Finding Strong Affiliates and Linking Partners

By Robert Jillie
Posted Tuesday, August 10, 2004

As you already know the Web is growing more crowded and information is constantly bombarding us.

Now there are a few tools that can help you wade through the mountains of data and find the information You need.

Your web browser is obviously your window to the Internet information highway, so it makes good sense to find and use tools, which enable you to find what you need and help you get around faster online right?…

These tools are called "toolbars," and they are free programs you can download. Most work with Internet Explorer and Netscape to put you several steps closer to the information you need when you need it.

The "Google Toolbar"
This free toolbar from Google offers the best overall features of any toolbar I have looked at.

It allows you to search the web and also enables you to search within a website to find specific information.

The Google toolbar's main features include "Page Rank." This gives an indication of a website's overall value based on your search criteria and other factors.

It also offers a "backwards links" function which allows you to see which sites link to the website currently loaded in your browser.

According to Google, Information in a URL, such as user names and IDs, passwords, and account information of any kind are not passed on to Google and are not kept or stored anywhere.

However if you choose to enable the Google Toolbar's advanced features (e.g., viewing the PageRank of web pages), the URLs of the sites you visit will automatically be forwarded to Google.

This is a great tool to use if you are looking to get traffic from other sites, you can use the Google toolbar to find sites with high page rank as well as lots of sites pointing to them.

Once you have found a high traffic site you can then go to each of The sites linking to that site and ask them to give you a link too!

This is an AWESOME way of finding potential affiliates who already have their pages indexed in the search engines and are in the habit of giving links to other sites.

You just need to pull up your competitor's website in your browser, click the "i" button next to the PageRank meter, then click the "Backwards Link" link to get a list of all the sites Google indexes that link back to competitor's website.

Then start contacting those website owners!

You can download the Google toolbar to your web browser by visiting (http://toolbar.google.com) and following the simple installation instruction.

~ Alexa Toolbar ~
Alexa's toolbar revolves around its traffic ranking report on just about any site on the Internet.

The lower the Traffic Ranking number, the more popular a site rates in Alexa's eyes. Currently Yahoo, MSN and Google occupy the top 1,2 and 3 spots on Alexa's charts. Auction giant, eBay, occupies the #6 spot.

There are now so many websites it is hard to tell the good from the bad!
A ranking from Alexa of less than 100,000 is considered good, and a ranking of less than 10,000 is considered outstanding as far as a site's relative popularity on the Web is concerned.

Alexa also offers a related links feature right on the toolbar. This allows you to quickly see links to similar sites other people also visit when surfing the site you currently have loaded in your browser.

For marketing purposes you simply cannot beat Alexa's toolbar and Google's toolbar combined!.

Find a site with a high page rank AND a low Alexa rating, Now you know you've got a site you need to seriously consider trying to get a link from or at least start recruiting
their link partners as your affiliates.

This way will save you a ton of time when it comes to finding solid affiliates and link partners because those sites are highly qualified, both for the amount of traffic they receive and the type of targeted customers they attract.

Alexa's toolbar also has a free pop-up blocker to help cut down on pop-up windows.

You can download the Alexa Toolbar free from (www.alexa.com)
You can view Alexa's Privacy policy at:
(http://pages.alexa.com/help/privacy.html?p=TBStartpage_W_t_40_B1)

These toolbars offer additional gadgets to help you with everything from weather forecasts to currency conversion.

Because they offer many of the same features and they take up valuable screen space, using more than two toolbars at a time will no doubt be impractical. These two toolbars are available free of charge and you should evaluate them for their main features and overall usability for your particular needs.

About the Author
Robert Jillie is a long time Internet marketer and Website designer If you would like to subscribe to his :Website Business Builder" Simply send an email to:
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