Lizzie - This thread was started with a premise that your partner agreed to in a later post that he considers Link list owners dishonest if they get a recip and dont list the site - Im not trying to start any piss - and for those that know me, I only try to give out helpful advice to newbies starting out in the game - which is what I was trying to do
I agree about the sites needing some work and thats the best part about this board is its the place to check those sites before they get submitted - what threw me off is after being told that a bunch of places wouldnt list you - you are still running their recips??? Why not just take them off those sites and submit them elsewhere that might list them?
I was basing my (hopefully helpful in your site building) opinions so that you could avoid some of the pitfalls that can happen when starting a new venture like this - if you dont like my opinion or my help - thats fine - lots of people have and some havent - not a big deal - if that sounds egotistical so be it - but I have to say thats the first time I've ever been called that
The other problem is the premise that you started with and a lot of the large link list owners obviously took offense - which is their right - and what I was trying to point out is that starting out trying to get traffic to free sites with just submitting to LLs that send rejection emails will not make you sucessful in the free site biz - maybe it came across differently, but it was just some advice that you might consider changing your game plan as it is based on a false premise - that a link list gets any benefit from a recip (evidently you think that the SEs care about them) other than a few hits a year and if you dont have time to check to see if you are listed and if not - pull the recip - then you don't have the time to do this free site thing correctly.
I guess an anology would be, wouldn't it be a smart biz decision to check your stats to see if the way a free site is built is selling? and If not change the way you build them? This is exactly the same thing as just simply checking the link lists after you submit to see if you are getting listed, as None of the large link lists other than R's R (and those rejection emails are usually wrong anyway) even send the emails, so why base your whole biz model on something that doesnt exist?
I can also tell you that basing an opinion on whether a site was looked at or reviewed on where the hit came from is probably not a good assumption - most of the larger LLs use proxys, fake user agents etc to find out what really happens to their surfers when deciding to list a site - so seeing someones admin area hits is not a good indicator. Most of us are now also running scripts that check whois info, redirections etc that are much more sophisticated than what you are used to in the TGP world - very rarely will you be able to tell when someone has reviewed your site.
Last - your last statement about why dont the LL owners who dont like the sites stay out of this - I believe most people on this board try to help everyone by donating their time here - unlike the other boards, almost every post in this thread has had some helpful advice - its up to you to do what you want with it