NOTE:  You do not need permission to link to any of the pages on TenCommitmentsofNetworking.com.

Studies of the Internet have shown that the majority of people find other relevant sites by clicking on "links" to other interesting sites. While search engines do bring hits to your site, keeping them updated can cost you time and money.

Getting "linked" or linking to other related websites (often called cross-promoting) is an opportunity for your site to be discovered and a much more reliable way to ensure steady traffic to your site.

To some search engines, the more links coming "into" and going "out of" your site make your site appear more valuable when someone is searching for your product or service. This puts you higher in their results list.

Give some serious thought to the economics of collaboration. When we work together to support each other, everyone benefits. There is no competition. . . only insecure people who fear losing someone to another website. AND they will. We are all in this to help others and ourselves. . . in that order. The economics of colaborating in these efforts can be astounding. The inovative trend of trading links will multiply hits to your website.

Read "The Joy of Collaboration" by Ian Percy, CSP - It doesn't matter how rich or poor you are; whether you are an athlete or a couch potato. Being good looking, amazingly clever and highly educated doesn't change a thing. You could be of royal descent, and it still wouldn't matter. No way around it - life is something you do in teams. Life requires collaboration!

Trading links is about sharing information. Our philosophy is that if a person comes to our site and chooses not to stay, we would rather share other quality Websites than have them drift off into cyberspace with no direction. We know that they appreciate this opportunity. The fact is that the more links we post to other Websites, the more hits we receive on our site. We practice what we preach. As of , one of my other Websites, CelebrateLove.com, has 4,439 external links to other sites.

NOTE:  There's a nasty twist to trading links out and about these days. If someone offers to swap links, and maybe already has one in place to you, be sure to check to see that their visitors can find those links to you. A few people are just plain cheating. They put up a beautiful link to your site, but with no path on their home page to this link. The result? You send traffic to them, but get zip in return. For example, if the site is listed as http://www.mysite.com/links, after you have viewed your link, type http://www.mysite.com in your browser and when you get there, check to see if you can see a link to the links page. If not, delete their link trade request.

Read Larry's article, "The Buzz on Being a Shameless NetShaker!" and learn what he considers to be the most important key to shameless self-promotion on the Internet.

For more articles on "Reciprocal Linking," read:

• Reciprocal Links: Who & How to Target by David Callan
• How to Get Reciprocal Links by David Callan
  
• Reciprocal Link E-mail Request Examples by David Callan
  
• Why Do People Link To Sites? by Richard Lowe
  

What's New?

11/1/06: 

Larry James has formed an alliance with the Dave Sherman Training Center in Phoenix and will be presenting on a regular basis. For a schedule of all classes, click here.

7/25/06:  FREE Networking Newsletter - Larry James has formed an alliance with "The National Networker." For a FREE Subscription, click here!

7/31/06:  The "Ten Commitments of Networking" is now being published internationally. Foreign rights have been licensed to India, Korea, Poland, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines & Vietnam.