How to Get Your Blog to 100,000 Visitors and Beyond, Step 8; Trade Links with Like Blogs

Step 8 to getting to 100,000 visitors and beyond: Trade links with blogs that cover the same topic you do.

Once I started becoming "known" to a few other personal finance bloggers (after all, I had been posting for a few weeks and leaving comments/trackbacks on their blogs), I contacted them asking for link trades. Before I did this, I created a section on my blog titled "Money Sites" (since reorganized into "Money Blogs") and I put a few blogs on the list. Then I started contacting all the other personal finance bloggers and asking for link trades. I sent them an email that was similar to the following:

Hello! My name is FMF and I have a personal finance blog called Free Money Finance at www.freemoneyfinance.com. I think your site is one that my readers would like to know about and as such I'd love to trade links with you. I'd gladly put you on my list of "Money Sites" if you'd add me to your list as well.

Please let me know if this is of interest to you and I'll get your site up right away. Thanks for your consideration.

This worked about 95% of the time. The other 5% I either got no response or answers like "I'll link to you once you've been blogging for three months".

Here are a few keys to my success:

• I was polite -- I was kind and friendly in all my communication. Remember, it's easier to give a friend a link.
• I approached blogs in my topic area and relatively close to my size -- I didn't email Instapundit and ask for a link trade. I emailed sites that had similar topics as mine and only slightly larger traffic.
• I offered them something -- I offered to drive traffic to them (small as it might be), so they got something out of the deal as well. And my readers did as well -- they learned of new sites.

Finally, I can't end this post without telling you what my policy is today regarding link exchanges. As you can imagine, I get quite a few, and here's what I do when someone asks me to exchange links:

• I look to see how long they've been posting -- I want someone who's been around a couple months or so, not just someone who started yesterday and may quit tomorrow.
• I look to see how recently they've posted -- Someone whose latest post is two months old doesn't need a link, they need a blogger.
• I review the content -- I want to see if the content is something I agree with (for the most part.) I'm fairly lenient on this, but I'm not trading links with an inappropriate or spammy site.
• I ask myself whether or not my readers would like to read this blog -- If they would, it's ok with me.
• I try to be gracious -- All else being equal, I trade links. If I can help someone else out a bit, that's great.

Finally, I check my links regularly and if someone either quits posting or takes me off their list for some reason, I remove them from my list.

Click here to read part 9 of this series.

Free Money Finance recommends Emigrant Direct.

Comments

[Scott @ The Passive Dad]

I've only been blogging for about 6 months and already have had to remove several dead links from my blogroll. I wonder what the attrition rate is for bloggers? What time frame do you give someone to start posting again? 1 or two weeks? I have a couple sites on my blogroll that have been inactive for at least a month. They must have given up!

[FMF]

I check my links every couple of months and if they haven't blogged since the last time, I remove them from the list.