Comments on: Would you use a Link Building Tool owned by a Link Builder?

by: Gregor

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:01:14 +0000

I suppose it’s like many things in life - a bank’s job is to make money but you still trust them with your own money.

If you choose a solid, reputable enough brand and their T&Cs are solid enough regarding privacy then you shouldn’t have too much to worry about.

But I agree that you still need to use some common sense - if it’s a dodgy site that’s just appeared a few days ago and you store all of your best tools and info on the site then you’ll probably deserve everything that comes at you!

by: aaron wall

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:10:23 +0000

I am not sure that I agree with Gab that a person/brand who uses competing private sensitive business information to harm competitors will die the second it gets out what they are doing. I mean, how many people has Rand outed? And I think they still have something like 4,000 customers.

Appearing transparent is more profitable than being transparent. And appearing honest is more profitable than being honest.

This is especially true if a business model caters to newbies who are not yet aware of market options and who do not yet have a properly calibrated b/s meter.

by: Gab Goldenberg

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:17:20 +0000

If those people aren’t still offering link building as their primary service, it’s fine. Also, you have to consider the nature of the web and reputation management. The second it gets out, the service and tool they created would die. It would be a very short term play. As to employees doing it without authorization, they’d get fired and you’d probably be able to come to an arrangement with the service owner.

by: James Svoboda

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:29:07 +0000

Hummm… allowing another link building company the ability to peek at the link building research that I, or others, have spent time working on. Does not sound like a solid idea.

If and when Yahoo stops providing their backlink data to the public (link:anydomain.com) then where will most link builders turn? Participating in a service like this would probably provide too much information to a competing company.

by: Chet

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:25:13 +0000

I agree mostly with what everyone believes. However, I think most link builders (especially new ones) will take any kind of risk as long as they get something in return. It doesn’t even occur to them that his/her private company data can be abused or used by these third parties. It’s sad, but I believe that the web is still in its infancy when it comes to the users putting blind trust on unreliable sources.