JollyK - 6:58 pm on Feb 2, 2006 (gmt 0)

I pretty much have classified almost all link requests as spam at this point, for mostly the following reasons:

I get tons of link requests addressed to an email address which contains "do_not_send_me_link_requests". (Tip 1: Know who you're contacting, and make sure it's an appropriate address.)

Most of the link requests I get are something like, "Hi, we were searching the web for azagrobous fizzpop mileage dusters and we think your site would be a swell addition to our link campaign." Half the time, I don't even know what the heck an "azagrobous fizzpop mileage duster" is, nor how in the green Earth they related it with my site. (Tip 2: Make sure that you actually visit the site, get a feel for what they are and do, and be sure that they are related to your site.)

Most of the link requests I get are obviously mass-software-generated, and the statement "I visited your site and I think ..." are obvious lies. If they had visited the site, there would be no need to send email to "do_not_send_me_link_requests." (Tip 3: Don't use the mass mailing, site-spidering, address-sucking link-generation software. Run google searches on sites with keywords that relate to your own site and actually visit them personally to see if they're appropriate. The software is dumb.)

Almost all of the link requests where they say "I have already added your link" have the aforementioned link on a page that is not reachable from anywhere in their site: you have to know the URL, because they don't link to their links page. (Tip 4: If you have already linked to their site, make it a reasonable link instead of like some huge link directory where you link to everything on the web.)

There is a link on almost every page of my site that says "Email us" and another one that says "Add your site." Anyone emailing me obviously hasn't been to my site at all. (Tip 5: see if the site has a link request policy or an Add/Submit/Request link function. If so, use that.)

This isn't to say that I still wouldn't consider a link request spam, but if someone followed the above "tips", I'd be much more likely to link to them. :-)

JK