This is the theory of LINK EXCHANGE, it may be BORING TO READ, but it’s GOOD TO UNDERSTAND! and sorry, in order to make you have a clear picture of link exchange, this post has to be a bit long!

Let’s start here…

You may think you know what a link exchange is, but I’m here to tell you, there is quite a difference in the type I’m talking about here.

A “normal” link exchange is one where you place a bunch of cruddy banners or extra coding on your site. This will detract from the professionalism you’re striving to preserve. There’s nothing worse than having a big old ugly banner plastered across your web site. And if you have several, well, that just makes it that much more unprofessional looking.

A “real” traffic-pulling link exchange is one in which you solicit linking partners on an individual and personal basis to place their link on your web site if they will do the same for you on their own site. Or, simply asking webmasters to post a link to your site on theirs as both sites content will compliment each other.

The wonderful, crazy place we call “The Internet” really was built on the power of the link.

When you think about it, almost everything we strive for as online business owners hinges on the link. We want our link to appear in the top results of the search engines, in the prime spot on sponsored listings and in that huge newsletter. Our link is the ‘funnel’ that sends visitors to our site. No link, no click. No click, no visitor.

Web masters have always exchanged links with one another. In the days before search engines, this was done as a matter of course; and, most web masters would simply link to sites they found relevant and interesting without asking permission first.

Just posting up a bunch of links found at random on your web site providing more information about the subject matter discussed on your site isn’t really doing anything that beneficial for you in retrospect.

It is, however, for those site owners who’s links you’re putting on your site though. This is why asking them to post up your link in return for you doing so from your site is a better course of action to generate more targeted traffic to your own site.

That’s why today, business-minded website owners focus on two kinds of link exchanges:  reciprocal links and one-way links.

Reciprocal links = two websites link to one another

One-way links = one website links to another

Reciprocal linking became popular in the past few years due to its influence on Google’s “Page Rank” algorithm, which calculates the popularity of a site based on how many other sites link to it. The quality of these links has an impact on overall Google ranking.

In 2005, however, marketers are starting to move away from reciprocal linking (much of it’s original power has waned), and towards one-way links.

There’s a catch, though. It’s not like the old days when you linked to another site from you own. The focus now is on getting one-way links from other sites to your web site. In other words, getting the benefit of a link without returning the favor.

Again, a lot of this is about Google. Each time someone discovers a new loophole or method to higher rankings, everyone rushes to implement it, and they often do so incorrectly at that. Eventually, the combined effect of all these sites trying to skew the results..well, skews the results. Google closes the loophole and it’s back to square one.

This is what happened with reciprocal linking. Now, this does not mean that reciprocal links have no value. You want reciprocal links. They add to the mix. However, they simply aren’t as powerful as they once were.

As of 2005, one-way links now weight more heavily in calculating site popularity. The best advice I can give you is to implement a strategic mix of both types of links. Also, keep in mind that links are not the main variable influencing your search engine ranking.

The real traffic power behind links come from increased visibility across multiple traffic sources. If you can get a link to your web site from a site with more traffic than yours, then traffic to your site will go up accordingly. Best of all, that traffic is free.

The first step in participating in either type of link exchange is to do a basic search for web sites that would be complimentary to your own through any search engine you like.

Then, from those results, choose the closest matches to your own site content, find the site owner’s contact email address, and simply contact them about doing a link exchange with you. You’ll post their link if they will post yours. Feel free to use the email templates inside the Joint Venture section for this.

To build as much traffic to your site as possible, find as many relevant quality sites as you can and ask them to exchange link-for-link with you as described above as the “reciprocal” link. And, if you don’t get an answer from some of them, that’s all right. At least you made an attempt.

You took positive action to get the results you desired.

Related URL(s):

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/link-popularity

http://www.power-linking-profits.com

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Before you really step into the world of Affiliate Marketing, understand the language use in Affiliate Marketing the first step in your affiliate business learning curve.

Here we go……

AFFILIATE : Someone who earns a commission for sending clicks, leads, or sales to a merchant.

AFFILIATE AGREEMENT : A contractual document, usually executed electronically, between an affiliate and a merchant. Includes terms and conditions of the relationship. Legally binding.

AFFILIATE LINK : Code that sends your customer to a merchant’s sales page. The code can either be an HTML link or be part of a graphic (such as a banner). The code identifies you as the affiliate who should be credited for the click or the sale.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM : A business model that pays a commission to someone who sends leads, clicks, or sales to a merchants via a link (text or graphic) on a web site.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM DIRECTORY : A web site that describes and sorts various affiliate programs.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM (OR SOLUTION) PROVIDER : Third party firm that that provides software, database support, affiliate ID and link-tracking, and payment services for affiliate programs.

ASSOCIATE : Another word for Affiliate.

ASSOCIATE PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

AUTO- RESPONDER : Software that will automatically send email messages on a pre-set schedule. Subscribers can send the auto-responder an email, or submit their mailing information via a web form.

BANNER AD : A graphical ad, similar to a billboard, displayed on web pages.

BROWSER : Software that allows the user to surf web sites while connected to the Internet. The most popular browsers today are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla, and Netscape.

CHARGE BACK : A product return that results in loss of affiliate commission.

CLICK- THROUGH : Another term for a click on your affiliate link.

CLICK- THROUGH RATE OR CLICK- THROUGH RATIO (CTR) : The number of actual clicks that you receive when you display an affiliate ad or link. Usually described in terms  of a percentage.

CO-BRANDING : Permission to place your logo, company name, and other distinctive brand features on a product or site.

COMMISSION : Income you are paid for making affiliate sales.

COOKIES : Code written to your prospect’s computer after clicking on an affiliate link. Cookies are a way of identifying which affiliate should be paid a commission.

CONTEXTUAL LINK : An affiliate link that looks more like content than an advertisement. Contextual links are usually part of an article or other informative web copy.

CONTEXTUAL MERCHANDISING : Matching relevant products to your content.

CONVERSION RATE : Percentage of clicks that results in sales or leads.

CPC (COST PER CLICK) : Cost of each click on a PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising link.

CPM (COST PER THOUSAND) : The amount you pay for one thousand banner ad impressions on someone else’s site.

EMAIL SIGNATURE : A brief message that closes every email sent by an individual. Your email signature file can contain affiliate links, relevant site links, free offers, and advertising messages. See also Signature File.

EZINE : An electronic magazine or newsletter, usually delivered via email.

FAQ (FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS) :  A web page that answers the most common questions about your products.

HTML CODE: HyperText Markup Language . HTML is a set of codes that tells your browser to display web pages. When you sign up for an affiliate program, your merchant or affiliate program provider will send you HTML code to use for your links.

IMPRESSION : An instance of your advertising link being displayed in a browser.

LIFETIME COMMISSION : Affiliate programs that write long-term cookies (two years or more), or that use their own internal customer data tracking, to guarantee that affiliates will earn repeat commissions. In general, with a lifetime commission program, your affiliate ID will be permanently “attached” to your customers, so you will make commissions on all your customers’ future purchases.

LIFETIME VALUE OF A CUSTOMER : Projected dollar amount of sales that your customer is expected to spend with you.

MICRO -SITE : A 1-3 page web site devoted exclusively to selling a product, soliciting subscribers, or otherwise getting a prospect to take immediate action. (See also Mini-Site.)

MINI-SITE : A web site with a tightly focused topic and highly specialized information. Mini-sites began as single sales pages, but today these types of sites are called micro -sites (see above). Currently, the optimal mini- site contains at least 10 pages of targeted content – product reviews, specs, FAQs, recommendations, etc. – as well as sales pages. Many “mini-sites” are actually quite large – some contain hundreds of pages of content.

PARTNER PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

PAY -PER- SALE : Most common affiliate program, where you receive a commission for each sale of a product or service via your affiliate link.

PAY -PER- LEAD : A program in which an affiliate is paid a commission for each “qualified” lead generated through your affiliate link. Merchants often have very specific criteria for what constitutes a “qualified” lead. In general, the prospect must take some sort of action while at the merchant’s site, such as filling out an application, subscribing to an ezine or offer list, entering a sweepstakes, requesting a free sample, or downloading software or PDFs.

PAY -PER- CLICK : A program in which an affiliate is paid for each click to a merchant’s web site. Pay- per- click returns are very low, usually less than $.50 per click and sometimes as low as $.01 per click. Best  for webmasters with extremely high traffic sites.

QUALIFIED LEAD : See Pay-Per-Lead.

REFERRAL LINK : See Affiliate Link.

REFERRAL PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

RESELLER PROGRAM : Sometimes used as a synonym for an Affiliate Program. However, a true Re seller Program is usually structured as a B to B (business-to-business) wholesaler relationship. Many merchants require Resellers to apply to their program, and require a transparent contractual business relationship. Resellers then purchase product at greatly reduced prices, but often also have to provide product support.

RESIDUAL INCOME : A program that pays commissions on recurring payments. These are usually memberships, subscriptions, or monthly fees for services such as web hosting.

REVENUE SHARING PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

ROI (Return On Investment): A method for measuring actual profit from a given sales campaign.

SIG FILE : See Signature File.

SIGNATURE FILE :  Similar to an Email Signature, this usually refers to a brief message that follows your signature in a forum posting. See also Email Signature.

SPAM : Unsolicited commercial email, junk email, or junk forum postings. Today, the term is also loosely (and erroneously) applied to ANY UNWANTED email received from any source. Any email  you send to a purchased bulk email list (”Mail to 1 Million People For Only $199″) is bound to be spam.

SUB-AFFILIATE : Affiliates you have referred to a Two- Tier Affiliate Program. (See also Two- Tier.)

SUPER AFFILIATES : A term originally coined to describe the top 1% earning affiliates.  Today it loosely refers to anyone who makes a good living from affiliate programs.

TRACKING : Recording information about sales, leads, clicks, or other actions taken by a visitor on a web page. Usually done with cookies, unique links, or unique URLs.

TEXT LINK : A link that displayed as text only, without an image overlying it (such as a banner).

TWO -TIER : Affiliate payment model in which you can refer other affiliates and receive a small additional commission on their sales. You are the first tier, your sub-affiliates are the second tier. Two-tier affiliate marketing is sometimes compared to MLM (Multi- Level Marketing). But two-tier affiliate programs avoidthe complicated matrix payment systems of MLMs, as well as some of the shadieraspects of “pyramid” marketing.

VIRAL MARKETING : Advertising that spreads on its own (like a virus). Viral marketing is accomplished by offering free products with a high perceived value. These are usually delivered digitally, with permission to copy and share the product with anyone.

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You will get pay when the traffic (visitors) you bring in takes the ‘action’ of buying or subscribing something on a particular website. In a simple term, the action we mean here are,

Action#1 : ‘Pay Per Lead’ – Generate of new lead (potential customer or subscriber)

Action#2 : ‘Pay Per Sale’ – Generate of sales for a product

Let’s discover both affiliate marketing model one by one. You may choose the one which suit you most or just grab these two streams of internet income into your pocket

Let’s take the simplest way to understand both Pay Per Lead affiliate program and Pay Per Sale affiliate program……

Pay per lead (PPL) is a method of marketing that enables you to generate your commission by referring visitor for a certain action like a software download, sign-up for free membership, sign-up of a newsletter or subscription, filling out an application from, etc. If the customer follows an affiliate link to the advertiser’s website and makes the required action, then the affiliate gets an agreed commission

In pay per lead affiliate program, the prospect is not making any purchase.

Example : You get your commission by …..

·         Refer prospect to signup for free member through your affiliate link.

·         Refer prospect to signup for newsletter or subscription through your affiliate link.

·         Refer prospect to trial on new products or services through your affiliate link in exchange for filling out contact form.

·         Refer prospect to fill out a survey form through your affiliate link in exchange of freebies.

Or

Yes, the prospect is not making any purchase. Instead, the prospect is getting something value in return. It may be some freebies, valuable information, new exploration, new friends or joining a new community network. In any case of above, you get paid for generating that lead.

Compare with pay per sale affiliate program, the commission from pay per lead affiliate program is smaller. But, with good promotion methods, pay per lead affiliate programs can result in a very high conversions rate. Because surfer like FREEBIES! In return, this will translate into a BIG INPUT to your bank account.

Your affiliate link is very important, must sure there is no error in your link. If not, you’ll end up with leaving a lot of sales on the table.

Pay per sale has high commission if the purchase is complete. However, pay per sale programs have a low conversion rate if compare with pay per lead programs. In pay per sale affiliate programs the customer is required to pay his money and this requires a lot of convincing skills.

When promoting a Pay Per Sale product, never direct your traffic (visitor) to your affiliate link. If you do so, you are actually putting your money in the merchant’s (advertiser’s) bank account.  

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Let’s continue with Affiliate Marketing Part 2: The Golden Rules.

This is the part which most of the affiliate marketer will miss out. But for me these are the KEYS of success in Affiliate Marketing, so I called it as “The Golden Rules in Affiliate Marketing“.

All games start with RULES, understand the rules is the earliest stage for every games.  Well, take your Affiliate Business as a games. In this affiliate games we enjoy and have fun through the process,  and the reward from this games is your Big Money in your bank account.

Install these Golden Rules of Affiliate Marketing in you brain now….

1. For any affiliate products you promote, TAKE IT AS YOUR OWN PRODUCT. ( Your affiliate product = Your Product; Your product = Your affiliate product)
2. You are not just a promoter which promote . YOU ARE IN THE BUSINESS. YOU TAKE ONWERSHIP by promoting that product as whole-heartedly as you would if you were the merchant or copyright holder. (If you take it serois like your own business, then only you will get the GREAT result.)
3. Promote it in the RIGHT WAYS. Spam will burn your business and your future. 

Make sure you always keep these 3 Golden Rules of Affiliate Marketing in your mind, make it permanently installed in your mind. ok?  :-)

Let’s discover the type of Affiliate Marketing, and how you earn from Affiliate Marketing Business in my next post. c u then…

Affiliate Marketing is the Best & No.1 way for a new internet marketer to get started.

Why do I say so? The beauty of Affiliate Marketing are……

1.  You can steal people idea to run your own business. ( Don’t worry, the onwers are happy to share their great idea with you.)

2.  There is no inventory. No matter you are selling a phisycal product or a non-physical product like e-book there are no doubt of manage your inventory.

3.  No doubt of producing or ordering products. (All products are ready for you to sell.)

4.  No hassle with payment processors. (Just waiting for your pay cheque.)

5.  No hassle with refunds or returns of products sold.

6.  The BEST way for you to test, implement & practice all the profitable marketing strategies online. This will bring success in any others online business you pursue in future. (You don’t take any risk.)

 …continue with Part 2 :The Golden Rules in Affiliate Marketing.