martinibuster - 10:52 pm on Nov 6, 2005 (gmt 0)

Personally speaking, I prefer mailing owners who tell their webmasters what to do.

I used the word webmasters as a catchall for the point of contact. But you raise an interesting side issue that's worth talking about.

It's good practice to email whoever is designated on the website as the point of contact. I'm hesitant to send an email to the owner/president/whoever of the company if the website is explicit about who to email about website suggestions. I would never email someone listed on the whois information, especially if that's the only information listed, as there are spam issues to consider, especially if your domain is listed with Godaddy.

Certainly small mom & pops who are the owners/webmasters/mail room clerk are a good way to go, especially if they don't know anything about WebmasterWorld, PR, and "the value of links."

So no, not "build it and they will come" but "if you are building it right, then they will come"...

I think it's fair to say that when people say "If you build it they will come" it's assumed that what is being built will be right. While it helps to build it right, there is more that goes along with it. It's not enough to build it right.

I don't want anything on my sites that implies that I am conscious of links...

Yeah, I know what you're getting at. I hate any mention whatsoever of PageRank, Google, ranking, optimization and search engines.

Not saying you're wrong about not mentioning links, though. I can see why it's not appropriate for some sites, especially if you're corporate.

But for my own sites I'm way ok with encouraging people to link. Bring them on. ;)Y

Personal experience has made me a believer in the phrase, "you won't get what you don't ask for," and depending on the kindness of strangers has never sounded like a viable strategy.

But you raise a good point that asking for links might not fit into the brand/design scheme of every website.

I do not seek viral linkage volume...

To each his own. It is a fact that quantity of links will go a long way to voting you to the top of the serps. I'm not afraid of one-way inbounds- not even from scrapers. If I can nudge a little light to go off in someon's head and throw a link to my site because they liked it, well what's the harm in that?

Before I even start on the site, I will consider how to integrate a honeypot for those particular sites that might encourage them to link to me.

Excellent advice. Researching possible link partners and taking some time to think up a list of possible partner niches is a good idea. The planning process usually happens after I've discovered a good niche to build in, but before I purchase a domain name. Fantastic point, thanks for bringing that up, stever.