A one way link is achieved when a website links you yours without requiring you to reciprocate. Search engines tend to place more importance or weight on one way links versus reciprocal links. Acquiring a one way link is often harder than reciprocal linking but the rewards are larger. Here are a few ways to gain a free one way link. This list is just a starting point and there are many more opportunities out there waiting to be found.

Original Content - As they say "Content is King". This is the number one way to achieve a one way link. If your site is original and useful then other sites will naturally link to you. Creating original content can be as easy as writing articles about your services to product reviews.

Testimonials - You could write testimonials about products offered by other sites. If published they may link back to your site with a "Testimonial from" link. Make sure your testimonial is informative and accurate.

Directory listings - Submitting your site to directories will easily get you a link. There are plenty of free directories out there that do not require a reciprocal link. The dmoz is the largest free directory and its data is used by many sites including google so a link from the dmoz will get you a link from the google directory.

Article Marketing - Submit articles to article directories. Write articles about the topic of your website or product reviews and submit them to article directories. This is an easy way to get a free link. Just do a search for "article directories" on google and you are sure to uncover tons of directories that allow free submissions. Many of these directories are scanned by ezine publishers and if they pick your article up for reprint you get even more free links. You can also post your articles on your website and allow other webmasters to freely reprint them providing that they link to your site.

Forums - Add your website address to the signature file on all your posts. Be sure that this is allows in the forum guidelines. This probably won"t provide much of a gain for your site but it is a free link and requires minimal effort. Just remember all links count.

Freebies - Offer something useful for webmasters to use one there site and require a link back to yours for its use. This could be anything from free hit counters to resource pages depending on the theme of your site. If you have a site about number conversions then create a conversion calculator for your website and allow other webmasters to put the calculator on there site along with your link.