's going to help them in some way.

Emphasize again thet this is truly a win-win situation for both of you.

It's extremely important that every link request you e-mail is personalized. Like I've said before, sending a personalized "Dear Joe" e-mail as opposed to a generic "Dear Friend" or "Dear Everyone" e-mail increases the response by a drastic 64%!

The easiest, most cost-effective way I know to personalized "link exchange requests" is by using a software called "Mailloop" to merge the personal contact information you collected (i.e. e-mail addresses, website titles, URLs, names, dates, etc), into a custom e-mail.

This powerful software can save you literally days of work! If you did this manually, you wouldn't have time for any aspect of your business!

For more detail information about Mailloop, you can check at: http://www.advancetactics.com/mailloop.html

Copyright 2005 Syahriansyah

Syahriansyah is the owner of http://www.advancetactics.com. His website offers an idea for home based businesses. Feel free to check all the guides and articles.