Ok, I've spend the better part of the past week, most of Christmas day excluded, looking for sites to trade links with. I know, I can go spend some money and get a flood of link trades coming my way in no time. But why should I pay someone for a script I could write in a couple of hours? Not going to happen. Granted, I would also get access to their database, but how long is their database going to be viable if someone comes out with the same level of service for free? So the questions is: What would be the perfect link trading program? I have a directory/search engine app I wrote earlier this year that I want to use as a basis for this. Here's how I want to make it work: 1. You go to the directory and submit your link to the appropriate category. 2. Once approved your link is live in the directory. There's one link. 3. Now all you need to do is put some code on a page and presto, all the links from your category show up on your page along with a form for people to submit to the directory. Ok, now comes the interesting part. It seems to me the idea here is to have relevant links layed out on a page that the SEs will love. So, we do it with SSI, javescript, or whatever will put the links on a simple .html page. You just make up your page from whatever template or design you want that fits your site and put an include of some kind on it. By doing it this way I think it would maximize the results when that page gets crawled. Also, I don't have to force people to put links to my site on their site becasue of the built in submit form. I get the submissions right from the form on the clients link page. Also, I can easily incorporate a link into that form instead of taking up valuable space somewhere else on the guy's site. This is also self policing, if you will. When someone pulls their stuff from the directory I can take a look at it. If it stops pulling for a period of time that link is simply removed from the database. This way no one has to worry about dead links out there. Eventually I can hook the search engine/spidering functions back into the setup, run the spider, and have an instand search engine to boot. With this system no one has to ask anyone anything. Just submit to the directory then put the code on your page. No muss, no fuss, and no expense. Any ideas? Comment? Just how insane is this idea? Nick
Sounds like a good idea. But let's say I've submitted my site, it's approved, I've put the code on my site, after a month I'd like to change my anchor text. If you let people change their anchor text, you should have a control panel for users, also somebody has to review them before approval. It'd be more complicated than I think. But generally pretty good idea. What's your profit going to be? Send your links to peoples sites or on page advertisement? This would be a problem if you have thousands of sites submitted. But good start, maybe some more brainstorming, you can turn your idea into real cash. Good luck Matt
I also thought about something else. Would you treat each website equal? or would you setup a weight factor (similar to Coop network) and give weight to each site when they signup according to different factors (such as bl's, pr, # of pages indexed etc.). Shawn also is setting up categories for sites at Coop ad network. If the categories and languages work, I think Coop ad network would be the most beneficial link exchange program in the world. It's already doing an amazing job.
I agree about the coop network. I think it's probably one of the best ideas I've seen so far. A bit more maturity and it's going to be excellent. It hasn't done anything for me yet, but my site is new and I'm still building PR and all that other stuff so I don't expect much right away. Still, it would be much more helpful if people spent a bit more time composing their ads. Some of them look pretty bad. As far as my link exchange idea goes, it's not that big a deal. I'm not looking to get rich directly from it. It just occurs to me that finding sources for REALLY relevant links is hard. It shouldn't be that hard, and shouldn't take as long as it does. The idea is to give people the ability to get signed up, put a couple hundred, (maybe, who knows how many it will end up being in each category), links up and go from there. I opened my online store to collect money, not links to other people's websites. The fact that it is so difficult to do in a universe that is built on the concept of automation is idiotic in my view. It doesn't seem like anyone has really figured out a way to do it that works and doesn't require an investment of time and/or money that is better spent elsewhere. As far as giving weight to sites or rating them in some way the answer is no. I know the guys with the good PR want to be rewarded for brining that into the mix, but if I give them all the traffic it kind of makes this idea usless. Those guys already get the traffic. Besides, by doing it my way everyone benefits. The new guys like me get links on solid performing sites so our stats go up. More traffic, better PR, all that. That will feed on itself. Sites that don't make it are going to fall off anyway. The ones that do will end up getting the traffic and the PR they are looking for, and the guy that already had it now has a lot more links to a lot more performing sites than he started with and didn't have to do anything extra to get them but wait. We get better traffic, and the guys that started out up there do even better. Win win is always the best solution. I'm willing to eat it on the front end of this one because if it takes off I'll have more options than I can shake ten grand at to make money with. I've been killing myself for over a week now trying to get reciprocal links on my site. I've had some luck, but if you go to google and do a link search on my domain it still comes back with a big fat zero. I've done everything else I can think of, all I need are the links to get my PR up out of the double digit pages and I don't have months to do it. If I had a ton of money it would be easy, but I don't. Someone's got to come up with a better idea, and you know what they say about "if you want something done right!" Nick
By the way, onestop. I submitted to your directory. I wanted to put a link back on my front page in my "Shopping Resources" box but it's too big. Unless I can make the link smaller it won't fit and I'll have to put it on the regular links page. If you'll let me pare that sucker down to where it will fit, I'll make it look good, I'll be happy to put it up there. Nick
Hey Nick I've approved almost all of the submissions tonight. What was your site? Thanks for the backlink also. If you are talking about anchor text, you can use "online shopping" or "shopping directory" instead of online shopping directory. we'll do more brainstorming about your idea tomorrow since I'm almost asleep Good night matt
The site is "Mari-Len.com." I'll do what I can with the link and then you can go look at it. If you want it changed just let me know. Nick
Ok, I'm about done with the basics of this, I just need to figure out one thing. What's going to be the best way to distribute the links pages out to the subscribers? I want to make it as easy as possible for webmasters to get the thing working on their site, but I don't want to load all the overhead onto my server. There has to be a good trade off, something similar to the way the coop runs, but it'll have to be different for obvious reasons. Right now I'm thinking the best way to do it is to have a piece of code on the client site that runs when he loads a page. That code checks the time and if it's 24 later than last time it goes to the database on my server, gets the latest links and writes them to a text file. Now the user can just do a php or SSI include, or whatever, and pull the links up into a preformatted html page and there are his links. This makes clean links and keeps everything nice and tidy at both locations. What do you think?
I'm looking at this and I realize what I need is some links in the directory. So, for anyone who might be inclined to do so, please go to http://www.axelis.com, register, and then go log in and hit the control panel. I know it's not much to look at yet, but I tend to like to get things working before I worry about what they look like. One I get some links to work with I can finish up the last piece of code and get things rolling.
Hello guys First post here, I don't want to spam or anything but "talking about the perfect link exchange program" then I want to hear your reviews about a new link exchange website I have developed. It's an automatic link exchange program but not a link farm in any way. nfzgrld, you talk about listing all sites within a category on a page and use that as a link page, but that is exactly like a link farm, but then in a theme. I don't think Google will ban your site for partnering in link farms, I have seen a lot of sites using link farms and still have high PR. I came up with an idea where you have to upload a php page with an unique code, this code connects to our database and therefor will show you the links, same as the advertising Coop. But there will be no links shown unless you have exchanged links with other webmasters. You can simply browse the directory and requests links, within or outside a category, by simply clicking a button. After you request a link the other party receives an email and can login to accept or deny the request, if this person accepts this link request the link will show instantly on both link pages. And if one deletes this link in the future then both links will be deleted from the link pages automatically, you will never link to another website without them linking back to you. I have just finished this website and it would be great if you guys could check it out. It's free to signup. Here's the link: http://www.BetterLinking.com Let me know your thoughts. Victor
I don't know Vic, it sounds familiar to me. I get emails every day, sometimes as many as 20, from the same kind of program you're talking about. I have no doubt that it's legitimate, but it really is very annoying. If I get 10 link requests in a day 7 of them are for links to casions, drugs, or something else I'm not going to link to from my site. It's getting to the point now where I'm starting to treat them like spam. My idea is to target relevant links to a site. If the links are relevant then they're legitimate no matter how you got them. Especially if they are linking back to you. Every link in the directory is screened and validated before it's let in. If the webmaster wants to change it, it has to go back through the screening process. It has to be relevant to the category, and it has to be a quality link, i.e., it has to be a real site with real content, etc. The key here is quality control.
I understand your point. But I would like to know about the programs you get emails from about the same kind of system. I have searched and trying to find something similar but couldn't find any. I'm not talking about link exchange websites or directories where members still have to email and stuff, this is different. I think we want the same thing, just honest good quality link exchanges with related websites. No cheating, etc. Well, I don't want to push you or anything but my link exchange is just like that. You still have to control who you link to but because we work with an unique code you don't have to upload your links everytime and no emailing too. It's just like to coop, input a code in a special link page and the system takes over. You can choose who to link to inside your own category or outside. Yes, this is what I also would like. But you still have to choose your link partners or otherwise all members will link to the same websites and then it would be just like a link farm. I know http://www.honestlinks.com has a good screening system and you can only join if you agree to the same terms you talk about. I'm sure that works, not only linking for PR but more for traffic, your link to your link page has to be on every web page and you have to have original content. Only then you can join honest links. It's cool but the thing is waiting for members to join. This is what i have developed too but then everything is automatic, nobody can cheat or otherwise they will be deleted from the system. Adding links is as easy as approve a link request. If you don't want to link you simply deny a link request.
Ok, I get it. I thought you were just doing something like "Link Exchanger." My idea is to take the approval process and put it in the directory. By having strict standards that everyone has to follow it makes it difficult, if not impossible for some second rate link spammer to get into the directory. Every link I get is looked at for content and "presentation." There are no links with all lowercase or uppercase. No links that are just a string of keywords, I don't even allow that in the description. If I get a link that tells me one thing, then I go to the site and find something else, it's gone. The point is to put up only realy good quality links and categorize them so they're relevant. My system is also fully automated. Once you put the code on your site you don't have to worry about it any more. As long as I, and any editors I might bring on board along the way do our job, you don't have to worry about what's on your links page. You don't have to go inspect websites. You don't have to go asking around for links. Right now people are just posting "come tade links with me" and then they have a form you can fill out, but you have to have their link on your site first. I spent more time filling out my own form for other people's links than I did reviewing people who submitted via the form themselves. I'm done with this. I still have those links, and will keep them, but I'm not adding to them. The fact is my time is valuable and I just don't have enough to spare just to go begging links around the internet. In either case, I think we're on to something. Finding sources of quality relevant links is always something webmasters are on the lookout for. My idea is to develop a way to do several things. First, build a directory of quality websites. Next, leverage that asset to create a link sharing system that benefits everyone, the webmaster, the site being linked to, the search engines, and everyone else. Anyway, I think we're taking two different approaches to try to achieve the same type of result. Luckily there are plenty of links to go around.
I see we have about the same idea about how this should be working. One way or the other I think it will be a great solution saving lots of time and still have a good link exchange program. Let me know if you finish something like this in the future. Victor