Exchanging Links
If you're optimizing your website offpage it's inevitable to exchange links with other sites. Of course you can simply buy links or get links based on other cooperations like link against content but that's either expensive or lavish.
The classical link exchange looks like that:
You're looking for another webmaster and agree with him that you're linking to his site and he's linking to your site.
But you should read the following points before you start out:
Choose sites with equal content
Obviously Google is looking what surrounds your link. If your link is placed at a website about bibel readers then it has almost no value for your poker- or casino site. So it's important to look for sites with the same topic. For sure, if somebody wants to link to your site without wanting you to link back to him you should take this offer no matter his site.
Choose In-Content links
There are several options to place a link. You can put it in the footer section or a blogroll or even a partner site where all the sites are listed. Those links aren't perfect because they aren't surrounded by content. Links that are surrounded by content are much better. So if your link exchange partner has an article about poker strategy crowded by your keywords you should ask to place your link in this article.
Those In-Content links are much more valuable than links somewhere on the side.
Compare Page Ranks
To find out Page Ranks easily you should install Google Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox. Then you see exactly which site has what Page Rank. So if you're looking for link exchange partners be sure that you look for partners that play in your league. If you're asking a Page Rank 4 site for a link exchange and you can only offer a Page Rank 2 link then it's highly unlikely that you'll get the link. So you should look for sites with +-1 Page Rank.
Contacting webmasters
That's a very difficult topic. The reason is that webmasters receive inquiries every day and most of these are blatant spam. So webmasters are „pissed off“ of receiving inquiries that were only copy and pasted. So you need the right tactic. Here are some tips:
Don't start your mail with „Dear Webmaster“. Search after the site owner. You can find the name most of the time with WHOIS:
http://whois.domaintools.com/ The webmaster must recoginze that you really took a look at his site.
Avoid terms like „I just surfed through the web and found your site. It is very good with a nice webdesign!“. This is just a cheap attempt. Webmasters are aware of that and will delete such inquiries instantly.
Be specific. Tell him what you can offer, where you'd like to place his link and why you think this is a good thing for him.
A very good tactic is to put a link to his site before you send your inquiry. Tell him that you went ahead and put a link to his site. Webmasters will obviously like that. And if there's no reaction you should take the link offline again.
3-Way Link Exchange
If site A links to B and B to A it's a simple 2-Way link exchange. They're ok but not really good. Google sees that two sites link to each other and smells team play.
3-Way Link Exchanges are much better. Here sites don't link to each other they build a triangle:
Site A links to C and B links to A while A and B are your sites and C your partners sites. Google likes those link exchanges more or at least can't find out that it's a link exchange and thus 3-Way link exchanges are more effective.