What does Link Monkey Mean to You?

[martinibuster]

That's the question.

What does the phrase Link Monkey mean to you?

[larryhatch]

The meaning I see is the one taken from context here.

To me a Link Monkey is someone hired to solicit or otherwise gain links for a site.
Work like that is tedious and repetitive, probably not highly paid.
The LM would be given the methods and means, and simply do the grunt work. -Larry

[stuntdubl]

A derogotory slur for link developers that are underpaid, undereducated, and simply don't understand why they are typing away at a keyboard begging for links all day.

[graywolf]

Someone who isn't using advanced link building techniques.

[Rollo]

Someone with just enough drive and computer saavy to build and maintain links pages, but not enough of either to make money online with their own ideas.

[larryhatch]

Anyone who starts an email with
"Hi (no name) .. You've got a really great site there .."
and then proposes a link swap or similar.

Then again maybe its not even a monkey, just some program. -Larry

[martinibuster]

A derogotory slur...

Is the term consistently used with malice?

Or is it the same as calling someone a drudge? (a laborer who is obliged to do menial work )

I ask the question because the phrase seems to have different shades of meaning.

What do you think?

[sugarrae]

I definitely don't mean it as insulting when I use it. To me it just means someone who can follow a detailed action plan and has a "nose" for sniffing out potential link opportunities.

[jaffstar]

A monkey is good and climbing tree's and finding bananas, however they are not that good at finding berries and exotic fruit:) We might employ a bird to scan the tree tops for exotic fruit.

[steven mheakyle]

i bet a link monkey is a manual task of an automated link building software.

[Crush]

"What does Link Monkey Mean to You?"

A Martinibuster look alike.

[cscgal]

Monkey see, monkey do.

A link monkey is someone who is told by an SEO to gather backlinks and do all the busy work. So they do, and they can do what they do good, but they don't really understand why it is they're doing it as they don't understand a whole lot about SEO other than what they're told to do.

A code monkey is a somewhat inexperienced programmer who can bang out rudimentary code and all the tedious stuff instead of be innovative with their own algorithms.

Like I said, monkey see, monkey do. widget monkey is the inexperienced guy in the industry who is told exactly what to do, and so they do it, and they do it just fine.

[rogerd]

Link Monkey = Link Developer to me. Functions include link site identification, contact, negotiation, and maybe link management. Work can be manual, partially automated, or heavily automated.

I don't see it the term as entirely derogatory, although it does imply a limited skillset to me. It's the "monkey" part that has the negative impact. A link monkey can be part of a site development effort along with copy writers, PHP coders, graphic artists, etc. Oddly, we call link developers "link monkeys" but we don't call copy writers "word whales" or graphic artists "pic pigs".

Personally, I like "link ferret" better than "link monkey", but just calling them "link developers" would put their status on the same level as other specialist functions.