{"id":4388,"date":"2026-10-09T13:10:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T13:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/saas-link-credits-explained\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T13:10:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T13:10:42","slug":"saas-link-credits-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/saas-link-credits-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Link credits explained: how SaaS teams earn and spend backlinks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most SaaS companies are sitting on a link asset they never use: their own blog.<\/p>\n<p>You publish guides, comparisons and how-tos every month. Other sites would happily pay for a relevant link inside them. And you need links from sites just like yours. Link credits connect those two things, and this post explains how they work on 3way.social.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-4387\" src=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/saas-link-credits-explained.jpg\" alt=\"a network of website cards connected by glowing lines with credit coins moving between many different sites\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/saas-link-credits-explained.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/saas-link-credits-explained-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/saas-link-credits-explained-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/saas-link-credits-explained-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Building links for a SaaS product?<\/strong> See how credits and done-for-you packages work for your category on our <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/\">SaaS link building page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>The short version<\/h3>\n<p>3way.social is a network of 14,000+ member sites. Credits are the currency. You get them 2 ways and use them 2 ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Earn credits<\/strong> by placing a relevant link on one of your pages for another member<\/li>\n<li><strong>Buy credits<\/strong> by card, if you&#8217;d rather not place links at all<\/li>\n<li><strong>Spend credits<\/strong> on links from any member site, matched to your topic<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cash out credits<\/strong> via PayPal, if you only want to sell<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mix them however you like. Plenty of SaaS teams do all 4.<\/p>\n<h3>Why credits work better than one-to-one deals<\/h3>\n<p>The old way was to email another site and offer a link in return. Which means you&#8217;re stuck with whoever says yes, even if their site isn&#8217;t relevant, and you both end up linking to each other.<\/p>\n<p>Credits break that link. You might place a link for a marketing blog on Monday, then spend the credits on a placement on a SaaS review site on Thursday. The site that gives you a link is almost never the site you gave one to. It&#8217;s a market with thousands of participants, so every placement can go where it makes the most sense for both sites.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the &#8220;3way&#8221; in the name. Paul links to Simon, Simon links to Bob, and Bob links to Paul, except across a network of 14,000+ sites, so the chain can run in any direction.<\/p>\n<h3>How a site&#8217;s credit price is set<\/h3>\n<p>This bit matters, because it&#8217;s what keeps the whole thing equitable. Every site is priced by the same formula, using:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Domain Rating<\/li>\n<li>Organic traffic<\/li>\n<li>Spam score<\/li>\n<li>Niche<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Prices aren&#8217;t negotiated, and no one gets a better rate because they know someone. For example, a DR 74 site with around 38,000 monthly visitors comes out at about 133 credits per link. A smaller, newer blog costs far less.<\/p>\n<p>So you can sell 2 links on your mid-sized blog and use those credits on 1 link from a much bigger site. Or the other way round. Either way, you&#8217;re getting fair value. Our free <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/tools\/domain-link-value\/\">domain link value tool<\/a> shows what any domain is worth in credits, no sign-up needed.<\/p>\n<p>Guest posts can be priced up to 200% of a site&#8217;s base link price, since someone&#8217;s writing a whole article.<\/p>\n<h3>What a deal looks like, step by step<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>You add your SaaS site<\/strong> and the pages you want to rank: comparison pages, &#8220;alternatives&#8221; pages, docs, templates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>AI matching finds placements.<\/strong> The <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/features\/ai-link-finder\/\">AI Link Finder<\/a> searches member sites for indexed articles that already mention your topic, and shows you the exact page, its traffic and its credit cost.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You send a request.<\/strong> The site owner can accept, decline or suggest a better page on their site. Nothing happens until both of you agree.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credits go into escrow.<\/strong> They&#8217;re locked, not paid, until the link is verified live and do-follow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The link is checked every day.<\/strong> If it disappears, we get it reinstated or refund your credits. That&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/features\/protected-deals\/\">link guarantee<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Your search keeps running in the background too. New member sites join all the time, and you get a weekly email with fresh matches.<\/p>\n<h3>How SaaS teams use credits in practice<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The content-heavy SaaS.<\/strong> You publish 8 posts a month on topics like sales ops or HR. You open your blog to link insertions (with your own rules, like &#8220;no gambling, no crypto&#8221;), earn credits steadily, and spend them on placements pointing at your comparison pages. Link building pays for itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The early-stage SaaS.<\/strong> Your blog is too new to earn much. So you buy credits and spend them on 5 to 10 placements on relevant sites, then start earning once your own traffic grows.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The busy SaaS.<\/strong> You don&#8217;t want to touch any of it. That&#8217;s what the <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/seo-packages\/\">done-for-you packages<\/a> are for: from $1,250 for 5 links for B2B SaaS, delivered in 15 to 20 days.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>See what your own blog could earn.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/app.3way.social\/auth\/register\">Join free<\/a> (no card needed), add your domain, and you&#8217;ll see its credit value straight away.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Common questions<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Do I approve every link placed on my site?<\/strong><br \/>Yes. You set guidelines for what you&#8217;ll accept, and you approve or decline every request.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can I choose the page my link goes on?<\/strong><br \/>Yes. You see the exact article before you request, and the owner can suggest an alternative if a better one fits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does a credit cost in cash?<\/strong><br \/>You&#8217;ll see the dollar value when you buy or cash out in the app. If you&#8217;re pricing a specific site, the <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/tools\/backlink-price-calculator\/\">backlink price calculator<\/a> uses the same formula.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is this only for SaaS?<\/strong><br \/>No, members cover almost every niche. But SaaS companies get a lot out of it because they publish so much content. We&#8217;ve written up how it works for <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/marketing-sales-tools\/\">MarTech<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/developer-tools\/\">developer tools<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/hr-recruiting\/\">HR software<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/fintech-accounting\/\">fintech<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/ecommerce-tools\/\">e-commerce apps<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/ai-tools\/\">AI tools<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/vertical-saas\/\">vertical SaaS<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/saas\/productivity-collaboration\/\">productivity tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wondering what this costs compared with an agency? I&#8217;ve broken down <a href=\"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/saas-link-building-cost\/\">SaaS link building costs in 2026<\/a>, with sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most SaaS companies are sitting on a link asset they never use: their own blog. You publish guides, comparisons and how-tos every month. Other sites would\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backlink-fundamentals","category-link-building"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3way.social\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}