linktrip
link exchange.
Exchanging links has been around for a long time, but I would like to point out some really useful tips to help you rank higher in search engines.
First and foremost: Only exchange links with related sites. Why? First off, a user who is on a gaming site (for example) doesn't really care much about a site that has information on gardening- generally speaking of course. The user came to the site to play games and they are most likely only going to follow links that are related to gaming in some way.
Second: Manually exchange links, if you use software you won't build quality links, Google is capable of identifying link directories, if your site is in a bunch of link directories your site may experience the "sandbox" effect. This happens when your site receives just about no traffic from search engines, to fix it try to stop using the directories, let authority sites link to you- this will provide a quality you and there parties.
Third: Page Rank or PR is only a small factor, I found out that related content is the most important factor to ranking high, yeah it's nice to get a link from a page rank 5 or 6 website, but often times this won't happen until more people start to notice your website.
Whenever I am on the web browsing forums I always see people looking for high PR sites, which ultimately is fine, but I think they also need to keep in mind that it is just as equally important to find sites with related content. If all your inbound links are coming from something totally different than your nice then that raises suspicion to Google and the visitors of your site.
You'll be surprised of how many people are willing to help you, Many webmasters want to link related content, especially if your site is of value, just remember that whether it be a one way link or a reciprocal link it still contains value.
More Discussion:
Now I would like to talk a little bit about Alexa. No Alexa is not a girl (in this case). Alexa happens to be a very powerful and popular website estimator, it determines your global traffic rank and regional traffic rank. For example: Google is Number 1 Globally and Regionally (USA). If you're site is written in English then your target goal should be to have more than 80% of your visitors be of that language. Why? This has to do with the likelihood of your site being recommended to others, if a user from another language comes on they will have to use a translating service to view your page, they probably won't refer your site but it will become more as a "one time use" type of deal.
Whatever your niche may be- Try finding related sites. Gaming Link Exchange sites are really easy to find, you can contact the webmasters and ask them, some webmasters are pretty strict about what sites they exchange links with.
Alexa traffic ranking and Google Page Rank is updated every few months, this depends on your backlinks, traffic etc... Everysite needs backlinks to rank, I don't care what type of service your are offering, the internet is very competitive, start by competing for small niche words, here is what worked for me: Try ranking for a specific game you have hosted on your site, if you try to rank for a general term like "games" it could takes ages, literally.... but if you ranked for the game Super Mario Crossover you are more likely to get on the first page of Google, because it is a less competitive keyword/phrase.
There is always room for more websites, if you have good content you will get traffic, like I stated earlier you need backlinks, links can be acquired from other bloggers who come across your site and recommend it on their blog, To track your traffic you should use some sort of meter, I recommend sitemeter, they have a free and paid version, I happen to find Sitemeter very addicitive I constantly am looking at how people found my site/where they were referred from. There are plenty of other trackers like Who is Amung us etc...
Any site can be profitable, whether you are selling a product or just offering ads, most gaming sites make their revenue from ads meaning they don't sell anything special or out of the ordinary, here is a general rule of thumb for adsense earnings: 1,000 Vists= $10 USD approximately... This can vary on days but I find this to be very fitting, so if you don't have a blog I recommend starting one... It could be an extra 100 bucks a moth. The way I look at is this: Gas for my car, food... Yeah, extra cash is nice, especially when it comes from something I enjoy doing.
Well Good luck and never stop the SEO link building process!
link exchange