"Valuable tips for any link lover, as I have learned from experience."

One of the most crucial - and beneficial - strategies to promoting a website is linking. While there are hundreds of ways to obtain links, one method has remained strong since internet marketing began. Of course, I'm talking about manually tracking down, working with, and obtaining links.

Yet, despite how simple manually working with links sounds, it can be a daunting task. So I've come up with a few tips and tricks on how to make a link building campaign less stressful. Some of these may seem obvious, but are easy to forget. And all of these are valuable tips for any link lover, as I have learned from personal experience.

When communicating, be human. When writing an e-mail to a webmaster, be human. You want to keep things formal, but don't sound like a robot. Act as if you were e-mailing an old friend, comment on features of their website that you admire, avoid using terms such as "link exchange." And, above all, be friendly. If you can create a connection between yourself and the potential link partner, your chances of obtaining a link are dramatically increased.

Don't just look for links. This tip goes along with the previous one. Granted, the easiest way to get links is to just ask for them. Asking a stranger for a link to your website is like asking someone on the street for a kiss. Instead, take some time to connect with the webmaster. After-all, you shouldn't just be looking for links. You should be looking for resources your site visitors can use.

Avoid out-dated websites. If possible, check the date of the webpage/site. If it looks like the website hasn't been updated for a while, chances are you aren't going to get anything beneficial from the website - let alone communication. Don't waste your time, move on to a different website.

The Google Toolbar makes things easy. The Google Toolbar has a few little features that users often overlook. When you find a great website that would be perfect for a link click on the PageRank button in the Google Toolbar and select "Similar Pages." What you'll find is a great library of links somewhat similar to the one you were on.

Use search engines to track quickly. If a website has a fairly big list of linking websites - or their links are spread through-out their pages - you can use a quick Google search to track your website down on theirs. Simply copy the URL of their website and type this code into Google: "site:theirwebsiteurl.com yourwebsite" but be sure to replace theirwebsiteurl.com with the actual website URL, and yourwebsite with the name of your website.

That's it for now. Hopefully these tips can be of some use to you - or, if anything, a good refresher.