cnvi - 11:05 pm on Jan 4, 2007 (gmt 0)

rowtc2,

Sure try to get links from those 1200 websites that your competitor gets links from. Nothing wrong with that. Keep in mind that your competitor probably got those links over a long period of time.. if you were to get links from those 1200 sites in a short period of time, the SEs would detect that and you would lose the affects of those links in most cases (depends on how fast you get them and the period of time in which it occurs).

However, lets be realistic. Due to the natural nature of linking properly, its practically technically impossible to obtain links from those 1200 websites in a short period of time. I would suggest a slow steady campaign.. maybe contact 200 per month (thats about seven a day) over a six month period - again, keeping in mind that those 1200 sites won't link to your site unless you give them a very good reason to want to link to your site. I have not seen your site.. but if it looks like yuck or has "cobwebs", your link exchange requests will be ignored. Content really is king.

Is this link building we're talking about tough work? You bet it is. Nothing about link building is easy in my humble opinion. My company owns a portal that promotes online gambling. The site has been online TEN years this June and it took us ten years to build up only 5000 inbound links (thats 500 per year or about 40-50 per month), many of those links which we reciprocate (out of kindness and to insure they keep linking to us). That kind of link building takes a long time. You are talking about 1200 links which could theoretically take years.

There is no magic answer to all of this - making this link building so interesting and fun to discuss. Methods are constantly evolving but one thing is certain: Your site's content and the way it makes other webmasters think and feel is ultimately going to affect whether or not you get the linkback. So make sure your website shines and makes webmasters want to naturally link to it. Sorry if that is off-topic but content affects link exchange rates so don't forget it.