I submit the software I write to a lot of submission sites. A lot of these sites refuse to list my software unless I link to their sites on my web page. Now don't get me wrong. I understand this. These are companies doing business and they probably want to boost their page rank with more links. Who doesn't? But I figure that I have valuable software that will keep people coming back to their sites. So I do not trade links to their sites for the promise of a listing for my software.
There is a flip side to this. I actually want to drive people to the sites where they can see and download my software. So after my sending my last application to a lot of submission sites, I did a Google search for my software. I was happy to see that there were many links to the sites that posted my application information. So to give these sites a little more exposure I link them all from my product partners page. I am not sure if this will make a big deal to their page rank. But every little bit counts.
The goal here is not to pay the sites back for listing me. The goal is to try to help lead people to the links to my software. I think this turns out to be a win-win situation for both myself and the listing sites. After having done this unsolicited linking to the sites that listed my application, I got an e-mail from one of the sites stating that they did not see any of my links and would be delisting my applications. At first I thought I could just send the the URL where I link to their site. But that would only encourage the link requirement shakedown. Instead I think I will wait to see what they do. Perhaps this is just an automated e-mail response to try to maximize links.
