Hi everyone, I was reading Mr Kumar's excellent post and began to think that this would be a natural fit for Links.com. However I am not sure whether there is room for a new links/ad exchange site that would service webmasters. Is there still room? If so, what would be the primary ingredients of such a site that would make it successful? In other words, what problem exists now that Links.com could solve? Thanks for any input. Rich
I've tried a few LE services and found that the main problem is attracting quality link partners. Link love tends, like real love, be a one-way affair...from an SEO standpoint, mostly a waste of time. PR 3 link exchanges are good to help you maintain a PR 3, but if there's any disparity, someone's a loser. And the time consumed is really ridiculous. Look at a live exchange forum like this one at DP. I've made a couple of beneficial exchanges, but only actually traded links with about one in three, for various reasons. What is needed is a way to network a large quantity of relevant links, that rotate and are not reciprocal. But I really think that what webmasters want are simple ways to acquire a large quantity of inbound links, rather than sifting through a huge pile of inappropriate ones just to get a break-even swap. If you do focus on the exchange aspect (why not, it'll give content to your site), the key will be to have many categories, and active signup. You will need to ensure that link partners exist for the categories, so some kind of sign-up incentive (like free advertising) would get it rolling. Integrating a live forum for exchange might be successful, I like being able to communicate with the sites I'm exchanging with.
Hi, Thanks for presenting the issues clearly. If I am reading your message correctly, here are the issues that I will have to address if such a site is going to be successful: 1) Attracting high PR site webmasters. High PR sites generally are quite stingy with exchanging links. Without such sites, it will be difficult to attract any kind of quality traffic. 2) Webmasters find it very time-consuming process to develop links, especially if it is one by one. Unless there is a way to provide a "bulk" or "pooled" ability to gain lots of links at one time, most webmasters will not avail themselves of the link exchange service. Can you explain to me what you mean by rotating the links. Would this give it more value because it is not reciprocal? 3) It would be difficult to get webmasters to sign-up, particularly if they have quality sites. However, some incentives may help. Can you explain what you mean by allowing for free advertising? What type of advertising would the be? 4) Utilize an integrated forum to help webmasters find like-minded webmasters to facilitate the exchange. Thanks much for the help and advice. If you or anyone else has anything else to add, I would appreciate it. Regards, Rich