“Men have become the tools of their tools“ ~ Henry David Thoreau
1. What is the Link Building Tool Directory? It is a collection of link building, content, and marketing tools used to build links. Link building can be done in many different ways, we list tools to help you attract, manage, qualify, research, develop and execute tactics that attract links. Basically we list anything and everything to do with link building.
2. Is there a fee to be included in the Directory? Nope. No charge to be listed or reviewed since we don’t take submissions.
Why not? We want to control the size and scope of the directory, if you have a good tool and make some noise about it, we’ll find it. We set alerts and comb hundreds of RSS feeds daily, we are actively looking all the time!
3. What does “make some noise” mean? Creatively tweet at our Editor (Debra) and contribute to the discussion on our Facebook page. We notice when people reach out, we can’t always get to your tool right away, but we’ll make a note and double back eventually. Also, if you see Debra at a conference or know someone who knows her, get an introduction. She’s big on doing things for people she knows. (Note: please do not submit your site through our contact form, it will be deleted)
4. Why can’t I pay to be reviewed or listed? – Because we don’t accept money, gifts or chocolate for a review or listing on the Link Building Tool Directory on Alliance-Link. It’s our job to find, list and review tools, if you have a good one, we’ll find it.
5. Do you review all tools before you list them? – Sometimes. While we don’t review every single tool we list, we go through the tool’s website thoroughly and familiarize ourselves with all the major attributes the tool offers. Our goal is to review most of what we list but since there are more tools than time, it takes awhile.
6. If this isn’t a “pay to be listed” directory, how do you all make money? We take advantage of the affiliate programs some of the tools offer. If you click a link hosting an affiliate code and make a purchase, this site may receive a small commission from your actions. You incur no additional cost. We use commissions paid to fund our charity programs and offset operational costs of running the site. No one here is getting rich off affiliate links. We also sell advertising space.
7. What makes you all experts in reviewing online marketing tools? Debra has been an active link builder and SEO since 2001, prior to that she had 20 years marketing experience working for two major brands. Other members of our team have extensive SEO and PPC experience, between us, we’ve used a tool or three and feel we know a little about digital marketing. And if we don’t, we reach out to people who do.
8. What do you offer in the way of advertising? – We have spots in our primary sidebar and on each category listing page. All of our advertising spots are highlighted as “Sponsors” (code for saying we use nofollow attributes) and are sold in monthly increments. If you’d like a rate sheet, email debra [at] Alliance-Link[dot] com.
9. Do you accept guest contributors? Maybe. Send a short note through our Contact page with at least three links to material you’ve written plus a link to your company About page or Google Plus profile. Also, provide a one or two sentence outline of the article you want to contribute here. Keep in mind any content we host has to talk about link building or, marketing tools used to build links.
10. Can I offer my opinion on a tool you’ve reviewed? We have turned comments off on the blog and directory pages since we get a tremendous amount of comment spam. However, if you dis/agree with something we’ve written, we encourage you to read #9 above and send us a note. (Hint: we qualify contributors in part on how well they follow instructions!)
11. You’ve listed my tool and I’d like it removed, what should I do? Sorry about that, after verifying the request we’ll take it down pronto. Use our Contact form to tell us the name of the tool and where it sits on our site.
12. How long does a listing remain on your Directory? Indefinitely unless you go out of business, tick off someone here or we find you listed on a wanted poster.
13. How do I get listed in the “Articles Worth Reading” section? Do all the things we outlined on #3 to get our attention without being a pest and we’ll consider it. Doesn’t have to be new, we love evergreen content that kicks butt!
14. What type of tools do you list in the Link Building Tool Directory on Alliance-Link? Any tool listed needs to stand alone as a tool and not be part of a service. The tool needs to be the business, not something a business offers as part of their service. For example, if you own an SEO firm and offer a free backlink checking tool, we probably won’t list it because the primary focus of the business is selling SEO, not offering free tools. Service offerings such SEO and PPC are not tools. Down the line, we may make an exception and list training programs because we think training is important but we’re still mulling that one over. If your tool doesn’t fit in a category we list, there’s a very good chance it won’t be listed.
15. Are you benefiting from affiliate programs associated with the tools you list? Sometimes, but more likely not. Most of the tools we list don’t offer affiliate programs but if they do, we are probably tapped in. See #6 for more info.
16. How do you pick the charities you donate to? All of the charities we donate to and list on our site are associated with people we know or, are charities our Team supports.
Have a question not covered here? Fill out our Contact form and we’ll be in touch, thanks.