Your link partners should be sites your target market will visit. Think about your product and its subject area and brainstorm to determine where people interested in your product might be looking online. For example, if you're trying to shift your book about blackjack strategy, it makes sense that the people visiting online casinos would make great customers. Online casinos then could be good partners. Identify top-ranked, high quality casino sites and find the email address of their webmasters.

You can also identify your competitors and see where they trade links.

Tips for talking to webmasters

* Before you contact webmasters, place a link to their site on your resource page to assure them that you will actually provide a quality link.

* Create a subject line that will encourage them to read your message rather than deleting it--you don't want them to think you're spam. (Something about their site or product is sure to capture their attention; they will open it, thinking you're a potential customer.)

* Begin your message by talking about your visit to their site and what you found interesting about it. Detail your product or service in one line and ask them to exchange links with you.

* Tell them in detail where you have placed their link and emphasize that it is only one click away from your homepage.