In order to avoid extra work when trading links we have come up with this "4 Step Model". It may look a bit complicated at first glance but once you get started it will come naturally.
In the example below two webmasters will successfully trade links, lets call them WM-A and WM-B. Click on the emails listed below to view examples.
Step 1
WM-A visits GoTop and finds WM-B's website and decides to contact him/her with a "Link Trade Proposition".
WM-B receives the proposition, visits WM-A's website and agrees to make a link exchange. WM-B then replies to the "Proposition" email with a "1st agreement email", simply by clicking "Reply", cutting out the beginning of the email and then sending it.
WM-A receives the "1st Agreement". WM-A then visits WM-B's website for the first time. Note that prior to this WM-A has only read a description of the website on GoTop.
Hopefully WM-B's website meets the expectations and WM-A still wants to trade links. WM-A uses the HTML code in the "1 st agreement" email to put up a link to WM-B's website. WM-A replies to the "1st Agreement email" with the location of the link to WM-B's website.
WM-B receives the "2nd Agreement" email. WM-B inspects the link from WM-A and accepts it. WM-B then puts up a link to WM-A and sends the "Link Exchange Complete" email where the location of the link to WM-A is specified.
In the example above all went according to plan. In real life there are often complications such as:
Rejection WM-B inspects WM-A's website and for some reason does not want to trade links. WM-B does not have to answer the "Proposition" email. No link trade is done.
Change of heart In Step 3 WM-A gets to visit WM-B's website for the first time and finds out he/she is not interested in a link exchange after all. WM-A was indeed the one sending the first "Proposition" email, but at that point WM-A had only read a description of WM-B's website and not actually visited it. WM-A therefore sends an email to WM-B where he/she backs out from the link trade and hopefully gives an explanation to why (Not necessary, but is the decent thing to do). No link trade is done.
Move/Change Link In Step 4 WM-B inspects the link to his/her website from WM-A but is not satisfied with it and gets back to WM-A with instructions of how to change it to make it OK. WM-A does the changes and WM-B inspects again and is satisfied. Process continues and link trade gets completed.
Move/Change Link 2 After Step 4 WM-A inspects the link to his/her website from WM-B but is not satisfied with it and gets back to WM-B with instructions of how to change. WM-B makes the changes and WM-A inspects again and is satisfied. Link trade is completed.
Stalemate The webmasters cannot agree on proper linking and the link trade process is aborted. No link trade is done.
The more sites that links to your site, the better your site performs in many SE's (search engines)!
If a link to your site is called for example "Free Games", many SE's will show your site in the search results for "Free Games", even if these words do not exist anywhere on your site!
