However, in order to make your web site an effective marketing and advertising asset, you need to get visitors to your web site. Not always an easy task. Web site promotion is a very competitive business and there are as many ways to promote your web site as their are stars in the universe. If you can imagine a way to promote your web site, it's probably been tried or is going to be tried. The key here is in the word "promotion".

One of the very best ways to promote something is to have a spokes person promote it for you. Not just any spokes person, but one who is respected and has a large following. This is where a well developed "Web Site Linking Policy" can explode the amount of traffic to your site. If you're typical of the new online business owner, and still thinks in terms of offline traditional business practices, you're probably thinking that I'm crazy for even suggesting that you ask possible customers and clients to leave your web site "store" and visit another web site "store". Well you've just learned your most important lesson and the main difference between traditional offline business and the new unconventional online business on the web.

There are those online who believe that to provide a link from your web site to another is pure suicide and then there are others online, like myself, who know that an effective linking policy will not only increase the amount of traffic to your site but also increase your sales as well.

Why Would I Want To Link To Another Web Site? Here are a few reasons why a well defined and focused linking policy can be an excellent promotional and marketing tool that is essential to a small businesses online survival:

It’s what the Internet is all about, community and the free exchange of ideas.
It builds trust in you from your visitors.
Your site becomes a resource center for other information.
Your site will gain in popularity and you’ll begin to see many more requests for links than ever before.
It positions you as an expert in your field.

Since linking is such a vital and important marketing and promotional tool, it’s only natural that you need to develop a sound policy for linking success. Those web site owners who fail to do this usually have a "free for all links page" that is very little or no value to a visitor to your site. Far too often web site owners never, or seldom, spend any time in the marketing and promotion of their linking policy, which is a terrible mistake that costs thousands of visitors and potential sales from those visitors.

Linking Factors To Consider If you’re planning on spending $1000 on a promotion, I’m sure you’d take the time to evaluate and determine just what you want that promotion to do for you. Wouldn’t You??? Well this is no different than any other marketing and promotion tool, except for the fact that - It costs you absolutely $0 to implement! If someone were to tell you that they could help you gain a thousand visitors to your site a month for free, wouldn’t you be interested? That’s exactly what a well defined and focused web site linking policy can do for your business.

So here’s a free tool that can drastically change your online business and all you have to do is determine a few factors and develop a sound linking policy that’s designed to produce traffic for your web site.

Utilize the WIFM Principle
Have you ever heard of the WIFM Principle? This is simply - What’s In It For Me. When you begin to developed your linking policy you’ll want to apply this principle in a couple of ways. First, you want to think in terms of WIFM as the web site owner when developing your linking policy.

Such as:

Increasing the traffic to your web site.
To produce repeat traffic to your web site.
To develop possible strategic alliances with similar or complementary web sites.
To keep yourself aware of your competition and what’s happening online.
To build trust and a bond with your visitors (potential customers).
To increase your sales.

Secondly, you’ll want to apply the WIFM Principle as the web site visitor when developing your linking policy:

Such As:

To provide free information for your visitors.
To provide some valuable resources for your visitors.
To create a community feeling of freely sharing of information and resources.

Final Thoughts:
When you develop a sound "Linking Policy" for your web site and make sure that you’re following your plan, you’ll find that many of your visitors will spend some quality time at you’re web site before they venture out and visit those sites you recommend they visit. You’ll also find that these very same visitors will bookmark your web site before they leave to make sure they can return and visit again. A link from your web site is exactly like telling your best friend you recommend they check something out. If the site you’re recommending isn’t something that benefits them, your reliability has now been compromised and the trust in you will be diminished.

On the other hand, by providing information, in the form of a link, that is of similar content and of value to your visitors, you’ve just strengthened a bond with your visitor that will bring them back to you time and time again. You’ll also find that when your repeat visitors increase, your sales will also see an increase as you’re building the trust it takes for a potential customer to pull out that plastic and part with their hard earned money.

* The above article is not available with reprint rights.
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Terry Williams, an internationally known online marketing expert, is the publisher of "Internet Marketing Issues", author of "Discover Online Marketing Success" and "Advertising On A Shoestring" that will get you on the right online marketing track and help you explode your online profits. To get complete, immediate, information about his books just send an email to his autoresponder at: virmba@intersuccess.com

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