Here’s a great example of what could be a pretty good link building strategy, blown by half-assed execution. Over the last two days, I’ve received the following e-mail twice, each sent by a different individual…

My name is XXXXXXX. I came across your Ultimatefatburner.com in the search
engines.

Great job!  I have signed up to your newsletter and can’t wait to receive your
great information

As I am in the same niche as you I was wondering if you would be interested in a
business partnership. Don’t worry,this will be of no charge to you and will not
take any commissions or anything like that. I just love to teach people how to
lose weight and want to get my training out there on the net.

My proposal for you is that I provide you with quality, and I do mean quality,
content on weight loss as and when you want it. Every week if you wish. You
can send the article/articles to your email list or add them to your web site.

This will help to build your relationship with your subscribers and site visitors
even stronger because as we both know there is a lot of rubbish out there
with regards to weight loss. All I ask in return for this is you include my link
at the bottom of the article.

If you would be interested please email me on this address.

Whether you decide to answer this email or not thank you for your time and the
information on your web site.

Kind regards

XXXXXXX

P.S. You have a very informational website! I like it!

On the face of it, this is a pretty smart strategy. I, the webmaster, get “one-off” quality articles created specifically for my site, and the author gets to “piggy back” on the popularity of my site, receiving exposure, credibility, and an in-pointing link per article.

It’s a perfect “win-win”, right?

Well, it could be. Here’s why it isn’t:

1) Freebie e-mail address used: Both these e-mails came from “so-and-so” at Gmail or Hotmail.com. How much credibility do you attach to an e-mail from a free e-mail service? This person is asking for a link to his/her web site, but refuses to use the “linked” domain in the e-mail. Why is that? Does s/he think I’m going to agree without first knowing what it is I’m linking to?

Hello?

I could be linking to a competing product, a product I don’t believe in, a company that uses deceptive billing practices, etc, etc. No webmaster of an established site is going to link to a site, when doing so could jeopardize his or her business, or damage his/her credibility. For me, this is an immediate “red flag”, and I ask… “what are you hiding?”

2) Examples of work: This author is offering me quality – “and I do mean quality” – weight loss content, but does not provide examples of his/her work. Does this author’s definition of quality happen to be the same as mine? Take a look at this blog post on UltimateFatBurner.com by my contributing author and scientific/technical advisor Elissa, or this review of the weight loss product Mitotropin by myself. This is my definition of quality content; unique, specific, well-researched articles that can take up to several hours to complete.

As a webmaster, I’m looking to see what you can offer me; if your material is nothing more than a rehashed version of what’s readily available on the Net, I’m not interested. If your work is so good, why not show me an example?

3) Name provided: In the e-mails, only one of the authors used his real name, while the other used what I’m assuming is a publishing nickname, and not his/her real name. Again, what are you hiding by not revealing your real name? (I did a Google search on the named author, and found that he did indeed have a decent portfolio of material at EzineArticles.com, although his material was simply not unique enough to warrant exposure on UltimateFatBurner.com. Frankly, I can create better, more unique material and retain full rights to all of it.

4) Template e-mail: Both authors sent me the exact same e-mail. Once I saw the second one, I knew it was a cut-and-paste job, and the credibility of the offer diminished accordingly.

End result?

The first e-mail I received (which also happened to be sent by an author who revealed his name) got a polite response explaining we created all our material in house (I received a polite thank you note back). The second author got the “DELETE” key.

Here’s the thing though – utilized properly, this is a strategy that could work to build in-pointing links. I am always interested in extremely high quality, unique material, and if you could provide me with something that really did add value to my site, I may be interested in some linking arrangement; at the very least, I could sub-contract you to write material for me. But this is truly a half-assed execution of what could be a good idea.

Here’s my recommendations to make this strategy work;

1) GET SERIOUS: If you’re going to approach a high traffic, authority web site and make them an offer to create content, spend some time investigating what sort of material they are providing to their visitors, and determine where/how/if you can contribute. Both of the authors who contacted me spent exactly ZERO time doing this, and it showed… big time. A long term partnership with an authority site like UltimateFatBurner.com – a web site that receives nearly half a million visitors monthly – could lead to 1,000′s of referred visitors and umpteen leads/sales. So make an effort. For the love of Pete.

2) Use a real, domain-based e-mail: C’mon, this one is obvious. Do you want to appear professional, or do you want the webmaster receiving your message to think… “is this spam?”

3) Provide samples of your work: If it’s so good, show me. Now. While you’ve got my attention. If you don’t, I’m as likely to delete this e-mail as I am to respond to you to request examples – and, since seeing your work is the next logical step, why add an unnecessary barrier into the process? Show me. Now.

4) Don’t use template e-mails: As I explained, I received the same e-mail twice in two days. Once it became obvious this was a template, the credibility of the offer decreased dramatically. Now I know for sure that the author made no real effort to learn what UltimateFatBurner.com was about, and how s/he could contribute. Click. Bye-bye.

With these modifications, approaching authority sites with content creating offers really could be a great link building strategy! But take it seriously, and do your homework first. The person on the receiving end of your e-mail will appreciate your efforts.

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