One of the biggest challenges in internet marketing is getting traffic to your site. One proven method of getting traffic is through external links. Reciprocal links are generally obtained either through companies that provide a list of members offering a link to your website in exchange for a link to theirs or by spending hours looking for companies that are a good fit with your product or service without being a competitor. Once these links are placed on a page, anyone who views that page has the opportunity to click the link and be taken to someone else's website.

While reciprocal links are good, there is some talk that search engines see these reciprocal links as "canceling each other out" because I have linked to your site just because you linked to mine. Because of this it appears that search engines place more value on one-way external links than on reciprocal, or two-way, external links.

Did you know that hundreds of external links to your site can be generated with little or no effort just by including your signature, your web address, in these three places?

How many email messages do you send in a day 10? 20? 100? More? Each of these outgoing messages has the potential to bring in hundreds of dollars. Imagine sending an email to inquire about tickets for the Boston Pops concert only to find out that the person reading your email was curious enough to click on your web address (your web signature) and find your business or company. If your web address had not been included, you would have received a response that included the dates of the concerts and the price of the best seats in the house. Instead, you received the information you requested AND a sale. Does it get any easier than that?

Forums are the hot place to exchange business and niche ideas. If you are not involved in forums, get involved today. You will find great information from people who are in the same industry or situation that you are in while cultivating business and personal relationships that are invaluable. In addition to the exchange of knowledge, every time you make a post in a forum you can (and should) include a signature file that includes a link to your website(s). These links will remain on the web indefinitely and provide years and years of inbound links to your site(s) just by setting up your signature file one time. Generally it is as easy as editing your profile to include a little bit of html code. Most forums will offer guidance on setting up your signature file. The minute or two you spend getting your signature file set up will be rewarded over and over again as your links are propagated throughout the world-wide web.

Similar to signature files in forum posts, information about you and your website(s) can and should be added to every article that you submit. Like forum posts, articles are living, breathing organisms that have the potential to live on in cyberspace indefinitely. An article you write today may be picked up by someone months from now and generate a sale for you.

Some article submission sites allow you to set up a signature file that will automatically be included with your article. Others have a special box for you to include your signature with your article. Either way, be sure to follow the instructions for including html and/or web addresses to get the maximum use of your signature. If you are not sure what information to include in your "About the Author" section, read the directory guidelines and study some of the other posts first then craft a signature that is unique yet informative and includes your most important website(s).

Including your signature, your website address, in email messages, forum posts, and articles has the potential to put hundreds or thousands of dollars in your pocket over the lifetime of your website. Take a few minutes now to set these up and reap the rewards over and over again.