This article will show you how to run a simple promotional marketing campaign that has an unusual side effect; Top placement on Google for your most important keywords. With one quick and easy task you can 1.) Get top ranking on Google, 2.) Build incredible brand or company awareness, and 3.) Earn an additional passive income while doing it, if you wish.

The concept is pretty straightforward. You post a piece of software (along with a simple PAD file) to shareware download sites like Download.com. They provide inbound links to your site. Simple right? Definitely! But that's only part of it. If you know a couple inside tips you can have the link to your site contain your most important keywords as anchor text, which will skyrocket ranking on Google. And you can have your links point to any page you want using that keyword rich link! By the way, there are well over 1,000 well known download sites there for the linking!

Here are the steps to get hundreds of inbound links with only about an hour's worth of work. It might cost as much as $75. Or, you can take some more time and do it all for free. It's your call. Here we go...

Step 1.) Create Your Software

It sounds like a big deal but it's not. You can use the free version of "Activ eBook Compiler" (available at eBookCompiler.com) to create information products with the standalone executable files that software download sites like to see. This is a great way to get your name out there and be recognized as an expert in your field. Of course, if you have $25 (not the hundreds it usually costs) you can simply rebrand a great piece of software...

I "developed" four software products in about 30 minutes for just $25 by using the rebrandable software offered by http://www.IMSoftwareBuzz.com. In short, you pay $25 per month subscription fee and they send you one new rebrandable application each month. When you sign up, they have free bonuses that give you four products immediately (you could even stop your membership there if you want.) The rebrandable apps are top quality and in high demand. I kept my membership and it's proving to be the cheapest advertising I've ever had.

Important Tip: The links will be the same whether you charge for your software or give it away for free. So assign a cost on the app if you'd like and make a nice passive income as well. Just remember that you cannot use the free version of the eBook Creator tool if you sell your product (you can buy it for $49.)

Step 2.) Create Your PAD File

PAD stands for Portable Application Description. It's a simple XML file that you give to any potential publisher so they have all of your program's information. But don't worry. You don't need to know anything about XML. Just use the free PADManager tool available at http://padmanager.org/. There's no learning curve, the help files are great if you get stuck (which I doubt.) Here's all you really need to know:

a.) When you fill in your company information, use your most important keyword for the "Company Name" field.

b.) When filling in the "Product Name" or "Software Title" field (depending on the PAD generator you use), use your second most important keyword.

c.) When writing the various length descriptions, write just like you would a Web page description, full of well placed keywords throughout the text.

Tips A and B above are critical! Using your keyword this way forces the download sites that use anchor text (most of them) to make your main keywords your anchor text. Most will use your company name and some will use the software name.

Step 3.) Submit Your Software and PAD File

Submitting your PAD file is easy but can be time consuming. I paid $50 to http://www.softwaresubmit.net to have them do it for me and it was well worth it. After seeing the success of my first run I tried the next level for my second software project, and paid $90. This got my site 277 permanent inbound links over the span of a couple weeks. You might be able to find an even less expensive service on Google if you search for "shareware submission service" or "software submission."

If you decide to manually submit to software directories on your own, be sure to check the links at SoftwareSubmit.net for a full list of site names by clicking the "software directories" link contained in each package description. Also check out their FAQ and tips pages for good general information on shareware in general and PAD file creation and hosting.

Step 4.) Monitor and Expand

Now for the really fun part, monitoring your progress. You can do this manually by checking each search engine for your most recent rankings as well as finding and recording each inbound link. This is extremely important. Do whatever it takes and spend as much time as you need to. Here's what you want to do:

a.) Regularly check your rankings on Google, MSN, Yahoo and AlltheWeb.com at the minimum.

b.) Run full inbound link searches every couple days and record every link you find. Remember to run searches for every variation of your domain name (with the "http" and without; with the "www" and without, etc.)

c.) Perform weekly (or more often) backlink searches and record the resulting data carefully. Make note of any changes including the URLs of pages linked from.

Insider Tip: It's worth getting a piece of software to do this work for you. Many search engine optimization professionals prefer SEO Elite (http://www.SEOeliteWeb.com) because it is a "master" linking application that also checks ranking, builds reports and monitors everything for you automatically, even when you're working on something else. It's also one of the most affordable options at $167.

And finally, strike while the iron is hot! Use this newfound success to help entice others into a reciprocal linking arrangement. There is no better time to attract new partners. Many will want to jump on the bandwagon. Use this opportunity.

SEO Professional Tip: If you get SEO Elite, be sure to use some of their Advanced Features the SEO professionals use like finding "authority links." Here's how you do it...

a.) Start a new project. Select project type number 2; "Get links to your website." And name the project anything you like.

b.) Click the "Add Websites" button on the right and select the top option; "Find High Page Rank Websites using a keyword."

c.) Click "Next" and choose how many sites you want, the Google Page Ranks, Alexa ranking, etc. Then click "Done" and watch the results gather up top.

d.) Click any page link above to visit the page in question. Click the "Email campaign" link in the middle column to see that SEO Elite has already gathered all the contact information for you.

e.) Finally, if you decide you want to link with the site, just click the "Emailer" button on the bottom and enter your link exchange proposal. Click "Send emails" and you're done.

That's it! It's that easy. A couple hours with SEO Elite each month usually gets me at least 150 new high quality links. Also be sure to try the other "Get links" project types too (like one way links from directories.)