Link building is an excellent way of promoting and drawing traffic to your website. For the novices, link building is making agreements with other webmasters with sites of similar interest to have your link published on their website in exchange for theirs on yours. This form of internet marketing is best achieved by contacting the owners directly through email, phone, and fax. However, e-mail remains the No.1 way of contacting these individuals.

Sending out emails can backfire against you. Also known as unsolicited commercial email, spam is a very sensitive topic to online marketers. Since your inquiry is unsolicited, webmasters wouldn't know its contents before opening. However, technically - this is a join venture request to a related business instead of spam. If your letter exemplifies a joint venture that is free of unwelcome sales pitches, other webmasters will pay attention. Make sure your site appears professional with some well-written content. In addition, you must personalize your request letter including the subject header. If your email only goes out to a select group of businesses and individuals, there shouldn't be a problem. Remember, your website reflects your business so make sure it is up to par before contacting your potential link partners.

Let's recap on the four steps on how to avoid being mistaken for a spam artist:

1. Don't play around. Offer a straight-to-the-point e-mail without any sales pitches and use appropriate language. 2. Make sure your site is top-notch with useful content and crack down on promotional information. 3. Personalize your link request letter to establish a positive rapport between you and your link partner. 4. Don't send emails to individual email addresses, especially from Hotmail and AOL. Try to send it to businesses and webmasters only.

Following these guidelines doesn't guarantee you won't be accused of spam. If this is the case, send an email apologizing for the mishap and explain your intention. Explain you wanted to build a join venture between you and the webmaster. Using the above techniques, you should be able to have your link request letters read - one more step on the way to establishing the powerful web presence you crave.