New Linking Strategy for E-Commerce Sites

if you don't ask you don't get

[NFFC]

In many ways running an e-commerce site can be frustrating but what really gets to me is how hard it is to get "genuine" links in comparison to "informational" sites.

We get a *huge* amount of positive feedback from our customers, which we should as we provide a great service. We get e-mails, phone calls, articles written in the mainstream press etc etc. What we seldom get is someone taking the time to make a link to our site from their's. Many of our customers have their own sites, many work for Internet savvy companies, some for the big players. They will e-mail and tell us how great we are, tell their friends and family but almost never link.

That is going to change from now on, we are going to ASK for the link.

When they get our order confirmation from now on it will ASK them to link to or site *if* they have been impressed with our product/service. The pitch will be "share the love". :)

Time for us ecomguys to go on the offensive.

[KevinC]

I really like the sounds of this idea.

I to get tonnes of emails and calls about how great our product is and I definatly get plenty of repeat customers.

are you suggesting that you will put a request for a link on every order confirmation?

[mil2k]

You call this offensive. I know one of my clients has a legal clause which says that their clients should provide a link back to use their website. That i think is Hardcore Offensive! ;-)

[vitaplease]

Yes, I like link requests in different forms.

I have a script that pops up once people select text and do a right mouse copy.

It tells them they have to link to me, because of copyright.

After 10.000 right-mouse copies, I doubt I can trace back one link that came through though.

My latest is doing one-way link requests where a girl signs the email.
In my technical masculin world, that tends to help.
(by the way they were actually done by a link-huntress).

[coconutz]

>>My latest is doing one-way link requests where a girl signs the email.

My wife has been very successful when requesting the one-way links. ;)

[Yidaki]

>>My latest is doing one-way link requests where a girl signs the email.

>My wife has been very successful when requesting the one-way links. ;)

Damn, great suggestions here!

Darling, daaaaarling, do you know you how much i love you ...? ;)

[Skylo]

Nice post NFFC. Been waiting for an idea of this kind. Your suggestion makes sense. We too are a company that has a lot of customers that own or run sites. Better get those legal papers ready hey mil2k;)

[clueless]

Sure wish that my being a girl made more a difference in our link campaign. But our area of e-commerce is more girly, with many of the webmasters being female. But hey, maybe I should change my signature to link mistress, instead of link master, just to see what that would do.
Happy customers, just not many have websites, plus we are a one time purchase for most people....email a friend is definitely something we need to pursue more. Sure wish I could think of a cool tool or widget give away....hmmm.

Clueless Link Mistress