Trading Links

I want to take you way back to when the net was very new. Long before Flash files; before streaming movies; and even before images were common place on people's sites. If you wanted to get people to your website back then, you had to exchange links with other websites. (Link - also called Hyperlink, hotlink or hyper text. Highlighted words on a webpage that can be clicked on to go to another page or site).

When adult websites came along soon after this, link exchanges were still the main form of traffic generation. Nowadays, link trading is still done but what with TGPs, link lists, and all the other more 'popular' forms of traffic generation - link trades are often forgotten about. But the thing is - they work just as well now as they ever did.

Anyone can begin to build traffic by trading links - whether they are new to the business or have been doing this for some time.

Hang on - let's get this out of the way:

I'd better touch on something that will pop into the minds of most people when they think about adding a link to another site. As well as receiving traffic from a link exchange - you'll also have to send some back. Isn't that counter-productive for you? Let's remember the three basic reasons why you'd ever put something on a website:

1) It makes you money.
2) It helps generate traffic.
3) Legal requirements - eg. the warning text.

(Anything else gets in the way!)

You may have read about link exchanges on the boards and heard someone refer to the people they swap links with as their 'link partners'. I like this term because it describes the relationship beautifully. It's not you and some largely anonymous link list or TGP - it's another 'real' webmaster trying to make it. When you trade links with someone you're entering in to an agreement that you'll do your best to help send them traffic too.

Trading links is very much like two shops on the high street who have an agreement between them. If one shop doesn't have a particular item in stock - then they'll pass the customer on to your shop - and you to the same back. Link trades keep traffic flowing and (trust me) it's truly beneficial to both parties.

Trading links is similar but not the same as submitting your site to a link list. Trading links is all about networking with other adult webmasters and working the 'cyber street'. The more link trading contacts you make - the more traffic you'll be able to pull in. It's hard work all that hustling - but the beauty is that the traffic is instant; as soon as they add the link back to you and your site will start getting traffic.

Where to put em...

Now I've got you all fired up and ready to swap links we need to think about the types of sites and pages we can put them on. The easiest way to think of this is to remember that the aim is to swap links with similar kinds of sites or pages as the one you have to put the link back on. If you run a small TGP - look for other small TGPs to link with. If you have a small fetish site - look for other small fetish sites to swap links with. See what I'm saying here? Look for similar types of sites to trade links with.

One common misconception with trading links is that you have to have a lot of traffic before you can trade links. (kind of a catch 22 situation. No traffic - can't swap links). I have a cap which says, "If you don't ask - you don't get!" And this sums up the attitude you should have when trading links perfectly. I've swapped links from one of my sites that had virtually no traffic at the time with sites which then sent me 100's of surfers every day each.

Most webmasters will be very happy to swap links with you. Obviously some will want significant traffic back - but don't worry about those places. The smart webmasters realize the value in trading links - even with 'smaller' sites. After all, those sites could be the 'Persian Kittys' of tomorrow.

As for where abouts on the site should the link go, this is very important. Unless you have a links page which is really going to get a lot of traffic, forget about putting your link trades on those pages. Webmasters are not dumb and they know from their sites that a link from a separate links page isn't going to amount to much. A major step in getting link trades is proving to someone that you're going to make an effort to send some traffic back. To this end the main page is an ideal place to put links. I'll come to positioning of those links in a second but, for now, forget about using a links page. No-one wants to be on there - and it's worthless as a link trading spot.

How to get link trades

Now it's time to reach out to some of the webmasters out there and hopefully build traffic to your site. This won't happen unless you're very persistent. You can build up massive traffic with link trading (good quality traffic too) but you must be organized and very persistent in finding and contacting other webmasters. There are a number of ways to get link trades:

1) Adult webmaster forums. While it's considered extremely bad netiquette to make posts such as "SUBMIT YOUR SITE HERE!!!", there's nothing wrong with posting requests to swap links with other webmasters. In fact it's something that seems to be forgotten with the adult webmaster forums out there. So getting to know people on a board and asking for trades there is a great way to go.

2) Emailing webmasters. If you go to Dmoz, Google or Yahoo! you can search for sites which are similar to yours that you'd like to trade links with. Does it look like they have other links on their page? Then this could be one avenue to pursue. And, of course, the benefit is that these sites are getting traffic from a major search engine. If you can get a link there - your site could also instantly start to receive good search engine traffic.

3) Other networking. Get to know people. Become a part of one or more of the adult webmaster communities. And take a look at the TNB ICQ list - http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/icq-list/index.php - start networking!

4) Put a link on your site that say's "would you like to trade links?" - and have a form or an email link which will allow you to take information from other webmasters.

Emailing and etiquette

The next step, once you've found a site or webmaster that you'd like to trade links with, is to add the link back to them FIRST. The worst thing you could possibly do would be to write an email like this:

"I'm interested in swapping links with you - please let me know when you have my link up and I'll add yours..."

It's pretty amazing but I get a number of emails like that - not even written as well as that in most cases!

The first step to getting a good number of link trades going on is to add the other webmaster's link back before you get in touch with them. Whenever I see that another webmaster has linked back to one of my sites and then emailed me - I add a link back to them almost straight away. From my experience, other people will do the same. It's about the most successful way to get others to link back to you. Be polite and add their link first. DO NOT write an email which sounds like spam. Be careful to make it personal, even if you're using a copy n paste bit of text.

Avoid trading banners, buttons, or anything else like that. Text links are your main goal.

Webmasters who don't link back / don't reply...

This isn't all going to be peaches 'n' cream. Some people won't reply to you; some won't add a link back; some will redirect the traffic or mess you about in some other way. These are the down-sides of link trading. But don't let that put you off. Maintain your link trades and check them constantly. Give a month to the links you put up there and then remove any unproductive ones. A month is long enough to see if someone is going to link back to you. Don't pull the links if the other party has not added you by sun-down. It can take a lot longer than that.

Intelligent trading & rewarding good traffic senders...

Remember I mentioned I'd get back to where to put your links? Well now I'm going to talk about that. Not all link trades are created equally. Some will bring in a few surfers per day, and others will bring in a lot of important traffic. Watch your referrer stats and see who is really sending you some meaty traffic each day. Put those links in the best spots you have. Treasure them and do everything you can to appear on that person's referrer stats as a good traffic sender. After all, you want to remain on that site and keep on getting the traffic from them. Reward good traffic senders by giving them a better spot.

This applies to link trading only - not to link list traffic.

Remember too that once you've made a webmaster contact - use them again! Keep their email and site details and use that list as the base for any new link trades. You're never going to have enough partners to never have to go looking again for link trades, but it helps to have a submit list for that kind of traffic too.

I've swapped a lot of links in the past over ICQ too. It's great because it's a real-time way of communicating and a very fast way to exchange links with other webmasters.

So there you have it - a brief introduction to link trading. Like every other part of this business, what you put in, you'll get out. Work hard, network, and swap links with other people doing what you're doing. It's a great way to generate good, LASTING traffic. Right now there are thousands of people out there you could trade with.

Go find them!

You might also like to read:

Trading Links - Some Fast Tips

TOM ^"^

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