Recently I've been getting a lot of Link Requests from various people and content marketing companies. While I can understand why people do this and why people will ask for a link, sometimes it just gets really annoying and is a waste of my time.
Some people might be wondering “What are Link Requests?” Essentially a Link Request is when someone asks to place a link on your website. Most of the time people offer to guest post or blog in exchange for placing a link in the article. In my opinion this is a perfectly fair practice and Google doesn't have a problem with it. (As long as the article is reasonable and wasn't written by someone who isn't a native English speaker from some far off Asian country.)
However, what I have a problem with is when I get email Link Requests like this;
Dear Adam,
Hello, my name is Jimmy. I'm the webmaster and editor of
Shitty-Affiliate-Laden-Web-Hosting-Site.com. I'm writing to plug our newest article
on our blog: 101 [Shitty] Google+ Pages for Web Hosting News and Tips. I
thought that you and your site's audience might be interested in having a
look. Check it out:“Link Goes Here”
I would appreciate if you could link to our article if you find it of
interest. And please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or suggestions
for the list.Thanks,
Jimmy
What did this guy do wrong?
First it's clear he spent too much time writing his horrible article instead of actually reading or looking at my blog or anything I've worked on. He doesn't point out any content that I've written that he likes nor does he give me a compelling reason to link to the shitty article. So he really doesn't know who my audience is. Second, why the fuck would I send visitors to look at a blog post covering 101 Google+ pages about web hosting on an affiliate laden site? Seriously, do you people think I haven't been around the block and consequently that I am a idiot? The site this guy runs offers little value outside of the fact that he makes money on affiliate links. It's not even like this site posts reviews or offers good web hosting advice on the blog. He's probably one of those people at Affiliate Summit I would have met and largely ignored. By the way nobody has the fucking time to look through so many social media pages on a blog post. In addition a lot of those Google+ pages didn't cover web hosting or only did on occasion.
I've changed around a few things but the email is basically intact. I did add the URL though, which I thought was a nice touch. 🙂
My reply to this Link Request was, “Not sure why I would link to the article.” Since the domain name for the website was 4 letters and when I checked the domain history it was clear they had bought it from someone, I casually asked how much they paid for it. Since it's been several days and have not had a reply, I know I am not getting one.
This didn't surprise me actually as “Jimmy” probably didn't send out the email but had a Virtual Assistant (VA) do it. Pretty common for ad laden sites and SEO (search engine optimizers) do farm out these emails. However, if by chance you do get a reply I recommend you reply back. Not only did they make me annoyed sending the email but they've made me pissed even more since they didn't respond. Why would I ever work with them in the future?
Let me make this clear to my readers and anyone who is going to send Link Requests my way. I DO NOT link to sites that are just affiliate link wastelands. If you contact me straight up asking for a link there better be a good fucking reason or you will get an email that will make Satan happy.
Have you ever gotten annoying Link Requests? Do you respond or not respond? Is it good to be nice or make so that these people never want to contact you again?