Dan - no skin off my nose - I'm always learning too. In fact you mention reciprocal links - like all things their value changes....
Improving Link Popularity
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
http://www.wilsonweb.com
"We all know the value of link popularity to increase search engine
rankings. Recently I had two people do nothing but place ads on free
ad sites, with links to my sites, yet weeks--if not months--later
none of the links show up in a link check using Google. Was this all
wasted time? Help!
Adding links one at a time by trading with other siteowners is time
intensive, and I have been told by 'authoritative figures' that
reciprocal links are less valued these days and that 'one way' links
have much higher value. Is there a better, easier way to get links?
I see some products that offer thousands of links for a fee though
I smell something fishy there." -- Ed Strachar, GeniusZone.com
Google looks for sites with good content to index. It can spot free
ad sites for what they are -- a way to manipulate search engine
rankings -- and usually skips them entirely, so it's a waste of
time to use them. In fact, links from your site to obvious "link
farms" could hurt you.
Getting links from other sites is time intensive. Some Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) firms have gotten clients in trouble by taking
the shortcut of interlinking all the diverse sites they manage. Here
are my recommendations for getting links to your site:
1. Personally contact webmasters of complementary sites by e-mail or
phone to ask for a reciprocal link. Make sure these sites have some
relation to your type of site--or you might just get dumped into
what amounts to a private link farm which Google will scorn.
Reciprocal links are labor intensive, but still helpful. Unless the
site linking to you has a high PageRank itself, however, it won't
help your own PageRank as much as a more prominent site
(
www.google.com/technology).
2. Get links from major directories with a high PageRank, such as
Open Directory Project (
www.dmoz.com) and perhaps paid directories
such as Yahoo! Express (
https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/express/intro/)
and Business.com
3. Place news releases containing links to your site. I've recently
partnered with PRWeb Direct (wilsonweb.prwebdirect.com) to offer
affordable press release placement services to help in this regard.
News releases may show up temporarily on Yahoo and Google News and
(hopefully) will be archived long term on some news sites with a
relatively high PageRank.
4. Write free articles that supply content for other websites and
include a link back to your website. Look at the syndication section
of my site to see how I do this (
www.wilsonweb.com/syndicate/).
5. Contribute to online forums that allow a "signature" that
includes a hyperlink to your website.
6. Offer a "major award" logo to complementary websites that
include a link back to your site (with appropriate keywords in the
ALT element of the IMG tag). What webmaster struggling for
recognition of his efforts can resist your "Best Silver Jewelry Site
of the Week" award?
7. Pay an SEO firm to find you links. The price range for obtaining
legitimate reciprocal links is about $30-$50 per link. The best
firms don't use tricks but spend the time to do it right.
Where you can specify the exact link to your site, strategically
hyperlink keywords that will help you rank higher where you most
need it. For example, instead of hyperlinking the words "Wilson
Internet Services" (who would search for "Wilson" or "Internet" or
"Services"), I prefer a link to my "E-Mail Marketing Handbook"
(
www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/handbook.htm) or "Web Marketing Today"
(
www.wilsonweb.com), which will help me rank higher for the
important keywords "e-mail marketing" and "Web marketing." (By the
way, you could do me a big favor by linking to me from your site,
though I can't offer you a reciprocal link.)
As always page ranking is also a bit of mystery: you mention taking a look at the source code - well when using your search parameter of "custom made knives" on google - the top four sites on Google and their meta tags/keywords are:
http://www.sunrisecustomknives.com/
<title>Sunrise River Custom Knives and Handemade Cutlery</title>
<meta name="description" content="Custom made knives, handmade cutlery, bowie knives, tactical knife, survival knives, combat knife, utility knives, knife repair,chef's cutlery, fixed blade knives, full tang, custom cutlery, built one at a time to be strong and functional, and with reasonable care will last a lifetime. This web site will acquaint you with the many varieties of blades.">
<meta name="keywords" content="custom made knives,handmade cutlery,bowie knife,tactical knives,survival knives,combat knife,utility knives,knife repair,fixed blade knives,full tang,custom cutlery,cutlery,knives,knife sheaths,benchmade">
http://home.earthlink.net/~donwrobinson/
No meta tags/keywords
http://www.bladesmith.com/
<title>George's Custom Made Knives Home Page</title>
<meta NAME="keywords" CONTENT="CUSTOM KNIVES, KNIFEMAKERS' GUILD, KNIVES, FOLDERS, BLADESMITH, HANDMADE KNIVES, Cutlery, Damascus Steel, Knife, Knifemaker, Forge, Forged, Bowie,Tactical, Custom, Bladesmith">
<meta NAME="Version" CONTENT="8.0.3410">
<meta NAME="Date" CONTENT="10/11/96">
<meta NAME="Description" CONTENT="CUSTOM KNIVES, KNIFEMAKERS' GUILD, KNIVES, FOLDERS, BLADESMITH, HANDMADE KNIVES, Cutlery, Damascus Steel, Knife, Knifemaker, Forge, Forged, Bowie,Tactical, Custom, Bladesmith">
<meta NAME="Classification" CONTENT="CUSTOM KNIVES, KNIFEMAKERS' GUILD, KNIVES, FOLDERS, BLADESMITH, HANDMADE KNIVES, Cutlery, Damascus Steel, Knife, Knifemaker, Forge, Forged, Bowie,Tactical, Custom, Bladesmith">
<meta NAME="Template" CONTENT="images\HTML.DOT">
and ta! Da! Dan's site -
http://www.kynd.com/~graydg/kniveslist4.html
<TITLE>Gray Knives, Hand Made Custom Knives, Offering a complete line of fixed blade, custom cutlery, built one at a time strong and functional offering custom hand made Knife sheaths, custom ivory folders, and custom Knife Makers web pages, hunting knives in damascus knife blades, custom knife makers, www. grayknives.com</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Gray Knives Offering a complete line of fixed blade, custom cutlery, built one at a time strong and functional, This web site will show you the many varieties of blades I make, from exotic hard woods and horns to Ivorys I use for handles, and different styles of my custom sheaths">
<META NAME="keywords" content="custom knives,custom hand made knives,Knifes sheaths,ivory folders,custom Knife Makers,hunting knives,damascus knife blades,custom knife makers,
www.grayknives.com,tree stump leather,sheath,maine made blades,art knives,holsters,knifes,knife handle indian stag,wild rose trading co,tree stump leather,Gray knives">
Now a couple of three things of real interest -
1) Sites 1 and 2 both use a fair amount of javascript and site one is written using CSS, often reported to be cross browser unfriendly/finicky. Javascript menus are a bit finicky for the spiders, but there is an easy fix - an html site map which lists all pages you wish to be spidered - spiders love em because it's sort of a one stop shopping scenario for them.
3) Real Interesting is the fact that site #2 has NO keywords or meta tags
4) Also of interest is that site #2 and site #4 are sub- domains - something often touted as being not good for search engines, especially "free sites" such as the earthlink sub domain for #2.
5) On all these sites in Google - the
Some thoughts to cogitate on - as for search parameters, it's up in the air - i.e. if some one is looking for Bowies for instance is he going to necessarily use custom made knives as a parameter.
On all these sites the page title and the unencumbered text (text not surrounded by a table) seem to be the weigthing factors more than the keywords, especially as regards site #2.
like I said and Chuck said you need customers looking for what you do also, more hunters looking for hunting knives than Bowies it's just a fact of life.
True but the competition not only from other custom makers but from the commercial makers is also much greater so it isn't just a matter of percentages. It's a fact of marketing that one can't be and shouldn't be all things to all people, so find your niche and go for it. In some ways it makes marketing more difficult but on the other hand learn your market and work it will pay dividends in the long run. In my case for instance the only way to compete with the commercial makers would be to gear up with all the tooling and mass produce - something that would then just turn me into another maker which is not what I want so...... Of course we all approach this differently and thank the Good Lord for that cause otherwise it would be boring as heck......
that's not fun for me. 
Ok, I was going through an old barn in West Texs, and found a really old bottle of Listerin. It's labeled in raised letters, and even has a cork top. One problem though, it has liquid in it. Listerin? Maybe, maybe not. How should I list this guys (what areas, etc), and how should I handle the liquid issue (if it is 100 year old listerin, could it be worth something?)? Thanks for letting me butt in with this.
) Chuck, your welcome (if you do as good a job on the leather as you do on my site, it'll be a great rig!)
!