Link Exchange? Nope!
I have a website which sells products. It is old - as such it has Page 1 ranking in the three main Search Engines (that is Google, Yahoo, MSN) for a very popular search term.Hence I get hundreds of visitors daily, and thousands of page views. There's lots of link-love to the site as it was one of the first to deal with the subject at hand…
Anyway, today I received an email from someone who has 3 websites;
- Site A. PR0
- Site B. PR0
- Site C. PR4.
The subject of all three sites is very closely matched to my website, which is also PR4 - however, all three of his sites are "cookie cutter" - which is not so great. This person offered me a backlink from Site A and Site B, and in return wanted me to link to Site C from my established, high traffic site. Well, that's the kind of thing that gets me steaming about link exchanges - they are all Bullshit.
The question is, why wouldn't he offer a direct link exchange between his Site C and my site? Because he knows that my site will pass major traffic to his Site C (which by the way cannot be found when searching for the main keywords as it is "cookie cutter"). Even then I'd have said "no", but at least I wouldn't have felt a little offended.
Link Exchanging
If you want a link from an established (high in the SERPs) website, here's my advice;
Expect to PAY for the pleasure.
When a person has a lot invested into an ecommerce website, in order to make it a success, that person would be foolhardy to give you a link just because you ask for it.
Certainly, I would never give away a link (on an ecomm website) to a competitor! Would you?
Comment by Oli — June 6, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
I guess this method must work with less knowledgeable site owners who don't realise the goldmine they may be sitting on…
Comment by Dave J — June 6, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
I get offers like this quite regularly - exactly the same format. I point out the error of their ways and name a price. So far no takers. I suspect Oli is correct in saying that less savvy web owners fall for this crap - in fact its essentially a scam designed exactly for that purpose. Toss pots….
Comment by Sucker — June 7, 2007 @ 1:03 am
It seems there's a trend - all the unsolicited offers for link exchanges I get via email (usually starting with Dear Sir/Madam:) are garbage.
Only once did someone email me with any knowledge of my site and offered to buy a one-way link. I'm a fan of link exchanges, but I've gotta say no to the cookie-cutter sites!
Comment by gary — June 7, 2007 @ 9:00 am
Interestingly, he emailed to agree a price point at which he would take a text-link on a monthly subscription basis. I suspect that nothing will come of it, but will update the thread if it does.
Comment by gary — June 18, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
Pleased to say that I sold a 3 month link package to this guy