Link Exchange Blog

I have been very busy implementing more changes. Link-exchangers.com is now able to send out email messages to any webmaster that has moved or removed a link. This is a one click operation and it is done after the advanced member has performed the backlink check operation in their manage links area.

When the site finds a broken link, a checkbox will be displayed. One simply checks the box and presses the Email Webmaster button. It is a two click operation to send out that email to request the webmaster repair the prior link. All of the previous linking information is included in that email, including the page that the link used to be displayed on. How much time does that save a webmaster? Just think about what you don’t have to do! Open your email client, locate the email address of the webmaster, locate the link they had put up to your website, type up the email, or find an old similar email and change some details….  Where you normally store all this? Seriously, this is one of the coolest features of the site.

Also, when an advanced member changes the category page for any of the link partners, the site will fire off an email to the other webmaster to let them know about this change.  This was a bear to implement, as there are 7 types of links! They are all different and the site stores the data in different places.  I had to get this right so that the emails contained the correct information.

Here are the 7 link types:

1 Free member trades with another Free member

2) Advanced member requests a link exchange with a free member

3) Free member requests a link exchange with an advanced member

4) Advanced member requests with another advanced member. This was tricky because you have to check to id of the requestor to get the email right.

5) Self added link- advanced member can add a link manually to a regular member or any website outside of the directory

6) This is the link type where someone uses the fill in form on the members site. (add a link page)

7) This is for one way links. The members doing this are coming soon and will be selling high PR links in the site.

Also, I spent  a whole week going through and sorting out how the database stores the links. There are two tables, one for all links and one specific table for advanced links.  When an advanced member updates a link location, it must also update the link location in the other table.   It’s doing this all correctly now for the emails.

Finally, I will mention that because of the ever growing size of the database tables, the delete category function which used to work fine had stopped working.  I hired another programmer to help me debug what was going on, and we found the solution. It’s working just fine now and it deletes a category within a few seconds after you click on the delete link.

A bug was located in the advanced membership script.  The link directory software has an add a link page where people may request a link exchange.  The user must copy and paste the linking code of the members website into their links page, upload to their host and complete the short link request form.  They are allowed to enter a different website as long as a link is found someplace. It can be either on the same site or a different site.  The program was allowing to use the same reciprocal link over and over again for different websites.  This was fixed and now the add a link page only accepts one unique url per reciprocal. The reciprocal can only be used once on any members site.

Also, the site was allowing anyone to use the add_link.php page as the reciprocal, since the linking code is on this page, obviously.  This has also been fixed.

After a crash to my machine from a recent virus attack from an brand new undiscovered virus, I have put my machine back together and made more important changes to the site. I have neglected this blog only because I have been studying quite hard for the past several months to become a certified public accountant. I have just completed all the educational requirements and passed the ethics exam for the California State Board of Accountancy. Becoming a CPA was not something I had really planned on doing! I have always wanted to become a concert pianist! This is still true, and I have not given up on this. I have been in many competitions and done well! I am a master of the instrument. ;>

Back to Link-Exchangers.com. The lastest new addition is that the site will now work with any website that use php pages throughout. The link directory software will allow for a .php page as the template and create all the other category pages from this template. In this way all the directory pages will have the design of your other pages. They will be php pages instead of html pages. I wanted to add this functionality because I know that there are a lot of sites that use php pages instead of straight html.

Additionally, the site is still ranking highly in yahoo, (#2 as of this writing) for the phrase link exchange service and it continues to grow. I’m hoping to really speed up this process with the help of Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter under what else? linkexchangers

Until the next blog entry, happy linking and please send me your comments and suggestions for the site.

Gee, I must know what i”m doing huh?  LE is now #1 in Yahoo.com for the phrase “link exchange service”.  We are also on page one for “link directory software’.   We are also on page 1 of Google in position #8 for  “link exchange service” and we’re in position #12 for “link directory software”.  We are outranking many other popular link exchange sites with many more members than we have.   This is all due to my careful SEO on the pages and my quest for quality backlinks. The links really do help and it’s important to understand that you have to make your anchor text work for you.

If you’re new to SEO, then grab yourself my free ebook and read up.   The SEO techniques that I teach in  “Website Optimization Simplified” have many  valid techniques which you can implement on your pages.  I will be updating this book in the near future with some more current information.

A few other things to know.  First, and this a biggie, the script now does one way links. The wording on the “add your link” page has been changed to reflect this and people can input a reciprocal link or a link on another domain that contains the linking code. Google typically places more weight on one way links than on straight reciprocals.  I always say that it doesn’t hurt to get both types, however a reciprocal link never hurt any website.  The only harm you can do is when you link out from your site to a banned site or a site that has been gray barred in Google.

Also, I never buy links, and I don’t recommend that you do either.  Google’s quest is for relevance and purchased links are generally not a good idea. Just go for the natural ones you can obtain in industries related to yours.  My results in Google and Yahoo were obtained in this manner without any purchased links.

As for the latest changes at LE,  you can now delete multiple backlinks with a single click.  This makes the process of removing broken links a little quicker for you. You can still email any webmaster about their broken link to your site with a single click.

Thanks for your suggestions about the site.

Scot King

The latest enhancement to the site which I have just finished implementing is the email webmaster button.  This took me about a week and a half to finish because I had to move and I lost my internet connection for a few days.  The button appears magically when you select all your backlinks and press the “Check Backlinks” button.  After the site goes out into the vast internet and verifies all your existing backlinks, if any of them are broken, the button will appear in the link. You can click this to send a quick email to the webmaster informing them of the broken link and the email message will request that they fix the problem.

The idea is to give members a chance to fix things before their link is deleted from the member’s link directory.  I have set this up to appear every 5 days. After receiving the first email from the site, a message is displayed of the date the webmaster was last emailed and asked to fix the link. The button will reappear again after the 5 day period and then you can either email them once again, (same message) or simply delete or hide the link from your directory  Pretty nifty huh?

The idea is to provide as much in the way of help as we can to members in order to make life easier with their linking campaigns.

Additionally, we now have the excluded domains database… Folks who simply register and don’t ever participate in the site by exchanging links with other members will have their domains placed in here and they will not be able to use the site.  My goal with this is to keep the member directory pruned from webmasters who don’t respond to link requests, and don’t make any link requests either.  It is now required that all members make at least 10 requests per month.  It preferred that members upgrade their site and install the advanced membership software onto their site.  The upgrade is FREE, and I hope everyone will use it.  I have just deleted about 300 sites and we are getting a steady flow of traffic from Google and other sources.  We are now on the 1st page of Google for the phrase link exchange service.  We will get to the coveted #1 spot very soon! Stay tuned!  :>

After spending weeks on the FTP issue, which is now resolved and working great, I have added a nifty color picker to the advanced membership options. Now you’ll be able to pick your text and link colors for your link directory easily and it will automatically place the hexidecimal number into the field for you.

Also, right around the corner is a little button in the Manage Links area which will appear after you run the backlink checker and any of your links are broken. If our site doesn’t find the link on someones website where it’s supposed to be linking to your site, you’ll be able to click this button and it will shoot them an email about this. Then you can sit back and give them a few days to fix this. If they don’t, you can either email them again, (every 5 days) or you can just delete their link altogether from your link directory.

Also in the works is the merge utility which will allow you to take a page of links and merge them into your advanced links. Then you’ll be able to use the backlink checker against all those as well! This should be done in another month.

After several weeks of programming, LE will now permit you to use the php script on a windows or unix hosting platform whereas previously it would only work on unix.  Also, certain custom unix servers had some problems with the generation of the html files which make up your link directory at your website.  This issue has been solved with the ftp module which will create all your files at the Link-Exchangers.com website and then immediately FTP your files to a specific directory on your site. You simply create an ftp account for us with access to one of your subdirectories so the program can interact with your site.

Right now, the upgrade is FREE! That’s right, I’m giving it all away until the site is really cooking…The site is 2 years old, and it has undergone many revisions and new additions. As a result, there are many websites which aren’t doing much and  they are in the process of being removed.  We want webmasters who are highly responsive to link requests in the site. To claim your FREE upgrade, please fill out a support ticket at the support site and be sure to include all of the information about your site your registered.  You need to first get the advanced membership setup instructions which are available through the faq page.

Traffic comes from many places to your website. Did you know that search engines deliver over 70% of all web traffic? Google takes the lions share at around 50% and then comes Yahoo and MSN.   To rank high at the engines, and there are hundreds of them, it’s important to have a strong link campaign as well as a strong SEO campaign.

There are many theories on how to optimize ones pages for the engines, though most will agree that having your keyword phrases in the anchor texts to your site is the most beneficial way.  The anchor texts should  for the most part include your keyword phrase.  You can also mix in some of your minor keyword phrases as well.  To make a siginificant impact on your rankings at the engines, you need to get lots of these.  Normally this will take some time to build up, however, it’s more important than ever to have a mechanism at your site to faciliate the process of getting links.