Looking for new websites and potential link targets should be fun, and this
is one of those sites that really is a pleasure to stumble upon. It's a
useful place to find recommended sites in over 500 categories - and it's also a
great place to promote your own website and generate links.
StumbleUpon is a community-based browser add-on that automates word-of-mouth
website recommendations. To date, its 95,000 members have recommended
more than 300,000 sites, ranging in topic from Business and Investment to
Vintage Cars. When you join, you download the StumbleUpon toolbar, set your preferences and start stumbling. You can also promote your own site to members, but your success will depend upon how well they rate what you have to offer.
If you've ever wondered how to bring your website to the attention of
editors at Yahoo! Picks and USA Today Hot Sites, Eric Ward's URLwire has the
answer. After 9 years of operation, Eric has built up an extensive database
of website reviewers, journalists and writers - all of whom have opted in
to receive details of new sites relevant to their interests.
Eric does not blast everyone in his database, but rather hand-picks a selected
group of contacts who are most likely to be interested in your site.
However, URLwire is not for everyone. His contacts expect only the best, so
he takes on only the best clients. This is a quality PR service for quality
sites.
At the time of writing, WebPosition Gold has introduced an improved Version 3. This edition supports submission to over 200 global and regional search engines, including all those driven by Google. The incorporation of the Wordtracker tool is a powerful addition. Now you can conduct keyword research through the WebPosition product without signing on to a separate application. New reporting features split out organic and paid search listings, and WebTrends traffic analysis can now be combined with WebPosition reporting. If you want to check out all the bells and whistles before purchasing, sign up for the no-cost trial offer.
Zeus is highly-rated reciprocal links application that finds potential link
partners, organizes them into directories and allows you to send individual
link requests. Zeus is a true Internet crawler and therefore spiders the Web
rather than sending queries to search engines (which tends to annoy them
and can potentially work against you). The software application is an
"intelligent robot" that learns about the target sites you're interested
in and returns increasingly relevant results. There's an evaluation version
available at the site as well as several no-cost online seminars that will
help you get started. The Zeus software costs $195(US) and includes
a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Zinos is a searchable database and digest of ezines covering over 30
topics. The site serves two useful purposes. First, here you can quickly find
relevant ezines that could carry stories and links to your website. Such
ezines are often hungry for well-written copy. Second, you can also publish your own articles on the Zinos site and include a prominent link to your site.
Tip: When you find a useful resource like Zinos, you'll want to find more just
like it. How? Do a backwards link test on your chosen publication using your
Google Toolbar. For example, if you're interested in finding more sites like Zinos, when at the site, simply click on the "Backward Links" link on your toolbar. This returns about 346 Web pages that link to Zinos. Scan through these quickly and you will frequently strike gold. For example, I found a reference to a site that has compiled a list of over 40 sites just like Zinos. So go find an ezine you like, do a backwards link test and quickly scan through the results until you find a directory or resource pages that will lead you to many more.
NOTE: If you do not use the Google Toolbar (it only works on IE browsers), you
can also search for websites that link to a particular site by typing the command -
link http://www.zinos.com (using the site domain of your choice) into the main Google search box.