<p class="lead" align="left">
Of all the promotion topics there is one I want to 
discuss first...coincidentally this is also the module for promotion that has 
generated the most emails wondering why it was included. 
</p>
<p>
So as a LONG AWAITED continuation to the &quot;How to Think About Promotion&quot; we 
will go through the Reciprocal Linking module that relies on leveraging accounts 
with <a href="http://www.linksmaster.com/" target="_blank">http://www.linksmaster.com</a>.
</p>
<p>
Linksmaster is a simple service that operates what many would call a &quot;link 
farm&quot;. A link farm is a group-or network -of sites that all link to other sites 
for the purpose of enhancing a sites ranking.
</p>
<p>
Most people would consider utilizing or being involved with a &quot;link farm&quot; as 
being pure poison. This has been discussed on NUMEROUS forums and we are 
discussing this because this is the common perception.
</p>
<p>
But at WCB we don't accept common perception.
</p>
<p>
Right?
</p>
<p>
Instead we test it.
</p>
<p>
So that is what we did about a year and a half ago. What did we find? 
</p>
<p>
Oohhh I bet you are dying to know. Sorry I will stop teasing you.
</p>
<p>
We would use LinksMaster on our sites, and while this didn't result in 
positive results with google---it did result in TOP (meaning top 10, top 5 
rankings in MSN). 
</p>
<p>
And as we discussed in the past article different search engines have 
different users. My guess is that 90% of you use Google as your primary search 
engine. However, the market share of MSN and Yahoo is about equal to Google. So 
they aren't to be ignored.
</p>
<p>
So once LinksMaster was tested in small scale it was then rolled out to 
larger numbers of sites. Now, this is the only promotion piece that will be 
included in WCB that has any cost associated with it--so it is good to get this 
one discussed first.
</p>
<p>
You can see the prices on their sales page: <a href="http://www.linksmaster.com/" target="_blank">http://www.linksmaster.com</a>.
</p>
<p>
At the time of writing this article the links in volume of 1000 cost $2.49 
each. If you order less links it costs more money. BUT everything is negotiable. 
We are working on it now :) 
</p>
<p>
FYI when we were using LinksMaster we were seeing an ROI within 50 days-with 
most sites remaining in the LinksMaster system for 9 months. We easily made 
hundreds of thousands of dollars using the LM system--which just shows you have 
to test things for yourself.
</p>
<p>
It should be noted that LinksMaster is one such system--there are many 
others.
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.linkmarket.net/" target="_blank">http://www.linkmarket.net</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.gotlinks.com/" target="_blank">http://www.gotlinks.com</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.reciprocallinkexchange.com/" target="_blank">http://www.reciprocallinkexchange.com</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.linkexchanged.com/" target="_blank">http://www.linkexchanged.com</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.linkpartners.com/" target="_blank">http://www.linkpartners.com</a>
</p>
<p>
So, the point is if you would like to test this system for yourself here is 
how you do it.
</p>
<p>
LinksMaster requires 2 things from you so that they can put your sites in 
their system. They have an online control panel--which is ok for a few sites, 
but in volume it is impossibly slow to use.
</p>
<p>
LinksMaster requires a &quot;Description Text&quot; as well as a &quot;Link Text&quot;.
</p>
<p>
Example Description Text would be: Learn all about {{T}} at this great {{T}} 
web site. Discover the best books, guides and magazines about {{T}} here. Great 
information on {{T}} at this web site.
</p>
<p>
As you can see it is fairly generic sentences that are combined with your 
topic to create a relevant sentence that the other sites will use when linking 
to your site.
</p>
<p>
The &quot;Link Text&quot; is very similar: Great {{T}} web site Awesome site about 
{{T}} Search for books, guides &amp; links about {{T}} here
</p>
<p>
Those are some samples. It is used as the actual anchor text so when they 
link to you they do so using the &quot;Link Text' sentence.
</p>
<p>
You can enter these by hand into WCB. Obviously the more accounts you use the 
more sentences you need. 
</p>
<p>
You can also enter these via a csv or text file-one per line.
</p>
<p>
Once that is done you need to assign your topic a category. So for example if 
you were building a taxes site you would enter &quot;taxes&quot; and then choose a 
category that fits-this is a simple judgement call on which category you think 
fits the topic best-and then press Add.
</p>
<p>
You can also do this via csv with the following format:
</p>
<p>
church,Religion &amp; Spiritual
</p>
<p>
dog,Pets &amp; Animals
</p>
<p>
stock car,Sports &amp; Athletics
</p>
<p>
investing,Investment Opportunities
</p>
<p>
(One per line)
</p>
<p>
Finally there is a simple checker to let you know that all your topics in the 
LM system have been assigned categories. If they haven't you need to correct 
that before proceeding.
</p>
<p>
Then in the &quot;Main&quot; page you have to actually run the promotion.
</p>
<p>
This is done via CSV with the following format: Format: URL,User,Pwd,Topic
</p>
<p>
You enter a links page name-ie links, partners, buddies, recip. I would 
suggest changing this to something unique instead of using the 
default-links.php. Choose a template and press start and you are good to go. The 
template references your links page template....as this can be customized.
</p>
<p>
Any questions you know where to find us :)
</p>
<p>
HAVE QUESTIONS?
</p>
<p>
OFFICIAL THREAD FOR THIS ARTICLE <a href="http://74.200.215.186/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=5&amp;threadID=787" target="_blank">http://74.200.215.186/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=5&amp;threadID=787</a>
</p>
<p>
Thanks,
</p>
<p>
Michael -otherwise known as M
</p>
