AI backlink outreach that runs itself
It mines the pages linking to your competitors and not to you, and the reporters already asking for somebody like you. Every opening arrives judged, with the email written.
From $300 a month · Free domain diagnostic
Reads these on a schedule, without an account of yours
- SourceBottle
- Help a B2B Writer
- Apple Podcasts
- Google News
- Bluesky
- Conference CFPs
- Awards programmes
- Contributor guidelines
One opening, and the email it came with
This is what a run hands you: a page at a real publication with a way in, and the message already written for it. Nothing here is a customer of ours, and nothing here was paid for.
Opening foundRe: what small operators cut first. 9 years, 3 downturns
You asked what gets cut first. In our case it was paid search, and it was the wrong call. We lost the top of the funnel and spent two quarters rebuilding it. Happy to give you the numbers on the record.
Example page at Forbes · Journalist request
7 New Rules For Success In The First Year Of Your Career
Read, judged, drafted
One real run, one domain. These are the only numbers on this page, and they are the ones that describe the product rather than flatter it.
110 openings read
Across every source, before anything is judged. Nine of the connectors are keyless, so a run needs no accounts and no API keys from you.
- SourceBottle65
- Apple Podcasts18
- Help a B2B Writer12
- Conference CFPs9
- Awards programmes6
40 judged individually
Each one assessed against what this business can honestly say. The judge is allowed to say “this business cannot honestly answer this”, and it does say it.
- Fintech reporter, funding roundKept
- Asks for a $400 “admin fee”Dropped
- Needs a US clinical trialDropped
- Podcast, ops teams, books guestsKept
Reason kept with the row
Kestrel cannot honestly answer this one.
14 kept
What was left. The filtering is the product, not the volume. Every one arrives with the email, the form or the reply already written.
- To
- newsdesk@opsweekly.com
- From
- you@kestrel.io
Re: ops leaders on rota software
You asked what breaks first when a team outgrows spreadsheets. For us it was the handover between shifts, and it cost us two weeks before anyone said so. Happy to give you the numbers on the record.
Two questions, and most tools only answer one
Mining and earning behave like different markets. The vocabulary is different, the people are different, and the tools built for one are usually silent about the other. Mentionry runs both, which is the only reason it is worth having instead of two subscriptions.
Mine: links your competitors already have
Who links to my competitors and not to me, and which of those would plausibly link to me? It mines competitor backlink profiles and classifies which links are actually replicable, then searches your niche directly for resource pages and directories that take submissions. That second half matters: a gap report can only ever show you pages a competitor already reached.
Pages that link to your competitors and not to you.
Earn: people already asking for someone like you
Journalist requests matched to what you can honestly answer. Reporters who covered the subject last week, by name, from the byline. Podcasts that book guests, with the address their feed publishes. Conferences taking speakers. Awards taking entries. Publications that print contributor guidelines.
Matched on what Kestrel can honestly answer, not on a keyword.
The same sources, published free
These are read from the connectors the product runs, refreshed on a schedule, and filtered against today. 321 podcasts booking guests across 21 subjects, 27 open calls for speakers, 1074 publications with written contributor guidelines across 24 subjects, and 437 awards programmes across 14 industries.
Free to read
Every opening judged one at a time, with the reason kept
Not a score and not a sort. Each opening is assessed on whether this business can honestly answer it, and the reason it was kept travels with the row. A list of 400 unfiltered prospects is a list you will not work through.
SourceBottle · read 06:12 · closes in 2 days
Kept, and here is why
The reporter wants an operator who has run shift handovers at scale and will go on the record. Kestrel has nine years of it and has published its own numbers before, so the answer is first-hand rather than a comment on somebody else's.
…and a lot more besides
- Reporters by bylineReporters by bylineThe people already covering this, not just the ones asking today.
- Mentions with no linkMentions with no linkWhere you were named and not linked, with the page and the line.
- Where rivals get coveredWhere rivals get coveredThe outlet that wrote them up last month, before the next piece.
- The booking addressThe booking addressPodcasts, from the show's own feed rather than a contact form.
- Filtered against todayFiltered against todayA closed call is not an opportunity. Past deadlines never appear.
- Qualifies before it minesQualifies before it minesTells you when there is no pool worth mining, instead of a report.
- AI Overviews, and only thoseAI Overviews, and only thoseWhether Google's answer cites you. No claim about other assistants.
- Nine connectors, no keysNine connectors, no keysPublic sources. Only your own mailbox is ever connected, and only to send.
What it will not do
Every product in this category has a list like this and most of them keep it internal. Here it is, because the things a tool refuses tell you more about it than the things it advertises.
It will not find you a paid placement
Buying a link that passes ranking signals violates Google's link spam policy, and the penalty falls on your domain rather than the seller's. Marketplaces are filtered out of every channel, twice.
What it actually says
“This reply asks for payment in exchange for a link. I will not write that response.”
It will not say a page is unlinked when it could not read it
A page we failed to open is reported as unchecked. The difference sounds small until you pitch somebody who already linked to you.
What it actually says
“Unchecked: this page returned 403 and was not read.”
It will not send from a domain of ours
The outreach goes out through your own connected mailbox or it does not go out. Your address, your domain reputation, and replies in a thread you own rather than one we do.
What it actually says
“No mailbox connected. Three drafts are ready and none of them has been sent.”
Its AI visibility check covers Google AI Overviews and nothing else
Not other assistants, whatever the rest of that category advertises. See AI answer visibility.
The drafting refuses too
The judge is allowed to say “this business cannot honestly answer this”, and it does say it. So does the drafting: hand it a reply asking for money in exchange for a link and it declines, and tells you why.
It goes out from the address you already use
Connect your own Gmail and the outreach sends from your own address, so replies land in your inbox and the sender reputation it builds is yours. That is the only connection the product asks for.
- Re: ops leaders on rota softwarenewsdesk@opsweekly.comSent
- One more for the stack listeditor@shiftdesk.coSent
- Submission: Kestrelhello@rotaguide.ioSent
Questions people actually ask
These are some of our most frequently asked questions.
Is this backlink automation, or does it just find prospects?
Both halves are automated, and the second half is the one that matters. Most tools in this category stop at a list: they find prospects, hand you a spreadsheet, and leave you the work that actually takes the time — reading each opening, deciding whether you can honestly answer it, and writing the specific pitch that one needs. Mentionry runs the whole loop on a schedule. Nine connectors read public sources with no account or API key of yours, every opening is judged one at a time with the reason kept, and each one that survives arrives with the email, the form contents, or the reply already written.
Does Mentionry send the emails?
Yes. It writes three things — an email to a person, the contents of somebody else's form, and a reply once they answer — and it sends them from your own connected mailbox rather than from a Mentionry domain, so replies land in your inbox and the sending reputation you build is your own.
Do I have to connect accounts or supply API keys?
No. Nine of the connectors read public sources and need nothing from you. The only optional connection is your own Gmail, and that is only so drafts land somewhere useful instead of on a clipboard.
How many opportunities will it find?
That depends entirely on the domain, and any tool that answers this with a number is quoting a sales figure rather than a measurement. On one real run for one domain it read 110 openings, judged 40 of them worth a second look, and kept 14. The filtering is the product. A list of 400 unfiltered prospects is a list you will not work through.
Will it find me paid guest posts or link placements?
No. Paying for a link that passes ranking signals is a violation of Google's link spam policy, and the penalty lands on your site rather than on the seller's. Marketplaces are filtered out of every channel, and if a reply asks for payment for a link, the drafting refuses to write the response and says why.
Does it work for a brand new site with no backlinks?
Partly, and it tells you which part. The first thing it does is qualify the domain: whether there is a competitor pool worth mining at all. A new site usually has nothing to mine and everything to earn, so the answer is that the earn channels are where your time goes. That is a real answer rather than a report full of rows you cannot use.
What about HARO, Source of Sources and Connectively?
All three work, and none of them is automatic. HARO is running and emails its queries to subscribed sources for free. Source of Sources is Peter Shankman's own follow-up to HARO, also free, up to three emails a day, and there you reply straight to the journalist. Connectively is a separate platform you submit through. Mentionry does not read your mailbox and does not log into anybody's platform, so it does not pull those queries in on its own. Paste one in and it does the part that takes the time: it judges whether you can honestly answer it and writes the pitch. Source of Sources is worth reading its own rules on, because they are ours too: reply off topic once and you are removed, no appeals. That is exactly what the judging is for.
Fourteen channels, and what each one is for
The mine channels ask who links to your competitors and not to you. The earn channels ask who is already looking for somebody like you. Pick one and read what it does.
Against the alternatives, on their own published facts
Every comparison page here quotes the vendor's own pricing page with a link and the date it was read, says plainly when you should pick them instead, and states what Mentionry does not do. A comparison page that would be useless without us on it is an advert.
Reads these on a schedule, without an account of yours
- SourceBottle
- Help a B2B Writer
- Apple Podcasts
- Google News
- Bluesky
- Conference CFPs
- Awards programmes
- Contributor guidelines
Find out what your domain is missing
Qualifying a domain is free and it is the honest first question: some sites have a pool worth mining and some have nothing to mine and everything to earn. Run that first.
One plan. There is no cheaper rung with things taken out of it.
- Both engines, all fourteen channels
- Every opening judged one at a time, with the reason kept
- The email, the form or the reply drafted for each one
- Sent from your own mailbox, so the replies come to you
- Nine connectors that need no key and no account of yours
- Marketplaces and paid placements filtered out, twice