So you're looking for at way to check the incoming links to your web site - or perhaps you want to track your backlinking efforts?
Well there are a lot of ways you can do this. Below I'll show you how to find the web sites that link to yours using the most common tools available.
First off we have the Yahoo Site Explorer. This is probably the most well known tool to manually check backlinks to your web site.

Next in line is good old Google, the mother of all search engines. If you want to see the backlinks Google have indexed for your web site, you go to www.google.com and type in link:www.yourdomain.com and press enter. Replace yourdomain with your own domain name. See the image below for an example.
There are a couple of problems with Google's backlink checking though: Google doesn't show you all the backlinks they have to your website using this method.
As you have probably noticed by now the backlink results that you get from both Yahoo and Google leave a lot to be desired.
If you are serious about your backlinking efforts and you want to do things the right way then you're not going to rely on the free tools that only give you half the picture. You need something that gives you a true holistic view of the incoming links from all the top 3 search engines.
You see these tools are a great starting point but there is no way you're going to compete in a crowded niche using just these tools. Get in before your competitors.
However we have made it affordable enough for everyone to join. For only $10 a month you're going to recieve a personal report