Reciprocal link exchange softwares

Often you come across some new internet marketing software that claims to take all of the drudge work out of your daily routine. Well this one is no different, but after using it solidly for the past couple of months it is a tool that comes right up in my indispensable tool set. The tools that you just would not do without, given a desert island a laptop and wireless connection to make enough money for your boat trip home.

First up let me say that Arelis DOES NOT provide an automated reciprocal link exchange. If that is what you are looking for then it is not here. I suggest you try Duncan Carvers Reciprocal Link Exchange Link management Assistant which is one of the most full featured Reciprocal link exchange directories out there. It also has a paid for version so that you can remove the annoying footer.

Before you do that though I think you should understand the difference between the two beasts so that you know where you are headed.

Nope, Arelis is not a link exchange directory "per se". More a "link management tool" with some very nifty features that I am sure even the programmers did not realize would become so valuable when they started coding and selling it.

Here is your problem to be solved:

You need top search engine rankings but you are struggling because no matter how much you "tweak" your "on page" HTML it seems to make no difference to your rankings and whilst you can use webposition gold or webceo to compare your page to your competitors pages, nothing seems to happen to your rankings for all of your effort.

You have heard that linking is the answer to your prayers, but does it really work? And is it worth the effort? Which link software do I use and how do I go about it.

The answer to the first question is easy - yes it works and so are most of the SEO guys are working on it.


The difference between an automated link exchange directory and Arelis.

An automated link exchange is usually a php or asp script that uses a database to store the link results. The link exchange that powers this site is one of those. In addition they can also boast additional features like reciprocal link checking (checking that your partner has placed a link before adding the link to your directory), import/export features, mailout features and more.

The claim to fame for Automated link exchange software is that they remove the drudgery of administering links - for drudgery it is.

Arelis however allows you to build a link exchange directory from the ground up using many advanced search features and then creates your link exchange directory from the resultant data. In this way you can build a fully populated link exchange in a couple of days. (OK - you can capture the data in a couple of hours but sorting the data is a longer job).


Now then, what is so great about that?

Well, in the first instance you have a link exchange that you need to populate. The problem is that because your site is not popular yet (it ca not be, otherwise you would not be reading this ;-)) , you are only going to get a small amount of link requests and so whilst you may have an "automated exchange" it is not much use if no one is requesting to join the exchange.

In the second instance using Arelis you have built a database of say 200 potential link partners, published the database in HTML format and you can now start contacting your potential link partners with a request to exchange links.

The first method is a passive way of gaining links whereas using Arelis you are put in the drivers seat and you can aggressively build your link directory.

The key here is that by publishing your partners links first they have an incentive to link back to you. Many email requests that I get for link exchanges along the lines of "I will link to you if you link to me first" DO get binned immediately. With Arelis this would not happen unless you forget to publish your links pages quickly enough!

Using Arelis you can pop them into your database and publish the new links in an instant. Get active with your link exchange campaign.

1. Import links from any HTML page. So you have a competitor with hundreds of links? No problem, simply point Arelis at the link pages and tell it to import all of the links. If a site is linking to your competitor then they should be linking to you right? Quickly play the link game catchup.

2. Import a list of URL's. Gather up all of your "pending links" into a single list and import them. Then let Arelis go and hunt for the link text, description and do a whois lookup for the email address.

3. Import/export links. Define a project for each site that you want to gain links for. Want to build a new site? Export the links to a new project complete with all of the relevant detail. I use this technique to successfully gain links for new sites as I make them by emailing webmasters who have already linked to a previous site.

4. Template driven look and feel. No need for your links directory to look "plain Jane" Choose from four different layouts including "Yahoo style", "single page with subcategories" etc. Blend the directory into your site using existing CSS styles etc.

5. Find new link partners. Short of link partners? No need to be. Simply do a search by relevant keyword to find a bunch of potential suitors or find sites that link to your competitors and place them in the database.

6. Website preview feature. Split the screen in two and check out each potential link partner manually. Fantastic for seeing if your target has an "add url" page or automated script. Quickly adding the link and publishing your link pages is now a snap.

7. Email Templates. Your link request email can make the difference between a return of 15% (15/100 link exchange requests are successful) or 5%. These figures are based on my actual returns. A smart personalized link exchange email makes a big difference to your success rate.

8. Check links. If you are fanatical about checking your reciprocal links then this feature will check all of the sites who link to you for your physical link. No cheating!

Link building is hard work. Do not let anyone tell you that it is easy. You have a myriad of problems to overcome. Duff email addresses, a 1/10 take up of your link exchange request, sites that would not link to you, sites that have no link pages.

I mean you can build a database of 500 sites in a half hour if you wished using this tool, but if theses sites have no links pages then what is the point? You still have to manually inspect each site to make sure it is worth while contacting.

Whilst Arelis make some pretty advanced claims this software in no way does ALL of the work for you. It does save you tons of time and I mean tons. But you still have plenty to do and that is why link building is skipped over by many search engine optimization specialists even though - it is the most important jigsaw piece.

What Good is Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant?

• Your entire niche website directory is dynamically generated although will appear to be completely static to website visitors & search engines.
• Create or import an unlimited number of categories and sub-categories. Add new categories or sub-categories at any time in any location. Shift an entire set of website listings from one category or sub-category to another with one click.
• Manually add a new website listing with ease. Sort, manage & edit website listings by listing status (all, active, awaiting approval, suspended, premium, DMOZ imported) for all categories or a particular category or sub-category.
• Set listing links to open in the same or new window. Define how many listings to display per page. Display listings alphabetically or by date added. Manually give existing (or automatically give all new) listings "premium" status and those specific listings will always be placed in the top group of their category. This is a excellent way to give strategic link partners an additional benefit & incentive to link to you over other non-reciprocated listings in your directory.
• Requiring a reciprocal link on directory submissions is entirely optional. Turn it off if you just want to manage a standard niche website directory, turn it on if you want to build your link popularity & boost your search engine rankings by making reciprocal linking a requirement.
• Limit the title & description fields of directory listings to however many characters you like. Option to require email confirmation from all new submissions to ensure no-one is spamming your submission form. Directory listing submissions can be set to automatically approve themselves (totally automated reciprocal link / directory management) or require admin approval.
• If using the reciprocal link feature the Link Management Assistant will automatically check your reciprocal linking partners websites (at the interval you define) to ensure the link back to your own site remains in place.
• If no reciprocal link is found, you can set the listing to suspend automatically (removes the listing from the directory but retains their information in case they put the link back up), and/or automatically email the link partner about the situation inviting them to place the link back up.
• If after a pre-defined interval the link is still not found, then you can set the Link Management Assistant to automatically delete the listing from the directory and/or email the link partner to let them know they have been removed.
• You can also give all link checking schedules a "grace period" and define how many unsuccessful attempts are required before these actions occur. That way, if their site is down for standard technical reasons, you won't be bothering them with such automated link management emails to add to their frustrations, particularly as your link probably still exists on their website.
• All automatic system emails are completely customizable and can be totally personalized with the listing submitters details. You can bulk email all listing submitters, or specific listing status groups at anytime from the admin area.
• Import an entire dataset into your directory in minutes using any flat file (text) database. This allows you to easily convert your existing website directory over to one powered by the Link Management Assistant.
• Extremely Powerful - Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org) import feature allows you to import entire directory structures (including all categories & sub-categories and/or the listings contained within those categories) into your own website directory in just a matter of hours & often only minutes.
• Using the above feature gives you the ability to create a tightly focused, "lived in" niche website directory containing hundreds (or thousands) of keyword rich, high quality content pages driving hundreds of additional targeted visitors to your site... at no-cost.

Best of all, this fully functional $197 application is yours to download FREE...

The hard and the most tough part of this software is it does not support WIDOWS....so sad????