20 replies to this topic

[hobby]

I am new to this now I have 3 clients. I have been agressively building links, sending e-mails to relevant sites, adding to directories. I have quite a buit of information that is very disorganized and soon will be out ouf control. There has to be a better way to organize the names, links, and link partner data, their e-mail address, dates I added them to sites, date WE were added, the text I use in description, all that.
I tried to build something in excel and was met by several challenges-
Can some one offer me a suggestion? Is there a template of sorts out there? I dont need anything complicated. My husband has suggested building an data base but I think that might be overkill (and beyond my ability)
Thanks,
Lynne

[2ndPlatform]

How about a simple Excel spreadsheet? I recently started a link campaign myself and that is what I'm using. I have headings such as date, URL, email, request-date, expected response date, response, link delete date. That way you can sort on any of the column headings for easy reference.

A database WOULD be cool though -- maybe I'll write one and offer it for people to use. I'm finding that Excel does an ok job though.

Good luck -- let me know if you come up with anything, always good to learn new tricks.

Best regards,
Shannon

[BobetteKyle]

I tried to build something in excel and was met by several challenges

I'd use Excel, too to keep track of that type of data (something like Shannon suggested). What kinds of challenges are you running into? Maybe we can give you some pointers.

[qwerty]

I use Excel. I set up a workbook with sheets labeled Complementary, Major/Paid Directory and Minor Directory, and on each sheet I've got columns for:
Site (the site's domain name)
Link Page (URL of the page I want to get a link from)
Target (my client's home page or some other page on client site)
Contact Address (email address or page URL to which I will make the request)
Contact Name (if available, the person I need to contact)
Request Date
Reciprocal (Yes or No)
Accept Date (Left blank until I know, then I enter either "No" or the date)
Billed (I bill link building in three separate steps, so I track that here)
Notes

That usually works for me. Ocassionally, a client will insist on knowing the PR of the link page, so I'll throw in a column for that too.

[usave]

How about simply adding the link to your link's page, then simply adding "(verified: 11-6-04)" next to the link title on your site. Ones that haven't been verified to recipricate a link to you can be marked "(Pending)" or something similar? I've found this effective and takes the guess work out of which ones to delete after a period of time with no response or reciprical link back.

I also like the Excel spreadsheet idea for adding additional, and important, info. Linking is such a tedious CHORE! But if it helps with the rankings, you gotta do it. ACK!!!

[bethabernathy]

Billed (I bill link building in three separate steps, so I track that here)

If you feel compfortable with it, can you explain your billing a bit?

I am using optilink in conjunction with an excel spreadsheet. The optilink will instantly verify links, show your competitions links and pr and much much more. You can save the projects.

[qwerty]

Stage 1 is research: I come up with a list of potential link partners/directories, and send it to the client, requesting their approval of each one. So I bill for researching the sites, even if they tell me they don't want me to request any of them, in which case I go out looking for more, and bill stage 1 for them.

Stage 2 is requests: I send in the link request for each of the proposed links that the client has approved, and bill for that step.

Stage 3 is acceptance: I only bill this portion of the campaign for those sites that actually put up a link to my client's site, so this portion comes in little by little. I generally check on the outstanding links every Sunday before putting together that week's invoice.

The whole thing is laid out (and a bit over-complicated, I'm afraid) on my link building page. It's a nuisance, but it seems to me its the fairest setup for both me and the client. I'm guaranteed to get paid something for my work, whether it's successful or not, but the client doesn't pay the full amount for those links that never appear.

[bethabernathy]

Thank you Bob. That and your website details are very helpful.

[hobby]

I may be trying to do too much- the challenge I am having is: I wanted to have all my clients listed- then have info about sites, e-mail, decription, anchor text I used on that site, etc available and then be able to look and see if Client A was on site 1, or if Clients A.B,C were on site 67. Does this make sense? Not have to duplicate site info everytime I added anothr client to a site I all ready had down.
I am guessing I want to do to much. When I started workinging on it realized I couldn;t do it- Soo- most likely I should give up and have each client have there own worksheet.
I am wondering if some generous hearted soul has a BLANK excel sheet set up they woudl consider sending me. ??
Thanks!
Lynne.. who is veing sucked into vortex of data ...

[Scottie]

You might want to try software like Optilink- I haven't tried it but I think it can do a lot of what you are asking.

[LibbyLu]

I use the spreadsheet too. Debra has an article on this forum about starting a links campaign and she suggests doing that. I found it to be very helpful and it is something that is easy to send to your client. When I find a link has been added I copy it into the spreadsheet so all the client has to do is click on it to see the link.

[qwerty]

It's just a matter of taste, I guess, but I don't make the URLs in my spreadsheet clickable. Since clicking a link in an Excel spreadsheet creates a new instance of IE of exactly the same size as the Excel window, I just find it's a nuisance, since I usually run through the spreadsheet in a window that's short and wide. Doing it that way, I need to wait for IE to load, then move and resize the window every time.

Instead, I scroll to the cell containing the URL, hit ctrl-C, then go to the browser window (which is strategically located and sized for good viewing without completely covering the spreadsheet), select the address bar and hit ctrl-V.

It makes things run much more smoothly, especially if you're checking up on a lot of URLs. But I'm picky when it comes to these things

[Diniz]

If your time is worth lets say $20 an hour and you want to manage a reasonable sized links campaign (contact many hundred) then you will save alot of time using software like Arelis. It saves alot of time and makes life a lot easier. I manage 6 links directories and wouldnt be able to do even one of this size without the software. Its very powerful and I would recommend it to anyone who isnt competing with me:) You can download it for free to see how it works and buy either a single site liscence or a multiple site liscence. This software is very powerful and a worthwhile investement for mnaging a themed links directory. Spend some time designing your themes carefuly. Some of my themed links pages even bring traffic in direct from the search engines.

Heres a draft of the email i plan to use for my next campaign:

Useful Resources for your Visitors

Dear Webmaster,

I am pleased to announce 6 super web sites
your visitors may find useful.

The sites are content rich and leaders in
their field. Please include links to these
sites in your useful resources section.

Here are text links for the sites. There is
easy cut and paste banner code at this
URL.

I have visited your web site and approved it
for inclusion in our useful resources directories.
Please let me know how you would like me to
link to your web site and I will put links
up to your site in each of these directories:

Provide a banner or image for your listing
to attract more hungry visitors to your
site.

I periodically check whos referring the
most visitors to our sites and will reward
you with a higher position in your category.
The top 5 referrers go on the main page!

As a thank you for linking to our web sites
I will recommed your URL to the best travel sites
I exchange links with in the coming months. This
is a great way to get more quality link partners
while you sip a glass of wine on the veranda.

Wishing you every success with your internet
enterprise,

etc.

[bethabernathy]

I am using Zeus to exchange links and Optilink to track links. Both huge time savers. Zeus is not easy to use, takes some real effort to figure it out, but once you do, it is great. Also, I stopped using excel to track my link building projects and am now using an Access database. Much better, no more dreaded url opening and I can query and report as much as I like. I made the Access database available on my website at:

http://www.integrate..... Database.MDB

Feel free to download it. -Beth

[TUG]

Thanks for posting your datbase. I also have thought about creating one and think I will be doing that soon.

In the meantime, I have created some Perl scripts that I use to display what I call the 'raw' URL's on each links page on my site. That way I can look at the actual sites instead of the anchor text to see if I have already exchanged links with someone. It took a lot of time to create the various scripts, but now I can count total # of links on each page, actual links on each page, total # of links on all pages, etc. It really helps me avoid duplicate link submissions, and I get the information directly off my live pages.

I would suggest that if any of you have some scripting experience in ASP, VBScript, Perl, etc that you set something up that can write directly to a database. That way you can update your site and keep track of things at the same time.