Content Swapping

[laffit]

one of my competitors offered to do some article exchanges. my first thought is to do it, i like the idea of working with other sites within my niche.

what do ya'll think, is it a good idea? or are they just trying to steal traffic?

any suggestions about how to most effectively benefit from such an exchange?

thanks

[dschall]

It is a great idea. Awesome to get your voice and your links out their on more unique domains.

It can and should be beneficial. The problem though is:

1. Most people who are out looking to exchange articles (they contact you) offer garbage sites and want your best site in return.

2. Most of the articles that people who are out looking to exchange (they contact you) will suck.

Seriously though this can work and if you believe the offer is fair I would do it.

"most effectively benefit from such an exchange?"

see what the site that wants to trade ranks for and write an article around the keywords. use anchors with the high ranking keywords.

write a relevant article for the other site. For example, If the site is about backgammon write a backgammon article pointing back to your backgammon content. If I don't have any backgammon content I would not make the trade or I would negotiate a new location for my article.

[Simmo!]

1. Most people who are out looking to exchange articles (they contact you) offer garbage sites and want your best site in return.

2. Most of the articles that people who are out looking to exchange (they contact you) will suck.

I agree. Also would add that they might farm their article out more than once leading to dupe content, although the reality is that would also affect the authority of their embedded links so both parties lose in that scenario.

My advice: work with people you trust to a) write quality user-focused copy (not promo bs) and b) leave your links intact and up for the long term. Make sure the sites they want you to link to have quality content, are indexed and ranking.

[casinobonusguy]

I believe you get what you pay for .I never take part in these exchange programs except when a guy with site earning $x,xxx a month asks me to trade links with my site earning $x,xxx a month since we are both side by side in google then its a good thing

[laffit]

im usually skeptical about various "offers", but this is from a site that's within my small niche and looks like a quality site. he specifically mentions exclusive content (i went back a re-read the email closely.)

thanks for all the input, i really appreciate the opinions.

[sunny]

Please don't derail the discussion. Open your own thread if you want to make link exchanges.

[buyonaut]

Be careful with it; google and other SE's can get you penalized for duplicate content