paynt - 9:01 pm on Apr 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

A few comments on posts I haven’t yet commented on and want to.

Carfac #46, thank you for sharing and bringing up “authority”. This is another discussion I think we can start separately and really get into; it’s a major key to domination. I was talking to a colleague yesterday and my family laughed when they heard me say, “I’m all about domination”. Linking is a viable tool and crucial to understand if domination is a goal.

Carfac is fortunate to be building out from an, ‘informational’ core. There’s a tip. For those coming from other than an informational core, do you think because your site is about selling a product or service that you can’t make your core informational and then build the sales into that?

This discussion isn’t for the set that just wants to pay for advertising or pay for position. In all these words there’s nothing here for you. Corporate types, I think you’ll be surprised and you might want to stick around with an open mind. Crack heads, the smart ones eat this stuff up, hehe. Ma and Pa’s and hobby sites you have to love this.

You can’t build true authority unless your goal is to produce the content to support that. Knowing how to maximize your linking to that content, there’s another aspect of development you might want to think about.

Carfac’s points are important, whatever your sites core. You also brought us a question…

how do you integrate a reciprocal link page so it does not just look "stuck on?"

Beautiful question. And you are right, I particularly do not like link pages that look "stuck on". Instead of giving what people would take as “the plan”, I’d much rather help you to create your own plan. There are as many ways to do this as there are sites that want to. Some of the things I think about when determining how I will house my reciprocal partner links include…

1. Sorry to repeat myself with this but it’s really dependent on what the overall web business plan is. First I reflect on my core. Am I there to inform, entertain, sell, teach, lead, what is it I want to accomplish? For me I want to dominate. If I’m working on a keyword, an industry, an audience, then I want to dominate. That’s why I’m willing to put this amount of effort into building a presence. So, it’s about the purpose, my motives and my core.

2. From the purpose, after the research and all of that I don’t need to remind anyone about I really look at what others in my industry are doing with their linking. Remember, even one link exchanged between sites constitutes reciprocal linking so I look at how my competitors handle it. What do I like about what they are doing? What benefits do I see? What would I change? How could I make what I see them do and that I want to do even better? To be successful I don’t have to create a ‘new wheel’ I just have to make ‘the wheel’ better.

3. Having taken care of those two points I have to think about what I can offer. Am I willing, do I have the time or skills to build content to attract an audience, perhaps seeding the content with a link out to a site that can stir up more linking back for me? How can I make what I am willing to offer give back the highest return? As many savvy online marketers will tell you, viral marketing especially in my book viral linking is the kind of bait worth creating.

4. Now, from a purely design perspective I ask the design team, and maybe that’s just me, what I am visually trying to create with the project. What image do I want to reflect? How do I visually handle my reciprocal links? Depending on how creative your team is combined with what you provide them with as to your plan should generate ideas.

5. I have to ask myself about the marketing potential a link campaign can bring me. Am I thinking outside the box and considering all my opportunities. It can be as basic as what can I do with this one page of 10 links? If I only have 10 links and only one page to work with what is the most I can get out of it? Who will be visiting this page? Who do I want to visit this page and why? Take that into developing an on site directory or out into building a hub made to pull in all of my network. Am I weaving my links in through the site, offering up links on pages with relevant content or am I creating relevant content for a potential partner, am I asking partners to provide the content in exchange for a bio with a link? Are those enough options to think about?

How creative can you be?

That’s probably enough on my part for Carfac’s question. Does anyone else want to jump in on that?