Being a link builder that has built tens of thousands of links, I get a lot of requests for link exchanges. These days these link exchange requests come primarily from out of country webmasters and link building companies. I suspect this happens because of the low cost of outsourced labor and the lack of knowledge by website owners thinking that link exchanges are still effective. Quite frankly I haven’t bothered looking at any link exchange requests in a long time. However the one that follows made it through my spam filters and caught my eye. To me, this is both ingenious and sad. Sad because it takes advantage of the webmaster who does not know better.
The link builder who sent this e-mail preys upon those who do not understand link building. They state as fact “As you know, linking benefits both of us by raising our search rankings and generating more traffic to both of our sites.”
Of course link building does benefit both sites. However nowhere in this message does the link builder offer a reciprocal link (which provides very limited benefit) or even offer to provide a link back from another site. Instead, this link builder implies that I will receive benefit for giving them a link. I think a lot of webmasters are still conditioned to think that if you put a link up the person you link to will give you a reciprocal link.
I have changed the name e-mail address and URL in the following message.
Barton hoode barton.hoode@some.com
4:06 AM (4 hours ago)
Dear Webmaster
I am barton woot of myfinancialdream.org
As you know, linking benefits both of us by raising our search rankings and generating more traffic to both of our sites.
My link information is below:
Title : Debt Consolidation
URL : http://www.myfinancialdream.org/debt-consolidation-page.htm
Desc : American Financial Solutions – Non-Profit Agency: Free, confidential, debt counseling and debt management options. One low monthly payment, lower interest rates and fees.
HTML code for the above information is :
<a href=”http://www.myfinancialdream.org/debt-consolidation-page.htm”>Debt Consolidation</a> -American Financial Solutions – Non-Profit Agency: Free, confidential, debt counseling and debt management options.
One low monthly payment, lower interest rates and fees.
Awaiting for your positive reply with exact URL where my link is present.If you are not the concerned person, please forward my email to your webmaster.
Thanks & Regards,
Barton
barton.woot@some.com