Forum Moderators: martinibuster
What about the following subjects? Bad or Good?
1. Link Exchange Invitation
2. Link Exchange Requests
3. Webmaster's Name, Link Exchange Information
4. PR5/4 links to your site
5. Your site has been added on my PR5/4 page
6. I've introduce your site to my visitors
7. Your link on my PR5/4 page, Please Confim
...
Anyone has a good experience?
Thank you very much!
"I've added your link for reciprocation"
in the subject line.
Now what I hate about those PR subject headlines, or even in the body, - is when someone tells me their home page is a PR6.
Whoopidy doo!
I don't care what your PR on the home page, what about where my link is going to be! Tell me that in your subject line then I might open the email.
If I got a request with this subject line:
"I've added your link to a PR4 page"
Sure I'd open it.
My 1.5 cents.
Freedom!
subject: recip link request.
txt:
stuck a link up here :www.fhghhhgshhgs.com
fancy linking back?
c ya have a good day
50-80% response
If someone has taken the effort to write an original request then I will check it out if it compliments the content of my site but usually it is a competitor which I delete also.
Why don't you have an actual conversation with the other webmaster via email for a message or two, and then ask them for a link. If a site is similar enough to warrant a cross-link, y'all must have something in common, no?
So far all the subject lines I have seen I would either delete manually or my spam filter would kill automatically. So think about a personal touch if it's important to get that link.
"Just bumped into your site, I have been surfing the last few weeks for Irish developers and stuff just out of curiosity...nice site....."
Went to have a look at his site, looks quite useful and is somewhat related, so I'll probably give him a link, and......he never even asked ;-)
"Just bumped into your site, I have been surfing the last few weeks for Irish developers and stuff just out of curiosity...nice site....."
Apart from the title "Content" that could have been from me.
so I'll probably give him a link, and......he never even asked ;-)
That's what I do - never ask - works 90% of the time.
TJ
In some instances, picking up the phone and contacting the webmaster and/or web marketing department is suggested. One phone call is much more powerful than all those automated link exchange requests.
By the way, my personal opinion of requesting link exchange via email is not something most of you probably want to hear. It is an antiquated strategy that may work for lesser quality websites, those participating in link rings, etc. It may not work for the higher quality sites as they know what those email link exchange requests are about.
Here are some snippets of link exchange emails that I receive on a daily basis.
If so, please send me your link details and I will get it up on my site immediately. My site Google page rank is 6 and I'll be happy to link to you.
I will keep the link live on my directory for one month, if you don't link back to [snip] after one month, I will have to remove it from my directory
We are currently looking for sites that would like to share in reciprocal linking. It has become apparent that linking to other companies that are the same or relevant is very beneficial to both for PR (PageRank) and placing on the search engines.
If you are interested in a link exchange please add our link to your site within 7 days using one of the following text links. We will be forced to remove all websites that do not link back to us within this time frame so be sure to link to us as soon as you can!
All of this started as soon as Google went public with PageRank. There was a whole new industry that formed around the manipulation of PageRank with Link Exchange Requests via email being one of them.
If someone only wants a reciprical link from me based on PR, it gets ignored. I want traffic. PR is just the icing on the cake.
As to the original post, I ask "interested in a reciprocal link?', but I delete 90% of all link requests I get. A double standard I know, but I only send out requests to sites that can send me traffic and where they will get the same benefit from me.
In the email, I specifically mentioned the page I want them to add a site to and why it's appropriate.
--
Wow, your site is really great. Looks like you've worked really hard on it! It's a great resource.
I notice you have a link to XYZ.com on this page:
[specific page here]
Our site is very similar to XYZ.com. It's a great resource for [target] because it offers [list your benefits and features].
I imagine you are an extremely busy person, but could you possibly add a link to our site? I would really, really appreciate it! You would make my day!
--
I tried to make the emails as personalized as possible, but of course I auto-generated them and sent out a ton at once. That was a mistake. There were so many replies that I couldn't even respond to them. It generated a lot of backlinks but it felt a little slimy. If I had time to do this again, I'd simply try to write ten personalized (really personalized, not mail-merge personalized) emails per day for a while - maybe for a month or so.
Anyway, that's my advice to you. Now, back to work and enough with the procrastination.
Wow, your site is really great. Looks like you've worked really hard on it! It's a great resource.
Hehe. This is the kind of comment which leads me to drop the email straight in the trash.
My initial questions when reading it are:
My site? Who am I? Do you know? And what is my site? (Odd that you haven't mentioned it). Oh, you think I've worked really hard on it? And why is that precisely? And why is it a great resource? Do you use it?
As soon as I read this kind of thinly complimentary generic rubbish I know I can safely assume that identical emails have been - or could have been - sent to 10 million other people and the sender has probably never even heard of my site.
I think, in an age of spam, if you want to get replies, you have to make it clear that your email could not possibly have been written by an automated email generator.
For our large site, we dont' accept any link exchanges...we charge for a link. For our new site, we accept quality on target link exchanges.
You can't trick someone with a request for a link exchange. We always know and review who we are linking too. If we like their site and they haven't already linked to us... we agree to add links within a couple day period. We have also considered a link checking service that alerts us when someone has removed our link from their site so we can do the same.
You don't need thousands of backlinks...our high ranking site has about 170. You need quality reciprocation.
Subject suggestion: Request for Link exchange with www.widget.com
I only request one way links as we don't have a links page for giving the links back. So far it has worked.. (about 30% response rate).
Initially when these articles are picked up they invariably are placed on individual web pages that do not show PR. But in time they start to develop good PR and then I have a very good link from another website.
I optimize the articles for selected keyphrases so they also bring me a little well targeted traffic.
I realize this strategy takes a little more work than sending out generic emails and to some extent customized email requests, but it does return very good links.
[edited by: rogerd at 1:04 pm (utc) on Aug. 4, 2004]
[edit reason] No URLs, please... [/edit]
But I guess those link hunters who use link request managers and send out 100's of requests in a day will not be interested in doing this. They just want links, links and links.
Sid
Create sites that people would want to link to .. just because it's cool or useful .. not for the PR or promotional value.
Seriously now .. I receive auto-generated link exchange spam every hour (it seems) .. it basically all goes in the trash.
And I specialize in niche portal sites with plenty of space for relevant links .. I link to sites that are on topic and useful .. with a reasonable minimum of advertising/commercialization.
I receive plenty of links back simply by sending emails to webmasters who's sites I happen upon and enjoy .. I might say something like .. "hey now that's a really neato website you've got there, that fuzzy widgets page had me in stiches" .. if that is, I really did enjoy it.
Nothing beats honesty, sincere appreciation, and lots and lots of hours invested in creative industry
My 3 or 4 cents worth
To me this suggests that the subject line is of modest importance at best. For sites that don't link out, the most intriguing subject line possible won't get a reply; for other sites, I'd guess the e-mail content is more important, followed by the characteristics of the site itself.
I open virtually all link request e-mails I receive. The subject doesn't influence that very much, so a simple "Link Exchange" or similar works fine. However, a generic subject IS one factor in my "mental algorithm" that determines whether to hit the delete key after skimming the email. The other factors are hyphenated or cheesy keyword domains (99% of the time lead to low content affiliate sites), automated-sounding wording in the e-mail, clearly off-topic sites, talking about search engines and links, etc. Despite the fact that I open any obvious link request, I'd guess I click through to only 10% of the sites, and correspond with only a fraction of those.
My advice would be to not sweat the subject wording, but rather to focus on compelling copy in the email body and, of course, on creating a site that I'd link to even if you didn't ask me to.
The GG algorithm for PR that I've seen has nothing to do with link outs. Only links to your site from other sites are in the equation. Whether you link to high or low PRs or to none at all has no effect on your PR.
- Kathie Fry
This very same subject has been in my mind recently as I have embarked on a link exchange campaign. I'm mostly doing it to get the visitors vs worrying about increasing PR.
Also, I must come out clean. I use Zeus to help me. Now...before you stop reading this message and mentally delete it, give me a chance to explain how I use it and what I include in the subject line.
I'm not going to get into all the details about the use of Zeus, because I'm not here to defend the program. Bottom line- I use it because it saves me time. Being deployed in the military does not allow me the opportunity of sitting down at home and continue to do my links manually. My wife cannot play webmistress while I'm gone as she is pretty busy creating stuff, taking care of our infant son, and running the household.
I enjoy visiting sites and suggesting a link exchange. The only thing Zeus has done for me is to find sites that compliment my site, so that I can offer my customers a decent, well organized resources directory. Also, Zeus helps me keep track of the history of my request messages. I personalize all messages to the sites, and have removed all Zeus markings from my directory. I take as much time visiting sites selected by Zeus as I did when typing keywords in Google and visiting those sites.
So far, in my PR0 directory and theme pages, I have about 120 reciprocal links, plus about 30 more coming. In total I have 428 listings, but I need to send a second message to about 300 of them. I delete those sites that don't respond after the second message, but I would never include threats of deletion, or anything like that.
Why would someone with a link page PR5 link to my PR0 page?...well I would like to think that it is because they have visited my site, read about my wife and I, and gotten the feeling that we are worth it. Also, I am always very polite even in my reply to those webmasters who said no initially. I know my directory will not be a PR0 forever; but in the meantime, I will never forget those sites who gave me their vote of confidence.
By the way, my subject line is: Reciprocal Link Exchange Suggestion (so probably many of my messages have been deleted by spam filter.
Jose
If the Web sites were good enough to link to in the first place, why would you remove them from your directory?
- Kathie Fry
On your question-
"If the Web sites were good enough to link to in the first place, why would you remove them from your directory? "
Couple of reasons:
1. I use the reciprocal link as a way to further discriminate as to which sites I should keep and which I should not. Yes...they are all good sites, however, there are thousands of good sites out there, sites that are of interest to me and, I believe, to my customers. If I didn't do this, my directory would then become unmanageable in size and I am not trying to compete with any directory.
2. I believe that a reciprocal link is like a reference letter, and as such, I would expect that if I am willing to "put my neck on the line to vouch for another site" , that the other site should do the same for me.
This said, I may leave a couple of unreciprocated listings in my directory. Those listings could be from webmasters who took the time to answer me back and give me a plausible explanation as to why they couldn't link with me.
Jose A. Gonzalez
If almost 100% of your outbound links have a reciprocal link, aren't you in danger of being classified by Google as a link farm?
Did you guys decide on this yet? I'd like to update my spam filter.
LOL! You read my mind...
Just takes a lot of hard work
And LMAO jc.
Likewise, I have forms on my site that interested parties can fill out. I describe in bold that I reserve the right to link back or not. I do link back to some sites, but not all. The sites I don't link back to are trashy and they tend to forget to check if I've added a link to their site and so they keep mine up...an easy unreciprocated link ;)
It's been ages since I've received a unique link request email. It's usually the same old form email and it's completely impersonal. If they had really looked at my site in the first place, they could have just used the form and would have at least had a decent chance of getting a link back. Instead, they harvest emails and send mass requests...
Dave.
