Google is really starting to get into having people refer customers to their products. Now you can get paid $2 for referring people to Google Pack or $1 for referring people to Picasa. This is in addition to fees you can get from referring people to AdSense, AdWords or Firefox, which have been around for a while.

This is a pretty nice deal. I can tell you that I already have Google Pack on my computer, and since it’s a free download, this should be a pretty easy sell. Some of the software available is very useful, such as six free months of Norton Antivirus. Other stuff is more fun. I use Google Earth with my 4 year old daughter, for example.

Google Pack is very flexible about letting you choose what to download. If you don’t want something, just uncheck the box and you won’t get it. Very simple. I skipped getting Google Desktop, for example, because I didn’t feel I needed it.

I have some serious site building goals to meet right now. I have a number of sites I know exactly how I want to develop, and while it’s going to take some serious time, I think it’s the best thing I can do to increase my income overall.

Now, the site building is generally fun. It’s the link building part that I keep falling behind on. It’s so easy to skimp on link building, which quite simply is not as much fun as other parts of running a website.

For that reason, I’m actually limiting some of my site building for this week to focus more on link building. It’s just time to clamp down and do it.

What tactics do I use? Directory submissions can be good, but time consuming. I submit articles and sometimes I use the DigitalPoint Co-op. That’s one to be careful with. It can do a lot of good, but overdone it can be harmful too. One of the things they say search engines look for is unnatural increases in the number of links pointing to your site, and it’s pretty easy to get thousands of links through the Co-op.

However, used well it is very helpful. Point to a wide range of pages using a wide range of keywords, and it is much more helpful. Still not the ideal solution for some areas, but I’ve had good results with it on some sites and a lack of results on others. I’ve definitely changed how I use it over time, since at first I did only use a few keyphrases and pages. Now, using a much broader range of words, I think it does a bit better.

Working as much as I do on my sites is a bit of a strain at times. I have to remind myself sometimes to make family time. However, just the fact that it lets me be here for my family makes it worthwhile.