Question 1

How does verification work?

Accepted Answer

You submit your site, your niches and your own metrics, then prove the site is yours by publishing a page at a specific URL on your domain. I read every application by hand and spot-check your numbers against my own Ahrefs and Moz access.

Question 2

Who gets turned down?

Accepted Answer

Sites that are thin, copied, AI-generated or built for links rather than readers. New sites are welcome: if you are a real travel blogger sharing honest experience, with your own photos and your own words, being new counts for nothing against you. I tell you why rather than leaving you wondering, and you are welcome to reapply once it is a fit.

Question 3

Is the directory public?

Accepted Answer

No. Only approved members see it. That costs us some organic signups and it stops the people already inside being scraped by outside link buyers.

Question 4

Can other members see which sites I own?

Accepted Answer

Only the ones you choose to show. Every site is hidden from other members by default, and you decide site by site what appears in the directory and on your profile, so you can run several without them being tied to your name. I can see every site, because I review them. The exception is anything you put on the board yourself: a page you post, or a link you offer, names that page to the member who sees it.

Question 5

Do you run link swaps or chains?

Accepted Answer

No. This site ran both and stopped. Pairing two members and asking them to link to each other produces the exact pattern search engines describe as a scheme, whichever shape you bend it into. Asking and giving are separate acts here, and the only rule is that you cannot take more than two links further than you have given.

Question 6

Will this get my site penalised?

Accepted Answer

No. The whole philosophy here is that you only link to pages that genuinely add value to your own, and nobody is ever required to give a link. Links are given because a member thought a page was worth it, not because they owed one, and that is the opposite of the schemes search engines penalise. Every member is checked by a person, and nobody is paired with anybody.

Question 7

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

Access is free while we are testing. Paid membership will follow, currently planned at $39 a year, because reading every application by hand takes ongoing work. Approved members hear by email before it starts and nobody is charged without agreeing. Links you have already built stay where they are either way. The pricing page has the details.

Question 8

Where do I see the links I've given and received?

Accepted Answer

On My links. Every accepted link is listed there for both members, with the page it's on, where it points and the anchor you agreed.

Question 9

What if a link I was promised never goes up, or comes down?

Accepted Answer

Message the member about it. Messages can't be edited or deleted, so the thread is a fair record of what was agreed. If that doesn't sort it out, report them and a person reads it.

Question 10

Can I report a listing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every listing and profile has a report action. Reports come to me rather than an algorithm, and can end in a warning, a suspension or a ban.

Is a link exchange safe, and is this one?

Getting in

How the exchange works

After a link is agreed

Still stuck on something?