Pulling the Plug on Relusi - Looks Like Brausch Did

James D. Brausch had (has?) a PHP script product called Relusi which sets up a resource directory on your site. It was (is?) for the purpose of building reciprocal links. Links out and links back (backlinks).

I no longer recommend Relusi, for reasons detailed below. Bottom line, if you want to participate in a likely much better link exchange method, I suggest you look up "Easy Google Ranking".

Anyway, I wasted a lot of time setting up Relusi on several of my sites. I wasted a lot of time modifying the "look and feel" - the skin. I wasted a lot of time learning about the script so I could make a couple of minor user aids. I wasted a lot of time making an add-on to clean up the article files.

Then, I and some others discovered that somehow - cause unknown - massive corruption would occur, eliminating many links. So I disabled new submissions to my Relusi directories.

One philosophical problem with Relusi is that there is no enforcement of reciprocity. Someone puts a link in your directory. They are are supposed to link back to you. That is a pain in the "a" for the person putting a link on your site, so most don't do it. So they get back links but you don't. Now, Relusi does request a URL you can check to see if they really did backlink, but that is a pain in the "a" for you to verify. Relusi does not offer any automated verification, other than testing for a valid e-mail address at time of submission. And there is no ongoing verification of even your links out to the requesters' sites. I addressed that in a previous post.

Another philosophical problem is: Are reciprocal links all that valuable in the first place? I don't know. Some gurus say yes, others no. One way links, but enforced by a third party service, look to be a more sound method of getting back links.

Brausch himself obviously does not think much of Relusi

Back when Brausch had Relusi on his main blog, his Relusi directory was a mess, full of spam links. One would think that he would have at least maintained it to be a "shining example" of the product. Now, the Relusi directory on that now inactive blog redirects to another of his new blogs (home page). And I can't find Relusi on that new blog or a couple more of his blogs. 'Nuff said?