No matter what Google says about reciprocal links or how much they crack down on paid links, everyone is going to be soliciting links. Paid links are still big business, and the reciprocal link requests are flooding my inbox like it’s 1999!

Since the web is built around links, you need to get links, that’s a given. But there’s a lot to learn about getting them. Some bloggers give some good advice on getting in touch with top bloggers, but I haven’t seen anyone tell you exactly what NOT to do!

Without further ado, here are 3 perfect examples of what NOT to send to someone you want links from:

The “Wait… Do I Know You?”

Hello,

We are following up on our recent phone call and wanted to speak with you or the appropriate person in your organization about the benefits of joining the Mojive Interactive Network.

We noticed that you are driving traffic and promoting performance-based campaigns in the health and fitness category and would like to tell you more about the advertising campaigns sourced by Mojive Interactive that can be promoted via search marketing, opt-in email lists, and general banner/text link placements.

Mojive Interactive - with its superior account management, extremely competitive payouts, and aggressive payment terms - would like to explore several of these options with your site.

Contact us at your earliest opportunity and we look forward to getting you set-up with a new account to our proprietary publisher network.

Thank you for your time,

Mojive Interactive

First of all, I never heard of Mojive Interactive. Strike one.

Second, they sent that email to a personal email address of mine, not a business email. Strike two.

Third, they don’t even use my name or mention one of my websites. Strike three.

So not only is it a generic template email, it pisses me off. To the trash bin with you!

(*I think they must have gotten my info from spammers/telemarketers or something, considering they have outdated info and say nothing about my company or websites.)

The Old-Fashioned Link Farmer

Dear Webmaster,

I am sorry for sending you a second email. I have emailed you a request for adding a link to my client’s website, on your “Links” page.

[MY URL]/links.htm

I am only sending this email as a reminder. Kindly consider listing it under your links section or any other minimum PR 3 page.

If you think we can go ahead, here’s some information about my client’s site:

Title – Lap Band
Url : http://www.lapspam.com/lapband-weight-loss-surgery.php
Description - Safe, effective Lap Band weight loss surgery

Title – Hoodia Gordonii Plus
Url : http://www.redapplespam.com/hoodia-gordonii-plus.html
Description - Don’t be fooled by products that claim to have real hoodia gordonii! Powerslim is one of the few products that offers 100% Pure hoodia gordonii plus and has the proof to back it.

I will add your site on my site here,
http://www.impsport.com/links/links08.html
http://dynamic.rssunderground.com/Fitness.html

If you have any queries or you’d like more information, kindly contact me.
And thank you very much for your consideration!

Thanks,
Link Manager

At least this person emailed me at a proper email address and listed my URL they were interested in. But they offered to put my link on some super cheesy link farm! Are you kidding?!

The Nigerian Bank Linker

Dear Beneficiary,
The Foundazion Di Vittorio has chosen you by the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a link exchange.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary 2007 program, We are giving out a yearly donation of $500,000.00 USD to 40 lucky webmasters,as charity donations/aid from the Vittorio Foundation, ECOWAS, EU and the UNO
To file for your claim, You are to fill out below information and send it to the Payment Remitance Office Via their email contact address below

Full Name:….. Address:…….Occupation:…..Country:…..phone:……
Sex:……….Age:……….Next of Kin:………….Winning Batch No:……..
Reciprocal Link URL:…………………………………………………………

Payment Remitance Officer’s Contact
Mr Adolfo Pepe
E-Mail: fdv_claimsagent07@yahoo.it
http://www.fondazionedivittorio.it

Ok ok, I didn’t get that exact email looking for a reciprocal link…

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It is nearly impossible to stop your email address from getting spammed. Even if no one knows it, it will probably get spammed some day.

For emails that are made public, the amount of spam can be devastating. So if you’re going to display your email address, do it the smart way!

For me, the smart way is to use a little JavaScript to mask the email address. That link will take you to a site telling you how to do it, too.

That script is great because it displays a clickable email address to your site visitors, but it just displays some words and code to spam bots.

Why bother?

Well, writing your email address on a web page is just asking for spam. You could put your email in an image and display that, but it’s inconvenient for your visitors and these days, spam bots can decipher the image.

Writing your email like person AT yahoo DOT com can work, but again, it can be a pain for your visitors. Spam bots will surely pick up on that tactic too.

So do yourself a favor and use this JS method. Most people will have JavaScript enabled so you shouldn’t have a big problem with that.

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For anyone new to Wordpress that isn’t using the Akismet plugin, I have some advice for you: Start using it!

When I first started with Wordpress, I didn’t know what Akismet was. I only knew that you needed an API key, and since I didn’t have one, I just ignored it. Boy was that a bad decision.

I heard about the wonders of Akismet when I was searching for ways to stop all this blog comment spam, so I bit the bullet and started using it. It was extremely easy to get started, and your blog probably has Akismet bundled with it to begin with.

First, get an API key. To do that, just head on over to www.wordpress.com and sign-up for an account. If you only want the API key, you can choose “just a username, please.” Then they will email you your account information, including the API key. (The key is near the bottom of the email.)

Then just go to the “Plugins” tab in your blog and activate Akismet. Enter your API key where necessary.

Like magic, your comment spam will disappear!

Well, it won’t really disappear, but Akismet will hide it so you never have to deal with it. It will save lots of time and will save you from the let down when you get excited about comments which just turn out to be spam

Since 95% of all blog comments are spam, I recommend installing Akismet right now!

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I remember the days of my very first personal email address. It was the only one I used, and I gave it out to all my friends and family. Then I started surfing the net… and giving out my email to any site promising a free special report that would make me lots and lots of money without any effort. It wasn’t long before I got twenty emails every day - enough to make me excited!

But the excitement wore off real fast, considering 90% of the emails were spam. As the years went by and the amount of spam increased to thousands of messages daily, I realized the importance of having a few yahoo and hotmail addresses. Those were for giving out to any websites, leaving my personal email for my personal business.

That method worked pretty well, but it was still a pain to register a bunch of @yahoo.com addresses, only to have them ruined by one spammer. But there weren’t any other options, especially when seemingly credible websites started selling out to spammers. (Add in human errors like pasting a bunch of emails into the “To” field instead of “BCC” and even good-intentioned business people could screw you over!)

But those days are slowly dissipating thanks to a new service called 10 Minute Mail. They let you sign-up for a new email address at the click of a button, and you get access to that email for 10 minutes before it self-destructs!

Why do something like that? Well, if you have been dabbling in internet marketing for a while, you know there are lots of shady characters lurking out there. If you’re still new, then just read this advice from 10 Minute Mail:

Maybe you want to sign up for a site which requires that you provide an e-mail address to send a validation e-mail to. And maybe you don’t want to give up your real e-mail address and end up on a bunch of spam lists. This is nice and disposable. And it’s free.

That sounds ideal. I’ve been using their service and so far it has performed flawlessly. Check it out at 10minutemail.com.

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I had to send an email today, and I did. (Good story, huh?)

So I sent the email, but a few hours later I got a message back from the Mailer Deamon or whatever his name is. Turns out the ISP of the recipient has blacklisted the IP address of my hosting company! My important email was returned to sender for no apparent reason!

Granted, I’m sure there are some other websites on this IP address. But more than likely, the ISP blacklisted me for no good reason. Although I’m mad, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. These days I expect to have to jump through hoops and pay huge fees to get my emails delivered! (And then getting them read is even harder…)

Moral of the story: Spam has caused tons of problems. Email can be a pain in the ass now. Overactive ISPs suck. Shared hosting accounts suck.

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