| There is nothing on the web that compares to a good link when you are talking about building steady streams of traffic to your site. Did you know that one good link can bring you more daily traffic than a #1 position on a search engine? Itâs true! Did you also know that there are sites out there, thousands of them, who rely solely on the traffic they get from reciprocal links with other webmasters? There are! I call the webmasters of these sites Link Minded people! No webmaster in their right mind would argue that links arenât the lifeblood of the internet. A search engine is only a directory of links. A link directory on your domain is also a search engine when you use the proper technique of creating a themed category listing.
The biggest problem on the net today is that so many webmasters are looking for a Magic Pill that will solve their traffic problems with The Click of a Button. How many times have you seen an ad with those exact words in it? 50? 100 times or more?
Well, I am sorry to tell you, there is no magic pill. That I can absolutely positively guarantee it. There is no substitute for plain, old fashioned hard work and dedication to your website and the business you would like to succeed in. The internet offers tons of automation solutions, and even reciprocal linking has had a couple of valiant attempts and even successes at a certain degree of automation.
But exchanging meaningful, traffic-driving links with other webmasters is and always will be a personal, one-on-one thing. It is like a mini joint venture with other webmasters and you have to address them without bulk mail or spamming in order to even have a chance at getting the mother of all links someday!
When you look at reciprocal linking (the oldest original form of advertising since the web began) it is really surprising how few marketing experts deal with the topic. I wrote a book about the whole phenomenon simply because there were so few people looking into the science of link swapping!
And there is a science to it! There are pitfalls. There are plain NO-NO's. There are myriad ways to waste your time chasing after useless links, or worse, links that will get you banned from some search engines! Reciprocal linking is not link farming or posting to 400,000 Free-for-All links pages. (A most detestable practice used for awhile by all newbies, then abandoned after the damage is done.)
In short, you really have few choices on the net better than starting a link directory and asking webmasters with relevant content to your site for a link swap. Unless you have a huge budget and can afford to pay someone to get your site optimized and ranked in the top ten on all the big engines, there arenât other alternatives.
Banner exchanges suck visitors from your site. Traffic exchanges bring you hits, but totally uninterested visitors. Ezine ads are an important linking strategy, but that is an ongoing process you do to get quick spurts of traffic, not ongoing, steady streams of it. Plus it is hard to know where to get the best ads and usually the best ads are pretty expensive on a small budget.
My recommendation for people who really want their site to be noticed to the tune of 1000 hits a day or more, who are on a budget and are just starting: start a link directory on your site and have clear instructions on how to swap links with you.
Then, search the net for your link partners (relevancy is SO key here, donât swap links with Victoriaâs Secret if you sell fishing line!) send them personalized emails asking for swaps, set up top listings for those willing to be link partners and keep going until you have at least 100 links to your site! (Verifiable at altavista.com by typing in Link:yourdomain.com)
Then, stop and take a break and start again. Itâs work. Even with automation software. Nothing good comes on the net without work. Did you EVER in your life see a successful business owner who said "It really was easy, no real work at all to get where I am today!?"
But the payoff here is guaranteed: Reciprocal links will bring you traffic and increase your siteâs link popularity and ranking on the search engines. Any webmaster willing to do what it takes to succeed should be willing to work their fingers to the bone to get a huge amount of traffic through link swapping!
Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking! (http://power-linking-profits.com) and the CEO of WebmasterTrafficTools.com. | 
