Theme: Linking Strategies
Issue 123, April 2, 2003

Dear Friend,

This month we're looking at linking strategies -- gathering links to your site that both improve traffic and boost your search engine rankings. In this issue:

• Eric Ward: Linking Strategies that Improve Traffic to Your Site
• 46 Resources and Articles on Linking Strategies

There are web marketing tractics and strategies. These discuss a major strategy.

God bless you,
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor

Eric Ward: Linking Strategies that Improve Traffic to Your Site

Google rankings have a big ranking component based on "link popularity" -- that is, how many sites are linking back to yours. But it gets a bit more complicated. It's not just the gross number of links, but the "quality" of links. Links from an "information hub" that has lots of links to it are worth more than links from an unknown site. You see, there's a class system creeping onto the web. It's not just who you are and what you can do, but whom you know. :-)

So how can you get more links -- especially links from information hubs? In this month's Web Marketing Today I interview Eric Ward, the Link Mensch, about the ins and outs of various approaches to getting more links to your site and increasing your link popularity. He offers practical steps you can take to get more links, draw more traffic, and achieve higher search engine rankings. Read the Article. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/linking_ward.htm

What is Your E-Mail Format Preference?

What is your e-mail format preference? Please take a brief survey. I'll publish the results in Web Marketing Today on May 7, 2003. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=86596187406

Linking Resources and Articles

If you're serious about studying linking strategies, I've linked to 46+ articles and resources about this subject.  Once you dip in here, you'll have more ideas to develop your own link gathering campaign.

Ken Evoy has just released his free SiteSell Value Exchange. It (1) registers your site as one that is willing to exchange links with other sites that have a similar theme/topic content and (2) searches for sites with similar topical content. No charge. Check it out!.

A couple of these resources include automated software link building tools -- Arelis and Zeus. Now take a look at links to dozens of articles and resources. See the Resources.
/search/cat.php?page=1&querytype=category&subcat=mp_Linking

Security Patches Needed for Forms-to Email-Programs

You need a forms-to-email CGI program on your site to handle "contact us" forms and all kinds of things. But a couple of the most popular have been plagued with security holes that have been exploited by hackers and spammers. Here is information on how to update Matt Wright's FormMail.pl and his FormHandler.cgi so they don't compromise your site. If your site uses one of these programs, acting on this shouldn't be put off. Read the Article. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/forms_program_patches.htm