It’s happened again. I’ve received another one of those form letter link requests that Belle has been talking about. I’m pumped up about it because it’s actually a great opportunity for me to dissect one and hopefully educate some people at the same time.

Though it’s apparent that the letter is completely generic, there were nuances that tried to make it look authentic — “A” for effort.

From: “Matt” <matt@SPAM-A-PALOOZA.com>
To: “Optiniche” <coinage@…>
Date: 06/02/07 9:21AM
Subject: I put your link, optiniche.com, on my site under Internet Marketing > Blog Marketing

Hi it’s Matt.

I saw your site, http://www.optiniche.com/, on Google under: Internet Marketing > Blog Marketing

I see that your site has an Alexa ranking of 40086. Not bad!

I have placed a link to your site in the Internet Marketing > Blog Marketing section of my site. You can check it out at:
http://www.SPAM-A-PALOOZA.com/LINK-FARM/
RANDOM-PAGE-9-LEVELS-DEEP.html

It says:
Helping You To Optimize and Monetize Your WordPress Niche Blog

If you link back to me your site will appear near the top of the directory. You may find linking and banner codes at:
http://www.SPAM-A-PALOOZA.com/linktous.html or just use this code:

<a href=”http://www.SPAM-A-PALOOZA.com” size=”2″ face=”Arial”><strong>Start your own safelist business. Not an affiliate program. You keep all the money. Click here.</strong></font></a>

(If you have already linked back to me thank you and please disregard this email)

Your link, http://www.optiniche.com/ , will eventually be rotated off if you do not choose to link back to me.

If you have any other ideas about joint ventures let me know.

I will just contact you once about this as I do not want to bother you.

Thanks,

Matt
(XXX) XXX 8684

XXXX E. Las Olas Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale Fl. 33301
USA

To no longer here from us simply execute this link once.
http://www.CLICK-HERE-FOR-MORE-SPAM.net/
?c=819161&p=8891

Did you catch all of the nuances in there? Did you see how he started it with a “hi it’s Matt”, like I know him or something, and the reference to my (inaccurate) Alexa ranking followed by that peppy “not bad” pat on the back? He even provided me with the complete link code including deprecated font formatting and everything.

Learn from “Matt”. This is how not to network with bloggers and other web site owners. If you are planning to use this type of link building technique, then here’s what your e-mail should say:

Hello, you don’t know me, but I scammed your e-mail from your website like a common spambot and decided to add you to my spam safe list.

I’m sorry if this isn’t kosher with you, but please hear me out. I just imported some data from the DMOZ (or Google) directory and, by chance, a link to your website ended up on a random page guaranteed not to see the light of day somewhere on my website (which, by the way, is completely unrelated to your website).

In return, you’re to add a link from your “better and more popular” website, otherwise I’ll be forced to remove your link from my link farm.

Now, if you were naive enough to listen to me and did as I said, I’m completely baffled, but thank you. I’ll be sure to keep your link up on that random page until I’m sure you’ve forgotten about it (not a minute sooner), then remove it before moving on to the next sucker webmaster.

Sincerely,
Innocuously Common Name (preferably one from the Bible, other than Satan)
Your new friend

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If you are fortunate enough to receive one of these generic letters, it means that your site has reached the popularity threshold and crossed over into the spammer radar — congratulations. Use it as another opportunity to earn more money from your blog or website.

Do as Belle (via Alex King) advises; respond with a link to your advertising rates (with a noreply@… e-mail addy, of course) and if the spammer was silly enough to include a working phone number, consider calling him too.

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