In this article, I won't talk about how to network. There are great articles out there about that subject. Here are two that have helped me.

Ahmed just wrote a great article about 3 ways to immediately improve your networking skills. Also, check out Caroline Middlebrook's 7 Ways to Connect With People in Your Niche.

Networking is becoming more important in link building because the web is more socially oriented than before. Also, webmasters are much less likely to give links away for free. Many webmasters today know about SEO and link building. They're hesitant to freely link to a competing site. Unless you're a friend or have cash, it's hard to get links these days especially from quality sites. And cash is losing it's effectiveness, because Google's been cracking down on paid links. Many sites are cutting down on selling links.

But the biggest reason networking helps is because it forces you to focus on other people. Quality networking means taking time to know your contacts. Follow their blogs for awhile. Read their posts. Find out which subniches they're passionate about. Find out which topics they would like to learn more about.

Through networking, you can figure out what your contacts want.

Read the rest of this entry