stever - 4:55 pm on Nov 6, 2005 (gmt 0)

OK, martinibuster, you used the "w" word again and snagged me into the discussion.

>>Email other webmasters about it
Personally speaking, I prefer mailing owners who tell their webmasters what to do. It's a serious point and has to do with identifying "real" links and "real" traffic.

Before I get some frothing at the mouth again, I've got nothing against what some people do with link development. My experience, however, has been that little traffic has come from any site that is also featuring "Bulgarian Condo Rentals" as a link partner, even if is has good SERPs and a medium toolbar PR.

Some amazing and very motivated traffic has come from "good ole boy" sites which would normally be ignored by the lazier or less creative link mailers.

>>Encourage People to Link to You
Now this is just personal prejudice with no scrap of evidence - and I may be passing up on good partners here - but I don't want anything on my sites that implies that I am conscious of links - not a "link to me" script, not a links directory, not a reciprocal link programme, nothing.

Part of it has to do with keeping a beady eye on the engines, and part of it has to do with creating a brand of being a disinterested authority - the kind that people like to link to. So no, not "build it and they will come" but "if you are building it right, then they will come".

Site promotion starts earlier than many people realise
Somewhere in this forum (probably by paynt around Y2K) there are posts on this subject...

This is why I don't have much time for those who say that it is impossible for a site in their niche to get any links.

Before I start a site I will have a look at the whole neighbourhood around that subject. Sooner or later I will stumble across "nests" of quality sites adjacent to my proposed space. Quality means in this sense that they may be quality in the way that they link out, or the way that they are linked to by an authority site, or in some other way.

Before I even start on the site, I will consider how to integrate a honeypot for those particular sites that might encourage them to link to me. Once my site is active, I will try to make them aware of that section.