New site: Link Exchange page?

[CodeRed]

Pre-panda I had some great success having a link-exchange page help out with keyword ranking in google. It got penalized once but I stopped linking to from the main page and now its not even indexed. Yet people still will take links from it.

For the people that contact me only a small few cared that it was Page Rank non existent and even less cared that it was basically a crappy link page.

Post-panda I haven't had much success with the keywords, but it is able to build up backlinks. I'm on the fence if I should continue this strategy just to build up the number of backlinks on a new site of mine and worry about keywords later.

Part of my desire is to build up a decent PR and sell some advertising to get some cashflow and pay back expenses. This will (presumably) allow me to then use the funds to continue building backlinks via articles or blog posts and not rely on link exchanges. From my limited experience trying to sell advertising, most are just looking at PR and backlinks before plopping down the $100 for the link.

I've read a lot of comments about these pages and there is never a clear answer. A link is a link is a link?

Thanks,

Jeff

[pokeraussie]

Link exchanges are an inefficient way to build up a decent PR.

[CodeRed]

Link exchanges are an inefficient way to build up a decent PR.

But they're free.

[pokeraussie]

But they're free.

But they'll take you a life time to acquire decent PR. I guess that depends on your definition of decent PR though.

There is also a time cost. The time it takes you to seek out recip links could have been spent getting one way links.

[parttimepoker]

Link exchanges are fine but should only be one component of your strategy. I'd say maybe 10% or so?

"Free" is relative, it does take time to acquire and maintain recip links. Maybe trading blog posts is a better pursuit?

[CodeRed]

OK, thanks for the responses. I have a couple hundred in my email list who have contacted me in the past so its as simple as copy + paste rather than going to find them. I just didn't know if it was a complete waste of my time making the pages and what not.

It would be interesting chris to see what you think the other 90% would equate to.

Link exchange: 10%
Trade Blog Posts: 40%
Exchange articles for links: 25%
Purchase blog posts for links: 25%

Sound about right? I might be missing something...

[parttimepoker]

I would say 99% of the people on your list are probably not viable link partners. Most people who cold-call email for link trades are running really garbage sites. I would trade with people on PAL and branch out from there.

Anyhoo...

Link exchange: 10% - Sure, why not
Trade Blog Posts: 40% - Probably not a bad goal but means you're writing a lot - and finding people to trade with who have sites you'd want links from might be some work.
Exchange articles for links: 25% - You might have a hard time finding this many takers, as odd as that might sound.
Purchase blog posts for links: 25% - This number is probably going to be higher due to the difficulties outlined above

There's also commenting on a few blogs (as a useful contributor), forum sig links (again, also as a useful member), PDF directories, software directories, ebook directories and so on, although directory links of any sort seem to be held in pretty low regard by most people.

[Newjabber]

It would be interesting chris to see what you think the other 90% would equate to.

Link exchange: 10%
Trade Blog Posts: 40%
Exchange articles for links: 25%
Purchase blog posts for links: 25%

Sound about right? I might be missing something...

IMO your problem right now is that you are looking for a formula... which dosen´t exist. Of course directions are good, but there is no, "do 10% of this, and 20% of that".

You need to get ahead and test things yourself, and don´t be afraid to try new stuff, and different tactics, because the game changes all the time.
If you worry about your main site getting nuked, then get a side project going that you can experiment with.

The problem with other peoples advise is that sometimes the advise sucks, and sometimes its just outdated. And when people hear something is working, they might pass that advise along without really knowing. But then again, if you are completely in the dark, then you have to start with somebodys directions i guess

Main point here: Experiment more and don´t rely too much on advise you get from others.

Note: Nada of the above is directed at any specific members/posters here, just my 2 cents.

[pokeraussie]

I think its a case of seeing other people using a technique and assuming it still works. Obviously there is a problem with this thought process. The webmasters you see who are still doing recip links on "link pages" let's just say are new to SEO. When it comes to link building it's pretty much the first thing most people learn. Tbh I am shocked we're still talking about the effectiveness of recip links in 2012.

[baldidiot]

Resource pages in their old incarnation are pretty useless - and exchanging links with everyone who asks or through an automated system is just wasting time.

On the other hand if they're done correctly I do think there is some value left to gain from "resource pages", and by this I mean selectively linking to high quality relevant sites with the links placed in content or with paragraphs explaining why the site you're linking to is awesome. Keep the numbers low (I'd keep it in the 5-10 range) and I also like to throw in a few links to sites who aren't linking back to you. Obviously the other site has to be doing the same kind of thing or you don't get the benefit.

But still, this should be a small part of your strategy. Article exchanges are most likely more effective if you're down for that kind of thing.

(I've done some experimenting with this on mainstream sites btw, it's not just blind rambling.)