Forum Moderators: martinibuster
How do I deal with those sites that do not reply - i.e. those sites that have gained a free incoming link and can't be bothered to reciprocate. They might not know the value of a good incoming link but I sure do!
I want to write to them and prompt them to reciprocate but of course in a way which doesn't suggest an ultimatum i.e. I don't want to say, 'if you don't link to us, we shall remove our link to you!'.
BUT, I do want the letter to be effective. I really don't know how to approach this and I'm amazed at the general reluctance to play ball. Our site has a PR of 5 which should be regarded as a good link.
Any ideas, friends?
The reason for my request, I explain, is because we get a NUMBER of customers/visitors asking specifically about this and we NEED to respond to them with some QUALITY info.
I always make my request to the SALES department NEVER the webmaster.
After receiving the requested info, I shift into second gear by writing back telling them it's so GREAT we want to even put a LINK on our site. Ask them if it's OK. (Again, all done through the SALES department of the company.)
When they say "yes", I then of course, send them our link with description. Why would they not want to reciprocate when they said "yes" to us linking to them?
Reasons for this approach:
1) A request to any sales department for product or service info is never denied.
Your inital contact e-mail gets answered. It opens up a dialog immediately.
2) Sales is THE most important department of any company. When a directive comes down from them to include your link it usually happens.
3) The easiest sale you can ever make is to another salesman because sales people think sales.
Webmasters think technical.
A sales pitch to a salesmen is understood in terms of benefits.
A sales pitch to a webmaster is just that. A sales pitch.
I have just had a similar problem.
I added a site to my directory a while ago.
In the response letter i asked kindly if they could add a return email on their site.
They didn't and they have probably the worst links section on the web - home pages and generally poor web sites.
Today though i got a 'We are currently listed on your site. Please consider us for your award'
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
All taking and no giving.
I am about 5 days away from sending my first batch of follow-up letters and I'll report back with progress.
One thing I notice about these webmasters is that many don't really apreciate the value of a good link. When I get a request from a related site, I put the link up immediately - no hanging around, its just too important.
But I've had a few emails saying that my link will be reciprocated 'soon' and I can't help thinking that there will be some that have no intention of doing it and hope that I will forget about it. Thats their mistake because my spreadsheet is water-tight, air-tight and nuclear-proof ;) I won't be forgetting a god damn thing!
'Reciprocal link request from mysite.com' (as per original email)
it will read;
'yoursite.com links'
I think it is more likely to be opened with this subject heading. If I used the same subject, there will be some who may skip past it because they recognise it from the first letter and they thing they can deal with it another time (i.e. 2002), and then there may be others who don't generally like reciprocal link requests but may be persuaded if the letter is good and there is something in it for them -- you don't want either of those people dumping the mail before they read it. The fact that the subject mentions their domain name - and its an incomplete statement - will hopefully arouse a bit of curiousity.
Also, the original letter will be tagged on to the bottom of the follow-up letter (i.e. forward the old letter to the same recipient) so that they can easily remind themselves what I had said.
Its playing the percentage game I suppose - but by not leaving anything to chance, you can surely stack the odds in your favour.
A few of you have said words to the effect, 'move on to the next and don't worry about it' - this is fine as far as I am concerned and I agree as long as I have tried my very best in my 2 approaches and not settled for a half-hearted attempt. Only then will I happily say 'Okay, its a dead duck, lets move on'.
1) I'm annoyed by requests from Webmasters who haven't read my submission guidelines. For example, I make it clear that I don't link to travel agencies, but some travel agents submit URLs anyway. Why do they waste my time and theirs?
2) I'll never link to a site just because it links to mine. Conversely, I won't NOT link to a site just because it doesn't link to mine. My decision on whether to link is based primarily on whether I think my readers will find the linked site useful or interesting.
3) I write my own annotations. If people want to *suggest* link annotations, that's fine, if only because it distills the essence of their site for me--but saying "Here's the text to use for the link" is bad manners. (If you want to dictate what's said about your site, buy an ad!)
4) IMHO, it's foolish to misspell a linked site's name or intentionally make an error in the URL for the purpose of getting a response from the linked site's Webmaster. Such errors imply a lack of professionalism and reduce your chances of getting a reciprocal link (at least from me).
Side note: I recently relaunched my site as an independent site after leaving About.com, and I've been writing to Webmasters with requests that they update their links. I've found that Webmasters of commercial or semi-commercial sites tend to be more responsive than people who operate "hobby sites" are. Many of the latter are slow to respond (if they respond at all), probably because they spend little if any time on site maintenance.
Bigger more professional sites don't seem to respond as quick.. I still have 2 commercial sites still linked to my old re-direct page :)
The best way to approach people to link to you is to see to it that your site content is beneficial for their target audience. Point it out to them how their visitors can make use of your site.
Also, point out how your intended audience can benefit from their site. This way, the webmaster will be able to realize that putting a link to your site will be actually helpful for both of you.
However, I feel that putting the link first on your site and telling the webmaster that you have placed a link to their site and in return you wish them to link to you, is rather "inappropriate". Why? It somehow gives a pressure on them. And most webmasters don't want to take pressure like that. Do you? Why not simply say that you are planning to put a link and you would also appreciate it if they consider linking to your site too.
Another thing. The idea that you link to sites that are related to your services but not your competitor is quite reasonable. But, shouldn't it be fun if two competitors have reciprocal links. The search engine will most likely rank it a higher "importance" and "relevance" since both of you are on the same business.
And try to consider forging strategic alliance to several companies that have the same client base as yours. You can get more customers from them than search engines can give you. This is my opinion.
Ok. Here is my last words. We are planning to include a category on our links page called "other web designers". Anyone interested? You are not required to place a link back, but of course you know what is appropriate. :)
That's it. Take care all.
Sincerely,
Allan S. Hugo
