Let's assume that you've established your own little place in cyberspace. You've put up some information about yourself and what you are doing. You've even put up a picture of yourself. The proverbial welcome mat is out. The main purpose of all this is to let interested people check you out and get a feel for you without having to email or call you cold turkey.
That's great, you say, but there's an awful lot of websites out there in cyberspace and I'm afraid my little URL isn't exactly on a major thoroughfare - how will people find me?
You have a point there. They might find you accidentally while they search for some service or interest on Google but if no one else is linking to you, you might be at the bottom of the Google list and they probably won't get that far.
Your long lost relatives and school buddies can find you now, by searching for you by name. That's progress - those are perfectly good weak ties - unless you hope to remain unfound. I hadn't thought of that until just now. I guess there are drawbacks to visibility in cyberspace. My suggestion is - deal with it - with a little luck they won't call.
I'll leave the exhaustive coverage on "how to get links" to the professionals. I'm thinking of the simple everyday stuff. People who have websites, like to point to resources they think have merit. When people ask if you have a website, you'll be able to say yes and give them your URL. Now you are getting links.
You are probably a member of some organizations that have listings - and you'll usually be able to list your URL. If this listing is online, you are one click away from your prospective visitors. Maybe it would be worth your while to make sure you are in the directories that apply to you. These listings are usually free. Here's a great one, put your URL in your email signature. Someone will click that link sooner or later. :-)
Now that we've covered some of the basics we can move on to more exotic fare. Stay tuned for part 3.