Links Management Programs -
Which Is The Right One For You?

Introduction

This article emerges from own struggle to find a means for managing what had become an unmanagably large number of link requests.

I run 10+ websites in vastly different niche areas, all of which require regular attention.  The result is that I've never had  much time left over in the course of a day to manage a reciprocal links program for one site, let alone 10.  Yet link I should/must.  And the requests keep coming in -when I finally decided something needed to be done, I had 600 link requests for this site alone!

To be fair, I had made a serious attempt back in April 2002, when I purchased Zeus PRO, one of the programs I'll be reviewing in the article.  I attribute much of my early success to my use of Zeus, as it quickly boosted the number of pages in my then fledgling website, increasing my web presence, and ultimately, my sales figures.  However, tending to Zeus could easily have become a full-time job.  I needed to grow my sites, not become a links manager.  Since I couldn't afford to train and employ one, something had to give...ultimately it was my links program.

What forced me to re-focus on linking?

After having been badly kicked in the teeth by first Google  during their Florida update at the end of 2003, and then Yahoo when in August 2004, they decided to cut the number of listings on their front page from 20 to 10, I decided that my over-reliance on the search engines was no way to run a business.  It was akin to having invested heavily in leasing a storefront in a popular mall, only to find that the managers of the mall had a policy of allowing only 5% of the stores to trade on any given day.  I had to give my sites, particular my newer sites alternatives to search engine traffic.

Since several of my sites are in niches where the cost of PPC advertising is prohibitively high , it was obvious that I had to re-visit a strategy that was working, even given my limited devotion to it.  My traffic  and sales levels for www.theonlinedatingshop.com had remained pretty much constant throughout the various machinations of the search engine developers, despite the fact that I'd given the site virtually no attention for the last 2 1/2 years.  A look at the traffic logs suggested that a healthy proportion of that traffic came from the other sites.  It had to be that linking worked, despite my best efforts to avoid it.

OK, so it worked, but it was still going to be impossible for me to manage link directories for 10 sites with my existing tools.  I knew there were scripts that automated more of the process than I was currently able to, but I didn't know what they were, or how they worked.  I did what I always do in these situations - did a search on Google, hoping to find an analysis of the most popular programs.  The only thing which came close was a 22-page report on the subject, written by a marketing guru, for which the princely sum of $8.95 was being demanded.  Yes folks, I'm cheap - I decided to do my own research, thanks very much!

This article is in essence the product of my research of five of the most popular tools available for the purpose of building link directories.  I've avoided the inclusion of tools offer little real value; that is, link farms and programs which host your link directory on their site etc.  There's an overview or review of each script, and a chart comparing the features of all five programs.

I've personally tried out every one of the programs reviewed here.  I've decided not to follow the tradition of awarding star ratings for each script; I know which one I liked best, but I'm aware that I have specific needs and prior knowledge.  It's obvious that the requirements, skills and prior knowledge of the range of people who read this article will vary enormously.  It therefore seems pointless to award something 5 stars for functionality if it also requires an intermediate to advanced level of technical knowledge in order to get it working to that level.  So as we say in the the UK; it's horses for courses - I'll provide the information, you can make up your own mind based on your own circumstances.

I hope you find it useful.

Regards,

Erika Lawal.

P.S Jack Humphrey's "Power Linking 2: Evolution" played a huge role in forcing me to prioritize linking again.  I bought this "course" largely because it offered a linking script as a bonus - I figured I probably couldn't learn much more about linking, and I'd probably be asking for my money back under his guarantee.  As it turned out, while large sections of the book cover stuff I was already familiar with, I kept running across ideas and strategies that were new, free, made sense and were easy to implement.  It's become a resource that I dip in and out of whenever I have a free moment.  Needless to say I didn't ask for my money back!  Read one of Jack's articles here.

Linking101 Overview
LinksManager Overview
Reciprocal Manager Overview
ARELIS Overview
Zeus Overview
Feature Comparison Chart