Thinking of outsourcing your reciprocal linking? Think again. There are more benefits to linking than just getting links. Consider doing at least some work yourself.

First let's make a master list, all the usual ways we can think of to get quality, relevant links back to a website.

1. Fill out a form or email a webmaster, asking for a reciprocal link. We'll assume for the purpose of clarity that we mean exchanging links to post to a traditional directory page.

2. Deep linking. You embed your partner's link into relevant text on a page other than your directory page, and your partner does the same with your link.

3. Links from signatures. This can be a signature you place at the end of every email you send out, or in forum posts.

4. Comments left on other websites. This can be a blog or a comment form on any website. These will usually have your website url attached to the comment.

5. Submit your website to niche or general website directories. These can be paid or free; I choose depending on what I need to do to get a link without having to put a link on my website. I prefer free, but it's a personal choice.

6. Write and syndicate articles and include your url link in the resource box. Write exclusive articles for high-traffic sites that rank highly in search engine results.

Thinking Outside the Box

7. Mix up the above 5 ways. For example, if you'd like a link from a site with a higher page rank than your own, ask for a link on their directory page in exchange for a link on your homepage as well as in your directory. Save this idea for one or two HIGHLY relevant but non-competitive sites, and only if their search engine results are on, say, page 1 of Google.

8. Write testimonials and reviews. Communicate personally with webmasters. Write up a short review of their website or product rather than sending them a generic request for a link trade. Don't wait for them to ask for a testimonial, send them one anyways. For example, instead of saying "I visited your site and like it a lot, I agree with what you say about (blah blah) and thought we'd make great link partners, would you like to..." try summing up what it is about your business that relates to the other website. Promote your business in a way that's in XYZ's best interests to print as a testimonial- how their product benefits your business.

As a webmaster, I'd love to receive an email like that. I'd write right back and ask if I could use it on my website.

9. Write reviews where they're asked for. Search around. Don't look too far ;-) The big names are the places you want to go. Take Amazon.com for example. People click over to Amazon with their credit cards ready. They are discerning shoppers and they are often repeat customers; they read reviews, they follow links to "what else purchasers of [a particular product] bought". So write reviews of products that relate to your website topic. Book reviews are the easiest; follow your nose to the bestsellers or new books in your category at the library.

10. Communicate with whoever you represent as an affiliate. Create a product such as a user manual or report ("10 Tips for Succeeding as an XYZ Affiliate" or "How to Increase Your Productivity Using [XYZ's Product] in your Home Office")and imbed your url link(s) in it. Let the affiliate program manager distribute your report or manual to his affiliates. Or again, write a glowing testimonial to the program, product or owner's customer service, etc.

By thinking about how you can offer a benefit to your link partner, you'll not only be building relevancy and credibility in the eyes of the search engines, but you'll be building valuable relationships with your link partners and a reputation as an innovative, creative expert in your field. http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070515223736823

Radio heavyweight Clear Channel is trying out the social networking business. The company's online music and radio division has plans to roll out a dozen station branded social networks in the next several months.

Each social network will focus on the local listening area and will be operated by the local station.

Seven social networks are launching today in cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. Other cities include Minneapolis, Dallas and West Palm Beach.

Onesite.com, a provider of social networking technology, will power Clear Channel's social networking sites.

The social networking sites will be a separate Web destination from the stations existing site. Both sites will share links to each other.

Clear Channel hopes to attract users to the social networks by using the "listen Live" Web radio streaming area on the stations sites. Each station will have a chat feature in the web radio player that will have profile pictures of members participating in the chat.

Stations will promote the social networks through on-air announcements and promotions focused on the sites.

Users will be able to create profiles, upload photos, music, video and blog. To protect against copyright infringement, Clear Channel will monitor the networks. Users will be required to acknowledge that what they upload is not infringing. User who do not comply with the requirements will denied access to the site.

Article posted at: http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070501235536212

The Internet, which has done well to connect distant places and people, is now branching out even further -- into space.

This month, the U.S. military announced a project to test Internet routing on orbiting satellites.

IRIS (for "Internet Routing in Space") will allow different branches of the military, such as the Army, Navy and Air Force, to communicate with each other instantly and spontaneously. It could also spread to the civilian market to give users in remote locations broadband service where no other electronic communication exists.

"You can be in a place where there is nothing in terms of wireless phone or Internet yet you can have broadband connectivity direct to the Internet via the IRIS satellite. It's a revolutionary tool for closing the digital divide," said Don Brown, vice president of hosted payloads at Bethesda, MD-based Intelsat General Corp., which is responsible for integrating the initial router on a satellite, launching it and managing its operations.

Currently, the military uses conventional satellite communications to allow far-flung soldiers to talk to each other. The communication path is based on a predefined group of satellite users. In order for the signal to reach its destination it must often travel through ground-based stations.

Read the Full Story at: http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070424122434763

After thorough research and consideration, you decided to put up an online business. Careful Internet marketing has been executed flawlessly and without much difficulty. You have your URL name. Your web site is very appropriate for your business and very attractive, too. You've done every search engine optimization technique you have read. Now, you wait... anticipating any site hits.

How many hits is your web site getting? How many products or ad spaces have you sold? How many visitors are going to your site? Are your links effective? Your mind is racing and these are the questions that have been bugging you since you started. One thing's for sure, you can glide through the discussion on Web traffic and site hits without knowledge of the following:

Definition

Web site traffic is the amount of visitors to your site and the pages they visit. It is the amount of data sent and received, which makes up the bulk of Internet traffic. It is important for you to monitor what are the pages most visitors like and their trends. It is vital that you understand what people are getting from it.

Read more at: http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070417212610535

Google's not perfect. The company had a chance to acquire MySpace months before News Corp., at half the price. Rupert Murdoch called it arrogance that they didn't, and he was probably right. If you add the time spent on MySpace by users in March, it would equal 1740 years, according to Racepoint Group.

That's in addition to being the social network with the most unique visitors. The nearest competitor, Facebook, logged in only 171 collective years by users. Since time spent is next great indicator of value on the Web, Google's failure to swallow up MySpace when they had the chance is looking to become one of the biggest oopses in Internet history.

Read More Here

In a century-old farming town in central Washington state, Microsoft has built a farm for the Internet age.

But rather than corn or cows, this farm teems with computer servers and data storage systems that will serve as the backbone of Microsoft's effort to combat escalating competition on the Web from Google and others.

Microsoft's new data center in Quincy, Wash., is its largest "server farm" to date--big enough to house seven soccer fields--and a physical manifestation of the company's giant ambitions to be a force in the world of Web services.

Read the full story at: http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070415165222910

For long-time search marketers it will come as no surprise that search has become a media darling. Pay-per-click advertising is the most popular online marketing strategy, and organic search engine optimization provides top click-through and conversion performance.

Search is more popular than display ads and email marketing because of its excellent performance and ROI. Internet marketers should take note of the development in the search marketplace in order to better focus their advertising budgets.

Read the full story at: http://www.rk-web.net/weblog/index.php?itemid=300

Social-networking giant MySpace.com on Wednesday blocked Photobucket videos and photo slide shows from being uploaded to its pages.

MySpace will no longer let users post such content from Photobucket in their profiles, blogs or comments section. MySpace said Photobucket had violated MySpace's terms by encouraging users to post advertisements--specifically to an ad campaign for the upcoming feature film Spider-Man 3--in their videos. MySpace forbids third-party vendors from advertising on its site.

Read the full story at: http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070412011442551

Getting your pages indexed. It is your most important SEO goal and perhaps the one most vital in determining the success of your SEO campaign. However, many search engines have trouble finding links buried deep within the structure of your site. So how do you make sure your pages are easy for the search engines to find? With a sitemap. Creating a sitemap provides the search engines with a one-stop-shop for all of the pages on your site. And if designed correctly, your sitemap can also be a valuable resource to lost visitors looking to understand your site structure.

Read the full sory at: http://www.rk-web.net/weblog/index.php?itemid=296

Every few months, you will see posts by many people declaring that Google has it in for their website. Often, you see threats about how the webmaster plans to sue Google for hurting their business' profits. On and on it goes... Every webmaster who was dropped from Google's top search result pages wants to believe that Google singled out their website and their business for punishment and extinction.

Read the full story at: http://www.rk-web.net/weblog/index.php?itemid=294

Social bookmarking has become extremely popular these days. It seems everyone that spends a lot of time on the Interent is probably a member of at least one of the many Social Bookmarking services today. Webmasters, web developers and bloggers have found them to be a good way to get the word out about their websites and blogs and to bring attention to their favorite articles and stories or even their own blog posts.

Over the last few months I have turned into what can be described as a social-bookmarking-junkie. As of today I am a member of 25 social bookmarking services that include the very popular del.icio.us, Digg, simpy, and furl just to name a few. Most of these services work pretty much the same way but the one that got me started is a bit different and still one of my favorites. Trailfire enables you to discover the web through the expertise of others. Follow a trail and find what you need. Or share your own expertise by making a trail of web pages.

Read the full story at: http://ratpage.com/site/modules/news/article.php?storyid=988

MediaMaster is a new web service that, like Faces and Oboe, let's users upload music from their hard drive and listen to it online.

The original service to experiment in this area was MP3.com's My.MP3.com service. Then, users could "prove" ownership of music by placing a music CD into their computer. MP3.com would then give that user access to an online copy of the songs on that album. They were sued by the music industry and lost. Eventually the site was sold off and dismantled, and CNET now owns the domain name.

Read the full story at http://rk-web.net/weblog/index.php?itemid=293

The popularity of social networks continues to rise, but there are more of them than you can shake a stick at. See, for example, our recent coverage of social networks for families, dog lovers, teens, tweens, and even old fogies.

In a fragmented world, where OpenID is still far from standard with social networking sites (just look at the OpenID directory), there's definitely room for a third party to fill the gap. Loopster is the newest application, along with Profilactic and ProfileLinker, trying to help people wrangle these disparate networks into an easily consumable, unified format.

Read the full story at http://rk-webhost.net/portal/article.php/20070407123717803