Business over the internet is all about building relationships with like minded individuals and organisations that are mutually beneficial, and though the rewards are ultimately financial, the currency of this world is not always hard cash. This is all particularly relevant to Link partners, and with Link partners increasingly hard to find and once found even harder to maintain, it’s all about the incentive and the ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ mentality that can keep a good linking relationship afloat. It’s odd that sailing metaphors creep into these kinds of conversations so much, but it is quite appropriate here when talking about the cut-throat world of the internet.

Offer Incentives
Acquiring a link partner is more than just asking someone to link to your page and relying on their altruistic nature, you need to give them an incentive to link to you, and that incentive can take many forms. The way in which you ‘pay’ for the work of a Link partner is often decided by what you can realistically offer in return, and most Link partners have developed their own system to account for the services each provides.

Reciprocal and 3-Way Linking
The first and most obvious thing you can offer a link partner is a link on your own site to their site in exchange for their linking to you. This doesn’t cost anything and is a matter of etiquette for some. 3 way linking is another option and involves parties agreeing to link in such a way that no site is linking to a site that links back to it. However, reciprocal linking and 3 way linking are only effective if the links originate in unique, well written content and provide relevant links to partner sites and vice versa, and therefore has to be managed correctly to be a worthwhile bargaining chip to attract Link partners. You have to present yourselves to partners who won’t feel like you are competition or who think you are trying to siphon off some of their traffic.

Affiliate Commissions and CPC Revenue
The easiest way to attract a Link partner is to offer them a cut of your profits, since they are essentially contributing towards this by linking to your site and funnelling more traffic your way, which over time can convert itself into significant financial gain for you. Starting out your relationship with a Link partner by offering set commissions or a share of your CPC revenue shows that you are serious about the partnership, and of course the exchange should operate on a sliding scale, and both of you will only benefit if the linking draws traffic your way. Potentially difficult to track and manage but in many ways one of the strongest forms of exchange of value, particularly if you are an affiliate site vying for space in the results pages alongside so many of your competitors.

Content
The article site boom and bust of a couple of years ago once more highlighted the fact that good content is essential to the success of a site, and also that finding good content is extremely hard: especially well written articles in coherent English that are unique and relevant. That’s why often the most valuable thing you can offer a Link partner in exchange for linking to your site is good content. Whilst it’s not an instant fix solution, as it may take some time for your content to be published on your partners site, this is still one of the best way to attract Link partners. It’s also great because there is incentive for the Link partner to publish your content in a prominent area on their website, which will also give your link a good position, rather than just sticking it in a links page which no one will visit. The exchange of content in return for a link is beneficial to both parties as you get your link on a relevant web page and your partner is given unique content, so on both sides there is an opportunity to increase traffic and improve search engine rankings.

This approach can be further expanded into content exchange whereby both parties provide the other with content and links within that content.

Clearly the production of content or indeed the management of the whole process is something you may wish to outsource. There are a number of reputable firms that have multi-disciplinary linking and writing teams and can handle this approach on your behalf.

Widgets
If you don’t have the time or the resources to continually create original content for Link partner sites in order to keep generating inbound links then offering free widget attachments which your partners can embed in their pages and from which they can generate their own revenue is another solution in the link exchange business. If you have the right software and the right affiliate relationships elsewhere then a widget can be another good incentive that requires some work at its inception but will pretty much look after itself once it’s been implemented. We’re not just talking about content or affiliate product style widgets here but anything of potential value and use: perhaps some form of online calculation tool or some other gadget relevant to your sector and therefore useful to your link partners.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination (and pockets!). Whatever you do, in attracting link partners, make sure you have a clear view as to the value you are able and willing to exchange before you start approaching anyone.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

You might also like to read...