Link Exchange

How do you go about soliciting companies to exchange links with you?

I did a search for keywords similar to my site and picked some companies from the first page of results. I emailed them and asked if they'd be interested in exchanging links. The first reply came back. This is what he had to say:




Is this common? What other approaches can I use?

Well obviously, your direct competitors are not the ones you should asking for a link exchange.

Here is what you do...

Search for sites that LINK TO YOUR COMPETITORS! These are the people you ask for link exchange.

Lets say your competitor is devshed.com, then you search for "link:http://www.devshed.com". This will give you sites that link to devshed. Ask them for link exhange -- and do it in a polite and genuine fashion (don't spam). Make the email sound like from their perspective (i.e. tell them how it will benefit them -- you have quality content and visitors that'd be interested in what their site has to offer).