26 replies to this topic

[turbocashuk]

Hi everyone
Sorry if this question has been asked before - I'm sure it has.
I have just received an email from a site saying they have a client that wishes to link with me, and if I reply yes, they'll give the site's info. I can decided whether to do a reciprical link or not.
I'm very aware of link farms etc, and just wondering whether everyone else gets this on a frequent basis.
I'm not interested so much in the search engine rankings but more just getting traffic. They say their site would be of interest to mine.

[darciusrex]

Will they give you the client's information and url beforehand so you can make an educated decision or are they withholding it until you tell them yes or no?

[deborah2002]

I can say I get at least 5 of those a day. They aren't addressed to me or my company- just a lot of "I saw your site and think we should link" kind of stuff.

I never respond or even acknowledge those. I chuck them after the first few words. When someone of quality wants you, they will introduce themselves up front and give specific, detailed reasons why you should link up.

Those are done my automation. I find those mildly insulting (maybe I'm too sensitive or something).

Always expect a letter to be sent to you the way YOU'D send one--otherwise people (like me) treat it as spam.

Just my thought (rant )


deb

[Jill]

It's spam. Give it the respect that it's due and file it in your delete folder for posterity.

Jill

[Haystack]

That's definitely spam. When we request links on behalf of clients, we tell the prospective linking site who the client is and what page of their site is the page we thought would be a relevant place to ad a link. It's more labor intensive than the shotgun approach of an automated link requesting program, but the quality of links is much higher, and it often leads to valuable networking opportunities.

[turbocashuk]

Thanks everyone.

They will tell me who the client is and the page that wants to link and why a reciprical link would be mutually beneficial - only if I reply to the email.

I then have the option to decide yes or no.

The question is: what's in it for the company that sent me the email? Putting two people together to get a link - where do they make money?

[csjavi]

The question is: what's in it for the company that sent me the email? Putting two people together to get a link - where do they make money?

I can think of a reason.
First of all, the other client might not even exist. They find out that the email address is valid and in use. Add it to a list of valid email addresses and sell the list to other spammers and clients.

This is all speculation, not personal experience or knowledge. Mail like this goes straight to my spam folder and gets deleted.

I'm sure there are more ways to make a profit with this kind of operation. I'm just not cunning enough to think of them.

[turbocashuk]

That is a possibility, however they do give you the url of the website to see if it's worthwhile linking to it. Only if you agree to do so after that will a reciprical link take place. So using a website that does not exist is unlikely.

Also, they can easily just get my email from the website and add it to their list. It may not be opt-in but they still have it.

[Jill]

spam spam spam spam spam



Tell them to go bounce in a lake.

[csjavi]

That is a possibility, however they do give you the url of the website to see if it's worthwhile linking to it. Only if you agree to do so after that will a reciprical link take place. So using a website that does not exist is unlikely.

I got the impression that they give the link to the site after you have responded to their email. If they gave the link in their first mail, the other site must obviously exist. That still doesn't mean that the owner of the other site knows anything about the whole thing

Also, they can easily just get my email from the website and add it to their list. It may not be opt-in but they still have it.

Yes, they can get your email address from your site. However, an email address that they know is valid and in use is worth more. There's no point in spamming a random address like sdfglkdfg@sdglkdfg.dfg or an address that nobody reads. There must be millions of mailboxes that still exist but nobody reads the mail.

[turbocashuk]

Yes they do give you the url only after you respond yes to the first email. So the site must exist and be proper otherwise it's hardly worth their effort.

In the end if this is nothing more than building an opt-in email list I suppose it's quite effective. A lot of people will fall for this sort of thing. They dont give contact details on their site (which they claim has been going since 1998) because spam-haters have tried to have a go at them in the past.

[turbocashuk]

One other thing. If this is bogus, and all they want is your email address, they would not be in business very long. A lot of disgruntled users would get their website shut down in no time.

BUT having just read the reviews on alexa is does anyhow look like a waste of time and spam city.

[deborah2002]

Like I said, If they REALLY wanted your link, they'd make the email more personal and explain in detail why it would benefit the both of you. The fact they want you to reply BEFORE they give any info at all is disturbing at best and just screams of

Like Jill said, delete it. Giving them the knowledge that your emial address is valid is only gonna produce more "link to us" emails, along with vi*gra, digital cameras, and Russian chicks who want to meet you.

Good luck!


deb

[SearchRank]

Yeah we used to get tons of these emails all the time until recently. We killed all email addresses that were getting spammed and made sure there were no email addresses on our site that could be harvested. The email addresses that are actually shown are graphics, not text. Otherwise, they have to fill out the reply forms in which the email address is hidden in the Perl script.

So if someone wants to exchange links with us, a human will have to fill out our contact form.

Otherwise, it is most always spam and email address harvesting.

[BrianR]

We killed all email addresses that were getting spammed and made sure there were no email addresses on our site that could be harvested. The email addresses that are actually shown are graphics, not text. Otherwise, they have to fill out the reply forms in which the email address is hidden in the Perl script.

David

That will certainly stop spammers harvesting your email addresses, but won't it also stop people like me from contacting you - people who hate filling in forms, but who will happily send a quick email??

BrianR