I don't know if this is a workable idea or not for your guys but I figured I would offer it up and if you give it a thumbs down no biggie. Some forums use link exchanges to gain traffic. By using Google toolbar http://www.google.com/toolbar/ff/index.html http://searchengineland.com/what-is-google-pagerank-a-guide-for-searchers-webmasters-11068 The organization looks for page ranks that are equal or higher than their own. For instance (and I don't have it installed so I am guessing) if the front page of the forum has a google page rank of 5 the forum staff would only look to do link exchanges with 5's or higher. The Target Market: 1) Martial arts blogs 2) Martial arts sites that have video uploads 3) Other martial arts sites that are not forums 4) Decide cut-off point in advance (say 10 links) so that the site isn't buried in link exchanges The Methodology: 1) Decide if site is martial arts related 2) Assess page rank 3) Email webmaster or person who owns the blog asking for a link exchange (see foonote a) 4) Add a couple of MAP'ers blogs in the beginning (see footnote b) 5) If a link is added check every 3-6 months to make sure your link is still on their page Footnote A: 1) Have MOD or rep from the site send an email to the person who owns the blog or webmaster. In the email introduce yourself and forum to personalize the email exchange. State that you would like to have a link exchange with their site. 2) If they reply and say yes decide where you will put their link on your page and where you would like to ask them to put the forum's links on yours. Set expectations that this is reciprocation agreement where either party is ok to change their mind over time. Put in the email that no money will be asked or given for the link exchange. 3) Once you have put up their link check to see if they put up yours. If not email and ask about lack of link. If they do put it up check it to make sure if someone clicks on the link they end up on your forum. Re-check their page every 3-6 months to make sure your link is still there. If not ask if they still want to do a link exchange. No reply means remove their link from your site. Footnote B: 1) Get staff/mod's to put up 3-5 temp or perm links exchanges. 2) Ask strong posting volunteers (you decide what strong posting means) if they want to put up temp or perm link exchanges and conditions which must be met to do a link exchange. 3) Be open to removing staff and posting volunteer links if you get to your maximum # of desired links and find a person who says yes with a stronger page rank. Be open with volunteers and tell them you may remove the exchange if you hit your maximum number of links and a larger page rank agrees to an exchange.
