Tracking placements: spreadsheet vs. dedicated link CRM

The unglamorous ops side of niche edits came up.

— A thread defended the humble spreadsheet — URL, anchor, date, cost, contact, status — flexible, free, and yours forever.
— Counterpoint from an agency blog: a link-management tool (or even a Notion/Airtable setup) auto-checks whether links are still live, which a spreadsheet won't do for you.
— Also circulating: a hard-won lesson that the single most valuable column is 'live-checked date' — links get pruned silently, and you only find out when you re-audit.

Editor's note: the tool barely matters; the discipline of re-checking liveness is the whole game.

Pick of the week: a spreadsheet plus a monthly automated link-liveness check beats a fancy CRM you never update.