What is the best way to succeed in getting links

Finally geting around to taking links seriously.

[lgn]

Links has always been one of my weak points. My link page contains 6 sites and has not been updated in a couple of years. I just been busy with other things, and I have always ranked near the top for my favorite keywords.

Lately, I have noticed that my competitors are really concentrating on obtaining links, and im getting a little worried that they may leap frog me. I think its time to boost my site from PR 5 to PR6, and maybe someday 7.

Here's my Plan, Tell me if it is flawed.

First I will take all the links for the leader in the industry. They have over 10,000 links.

I will then weed out anything below PR 4.

I will then update my link page with PR 4,5 & 6 webpages which is on topic, and is not a direct competitor. I figure if I link first on good faith, I will have the upper hand.

I will then send them an email saying we have linked to their site, because it contains relevent content blah blah blah, and then ask for a recepricating link.

After 30 days, if they do not link back, I will explain the benefits, (ie check your log and see all the links from us).

After 60 days I will give a 10 day notice that I will remove the link, if no recepicating link is given.

I will wait another 15 days and drop the link from the ungratefull company.

Do you think this will work, or is their a better method to have better success in geting links.

One final thing. Is there a software packages that will rank your competitors links and sort by PR?

[Brett_Tabke]

If they recip, hey that's great - if they don't, just remove the link and move on. You want to leave them with a good impression of you. Make sure to click atleast once a day on the links so they see you in thier referral logs. It's also good to leave the link up generating some referrals before you even send them the init email.

If you send out a notice of link removal, you are just going to generate some ill will with those people. They don't have any investment in it, and will resent receiving a 'notice'.

[rogerd]

Lgn, I'm not aware of any commercially available software of the kind you describe, and if it existed it would probably violate Google's TOS. The Google API might allow an opportunity for small-scale development, however.

I'm going to voice a rare (for me :))disagreement with Brett on the "your link is going away" note. When I was in the catalog biz, I knew I could goose sales by giving non-buyers one last chance with a catalog with a special, "This is your last catalog!" notice on the cover. I think a note like you describe might motivate a few people who had postponed adding your link (because they were too busy or just forgot) to act. The sites that never had any intention of linking will delete the e-mail and move on. If you word it gently, I doubt if you will even make anyone mad. (I always used to explain that in order to keep our prices low for our customers, we could only mail catalogs to people who ordered occasionally... very few complaints over the years.)

I think you have mapped out a viable strategy, good luck!

[Tor]

Interesting approach lgn. It might be worth trying out for me as well. We also have "neglected" the link issue for quite some time and we haven`t done nearly as well as we can in this area. So I think it`s about time to invest some time and energy into this subject that is so important for Google ranking.

[vitaplease]

>>You want to leave them with a good impression of you. Make sure to click atleast once a day on the links so they see you in thier referral logs.

Another good idea..

[fathom]

I'm going to voice a rare (for me )disagreement with Brett on the "your link is going away" note....

..."This is your last catalog!" notice on the cover.

Better yet switch the focus to a positive rather than a negative.

...we like to keep this channel open to you. Our site is frequent by 10,000 daily visitors (and better if you have click through number to their site).

Our link (the actual URL) to you helps your page become more visible in search engines at no charge other than a link back at (their URL).

Or something along that line.

Never, ever mention the loss or affects of the loss. It puts a negative spin on your email, and a sure fire way for others to start thinking about... "what's his real motive".

[rogerd]

I agree that a negative message can be risky, but I always tried to put it in a positive context. I didn't test a lot of variations like, "Keep your catalogs coming!", etc., although I think we tested something like, "We want to keep you as a customer!". The "last catalog" messages did produce a very significant bump in response rate, though, from a group of nearly-dead customers. Sometimes a two-by-four to the side of the head works best...

[planetguru23]

Yes I agree with the two-by-four to the head. I like the idea of keeping it in a postive tone but make sure to get the point across you will be moving on if they dont respond. I too have been forgoing this sort of link search out. Umm sounds like some fun PHP work ahead. :)

[2_much]

Also, lately there have sprung up a lot of "link to me and i'll link to you" pages on many sites where you can get links from, even if they're not themed. I've been using these and it works.

[Namaste]

I am not sure reciprocal links are valid anymore. I believe they are now counted as artifical links. You need to come up with a non-recriprocal strategy, such as content based.

See the following thread:
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