you have little or no page rank and little or no traffic.

I have found that giving incentives will help get the link exchanges flowing and as your page rank increases so will links with websites that have a higher page rank.

Here are 20 things you can do to get people to link to your website.

1. When you visit a web site you've enjoyed a lot, write a review for the site. Write about the benefits you gain from the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they link to your web site.

2. Market your web site as a free web book. Design your web site with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Just allow other people to give away the web book by linking to your web site.

3. Offer other web sites free content to post on their web site. Include your link on all of your content. The content should related to your web site because it will be in front of your target audience.

4. Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site. Include your web site's ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

5. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner ad on top of the article directory for your main web site.

6. Start a members only web site. Tell visitors what's in your members only site and what it costs to gain access. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

7. Trade other forms of advertising to people that link to your web site. You could trade e-zine ads, print ads, autoresponder ads, classified ads, ebook ads, etc.

8. Allow other web sites to use your discussion board for their web site visitors. Just have them link directly to the discussion board. Include your web sites ad or banner ad at the top of the discussion board.

9. When you purchase a product and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Make sure your statement is detailed. Give them permission to publish it on their web site if they link to your site.

10. Offer your visitors a free sign up to your affiliate program. Pay them commission to sell your products or services. Just give them an affiliate link to track their sales. People will link to your web site to make extra money.

11. Give away web space to people for free. Since you are giving it away for free, request they link to your site by placing your ad or banner to the site.

12. Create your own award site for other web sites. Give the winners a graphic or text link to place on their web site when they win. This will link your web site to theirs and draw more traffic to your web site.

13. Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic. Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business ad at the top of the directory's home page.

14. Offer a free e-book to your web site visitors. The ebook should be related to your target audience. Allow them to give the e-book to their own web site visitors by linking directly to your web site.

15. Are you an expert on a particular subject? Offer people free consulting via e-mail if, in exchange, they either link to your site. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

16. Exchange content with other web sites. You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

17. Create an online club or association. Tell your visitors what's included in the membership and what it costs to join. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

18. Allow people to use an online service or utilities from your web site if, in exchange, they link to your web site. The online service could be an e-mail account, search engine submission, web page design, copywriting, proofreading, etc.

19. Join or create a web ring. A web ring is a group of web sites on a similar subject agreeing to link together. To find a web ring to join type keywords "web rings" into your search engine of choice.

20. Allow people to download software at no charge from your web site, if they link to your web site. The software could be freeware, shareware or demos.

There is no doubt that getting quality link partners takes a lot of hard work. Many times the benefits are not obvious for months and months. Don't stop with these 20 ways to get link exchanges. Come up with incentives of your own.

In the long run all of this effort is worth it. When your website is getting more free traffic, and is enjoying a position on page one with the major search engines for the keywords that define your website, you will be glad that you have done more than your competition to get quailty link exchange partners.

Copyright 2004 Jeff Schuman
Jeff Schuman has used the strategy of exchanging links to take his website Team-Schuman.Com to page one with all of the major search engines for the keyword phrases "make money", "make money at home" and many other similar keywords. Check out his make money site here: www.team-schuman.com www.ezine-in-a-box.com