The concept of linking is that sites with common interests should link to drive more traffic to each other's businesses and to increase their "popularity." Search engines, such as Google, give much higher ranking to sites with high popularity. They feel that when many sites are linking to yours, it's a sign of ranking value.

The standard linking philosophy of most websites is to have a "links page" that piles all the link partners into one common pool, without any indexing. That type of link will only help you with SE ranking but not sales.

Next up the ladder is the links page that's indexed, making your website easier to find. A much better solution if you must have a links page.

Of course, the best link in the world is when your partner puts you on his home page. I tell you, it's enough to make any Net Marketer go into involuntary spasms! However, the chances of that scenario are slim to none!

That's not to say there isn't a middle ground between the above strategies. There is a better option:

Complementary/relational linking! As an example:

Let's say your website sells only pencils and you link up with a partner that sells paper; that's complementary!

Relational linking then assigns a merit value to all the linking proposals, using these facts:

Page ranking: Is it more or less equal?

Search Engine Ranking: Do both partners have good positions?

Traffic: Is the traffic swap equal?

As can be seen, some of the above quantities are interchangeable but shouldn't get in the way of judging the merit value of each offer. Depending on each circumstance, the varied partners will have a merit value that will give them more or less prominence on your website.

The ideal circumstance is when you find a linking partner with the complementary/relational approach built into his sales program and the layout structure of his website. Meaning: Location, location, location!

Without the above approach, many possibilities to garner extra income from your Net venture will not take flight! The above paragraph should have even more meaning when you consider the fast-approaching age of general broadband use. It is coming sooner than what anybody imagines; spelling out the end of many text only websites.

For all good reasons you should strive to create complementary/relational linking with as many partners as merited. Build your website to give them as much exposure as you can. All the bells and whistles! Provide ample space and graphics for them, trade full page articles and resources! Very important: Have them do the same for your business!

In closing I will exhort you to embrace multimedia and the broadband revolution as a principle of self preservation. The folks that take all their resources and put them in a text only links page, will suffer the twists and turns of the not-so-kind near future!