Whether you want to start a business and sell on the Internet or you're an old pro and want more Internet sales, here's the easy way to do it.

To get the most sales on the Internet you need to have a high PageRank on Google. One of the common techniques everyone uses (or tries to use) to get a high ranking on Google is to convince other websites with a high Google PageRank (PR) to link to them.

Here's what's wrong with trying to get 500-pound gorilla websites to link to you.

The Google algorithm for calculating PageRank says that the amount of PageRank a page has available to pass on to each page it links to is the PageRank of the page divided by the number of outgoing links.

For example, a page with a PageRank of 4 with two outgoing links would pass on 2 units of PageRank with each outgoing link. But remember . . .

PageRank is the rank of a PAGE . . . NOT the rank of a website. Even if a website has a PR=8 for its home page and the webmaster agrees to link to you, they'll probably put the link to your site on their "Links" page which may have a PR=1.

After all, the Links pages on most websites never have a high PR. Even worse than that, they may have 50 to 100 or even 200 outgoing links on their Links page. What does a PR=1 divided by 100 get you?

Also, Google likes links from pages with on-topic content. Even if the website that's linking to you is about the same general topic as your site, their Links page probably doesn't include many (if any) words about the topic.

Links from pages that don't have any of your keyowrds on them will increase your PageRank, but they will NOT help you with relevance for your keyword.

I think you are beginning to see why links from the 500-pound gorillas may not be as valuable as most people think they are.

Now consider the Ugly Duckling technique for getting a high PageRank.

We've all heard about the so-called Ugly Duckling that turned out to be a beautiful swan. Likewise, Ugly Duckling websites are websites that no one else is interested in . . . yet. Links from these new or low-ranked websites could be great even if they only have a PR=1 or PR=2.

(Note that a website that has a white bar on the Google PageRank indicator and says that it has PR=0, it's not really zero. This means it has a PageRank between 0.15 and 0.99.) If the PR bar is gray, it means Google doesn't know they exist. Links from these sites won't help you.

Here are several reasons why Ugly Duckling websites are valuable.

1. First, it's much easier to get them to link to you. You could soon have a LOT of incoming links.

2. You can probably convince them to put your link on their HOME page.

3. They usually don't have many outgoing links meaning that a link from them passes on a lot of PageRank.

4. Unlike Links pages, the Ugly Duckling's Home page will have a lot of on-topic keywords making it a valuable link for you in the eyes of Google.

5. It's usually easy to get the Ugly Duckling websites to link to you using your keyword phrase in the links. Incoming links that don't include your keyword phrase don't help you much with Google or most other search engines.

6. Ugly Duckling websites (that are good websites) are NOT going to stay Ugly Ducklings. Their PR will be increasing.

Here's how a link from an Ugly Duckling website could give you 10 to 80 times more PageRank boost than a link from a 500-pound gorilla website.

Let's do the math. A link from an Ugly Duckling page that has a PR=2 and has 5 outgoing links (one of those going to your site) would give you a PR boost of 2 divided by 5, which is a PR boost of 0.4. A 500-pound gorilla page with a PR=8 and having 200 outgoing links would give you a PR boost of 8/200=0.04.

That's 10 times more PageRank boost from the Ugly Duckling website.

What if the 500 pound gorilla site puts your link on their Links page that only has a PR=1? Then you would be getting 80 times more PageRank boost from the Ugly Duckling website than you would from the 500 pound gorilla website.

Google doesn't usually show incoming links that have a PageRank of less than PR=4, but they COUNT every incoming link.

Now, see how many Ugly Duckling websites you can get to link to you this week and then wait until the next time Google does their so-called dance and watch your PageRank increase.

Imagine what will happen to your PR when the PR of those Ugly Duckling websites that are linking to your site start increasing.

Craige Stacey has been studying search engines optimization as a hobby and has achieved some very good search engine positions in the past for membership software