Am I the only one getting hammered with requests for exchanging links? I’m getting one or two a day now and to be quite honest . . . 7 out of 10 aren’t really blogroll worthy. One guy had a single post on his site. Day one, instead of writing good poker posts he’s out fishing for Google page rank. Intentions do not a poker blog make. So, I thought I would throw this out to the wider community to see what their take is.
Personally, I usually go to the site and see if they have my already linked in their blogroll. If not, then I decline the request. If they aren’t willing to link to my site based on merit alone, why should I link to their site? Not that I think that my site is so good everybody should link to it; I just think that if you liked my site enough to ask for a link exchange . . . you might go the first step and link to me first!
Making the link a quid pro quo transaction means I should be getting something out of the exchange. I know what I offer; good Google page rank. What are they offering? Nothing. At least offer me the flattery of putting me on the blogroll before asking me to put them on mine.
I’ve never asked anyone to put me on their blogroll yet I’m on many people’s blogrolls. I think if you write good content and provide something of value people will link to you. If you don’t have any good content yet, then you should at least put people on your blogroll who you read regularly so they’ll be more inclined to include you on their blogroll when they run across something of value you’ve written.
I would guesstimate that 90% of the blogs linked to on my blogroll are people who I found myself. I didn’t email them and ask for a link on their site, I just saw their stuff and put them up there so I could easily find them again. That’s what a blogroll should be about. Some of those people found me and linked back to me on their own and some of them have never put a link back to me on their site. I really don’t care.
So what’s everyone else’s take on this? Am I being a jerk?
@James: I would prefer you not use my content. Google sort of frowns on that.
I regularly recieve emails asking for link exchanges from people who obviously haven’t even looked at my site, otherwise they’d be able to see that i have zero outgoing links other than the obvious poker rooms. A little off topic now Bill, but would you object to me displaying some of your blog posts on my site? Of course i’d credit you with the work and link back to the original.
Thanks for the clarification, Bill. In that case, I can’t argue with your point. People who ask without knowing or reading you blog are duesche bags. I was thinking more about the young upstarts.
Just to clarify (for Jordan mostly), I don’t reject people who email me. In fact, more than a few folks have come to me for blogging and/or playing advice and I’ve done everything I could to help and be supportive.
But the difference is, somebody emailed ME. They weren’t blindly sending out link exchange requests without ever having even looked at my blog. Can you believe with THIS post on the front damn page of my blog I’ve received two requests in the last couple of days for link exchanges? It’s quite obvious they didn’t and don’t read my blog. Why should I exchange links with them?
I guess my main point of this post is that if I read your blog and I like your blog I will link to you whether or not you ask. I don’t horde my blogroll but I also don’t want it to become a useless collection of links from people who have written one poker post and never post again or people who are simply hoping to boost their Google page rank by getting higher ranked sites to link to them.
Bill
I probably won’t win any popularity contests with this post, but if it weren’t for Pauly’s willingness to speak to me about blogging, I’d never have the blog I do. When I started my blog, I contacted Pauly for advice and whatnot. I guess this is a lot different than saying, “I read your blog. Wanna swap links?”, but he was extremely accomodating and offered me great advice. On top of that he linked me up right away and pimped me. I never had so many hits. As a result, I stuck with it, followed Pauly’s advice, and am very proud of my blog. I agree that some requests are poop, but if someone sends me a request to swap links, I’m not insulted, but flattered. Then again, I don’t get 10 requests a day.
Hey – kind of off topic comment, but on the RSS feeds for poker filter, is there any way to have the link go to the actual article, instead of first having to go to pokerfilter and then clicking on the link in the abstract (which I’ve already read) to go to the actual article?
No, you’re not a jerk. I only link to people I read (or intend to read–time isn’t always kind to me).
I’ve only ever received one such request and it was very recently. (The dude had one post. Same guy?) Drizz and Speaker, be on the lookout for your first request as well!
Not only do I keep my blogroll incredibly trim, I maintain it by posting about those people on it regularly.
I’ve done posts about what I like about the blogs in my blogroll, but I think it’s time for a post about what I don’t like….might be interesting….might suck…
I take the same line as you here, Bill.
Of course, I haven’t changed my blogroll in four months, so take that for what it’s worth. I would estimate 80+% of the link requests I get are for casino “review sites” and that’s a big thumbs down.
Lately, I’ve been getting a request to update my information from someone I never asked to be linked to in the first place.
I take the attitude that if your blog’s good enough, someone will find it.
Me and JoeSpeaker have something in common. No link exchange request for moi. But, my ” regular readers” are basically the WPBT folks and non-existant beyond this group.
There are couple of poker blogs I do need to add to the roll but I’ve been lazy.
I hate link exchanges with a pashion. I get those standard emails all the time and mark ’em as spam in Gmail. I link to sites I read on a regular basis because I view my link to another site as my recommendation. If one of my readers sees a link (and it’s not in the advertising section) they know that I think of that site as having some good quality. I’ve never asked for others to link back to me by contacting them, unless they ask for people to send in their site. I have posted things on my own site asking, but as far as I can remember I’ve never contacted someone asking for a link back.
Every once in awhile I’ll email one of those link exchangers back and offer to send them advertising rates. Very few will respond. They are basically offering you a link from a single page on their site. As bloggers most of our links show up on every single page of our sites. Who is getting the raw end of the deal there? We are! So I just don’t do it.
Until a couple weeks ago, I was extremely discriminating because I manually updated the links in my blogger template. I even had them organized into the ‘name’ pros, bloggers, and resource sites.
Now, I just use my bloglines blogroll. If someone is there, it’s because I read their site. Best part is no maintenance on my part beyond subscribing to their feed.
Since I gave up on the whole affiliate-whore thing, I could care less about who/how many links I get. My mantra for blogging this days is ‘stick to the KISS theory’.
But, then again, if I had a wider readership and better page rank, I’d probably think differently.
BSN
I like Joe’s thinking…
“Dance puppet, dance!! Prove to me how much you want this link!”
I get requests, and I always check out the site of the requestor. If they are real (not commerical bums) I link. It takes hardly any time at all for me, and it gets the word out, so to speak. Perhaps someone who is really bored one day and goes through my entire blogroll looking for new sites will find something that interests them.
Should I be bothered nobody has ever asked me for a link?
Well I’m not.
If I ever get such a request, I will gladly link said person after they perform several tasks mandated by me. A Link Heptathalon, if you will.
Totally agree. I usually update links without a care if someone links to me. I have no delusions about my blog’s “powah!” to make anybody money or google rankings. I write it so people can read it. Done.
I just got my first comment spam today x 3. I think the “watch” theory is the way to go.
Those that aren’t shills are newbies just trying to wade into deep waters. Go easy.
Look at me, calling others newbie.
Well, I’ve only had one such request as I am a new blogger myself. Having said that, I know what it is like to be a new blogger and have little or no readers so I can see where the requests are coming from.
All in All, I agree with you. Write something that is worth reading and the readers will come.
WW
BTW, I already have you linked up so I won’t ask… lol
You’re right on Bill, too much crap out there. It’s too bad poker is probably one of the top 5 “spam” categories for websites. I guess that’s what happens when a lot of money is involved.
As someone who has been in the web game since 1995 I’ve received thousands of link requests. My rule has always simply been asking myself “Would my visitors find value in this site?”. If the answer is yes, I’ll usually add a link.
once again, you’re spot on, bill. i get alot of this spam type link requests and i never even bother checking out their sites, like chris. now if i get a personal request by someone who obviously has taken the time to read my blog, that’s a different story.
but when i pimp new bloggers i don’t care if they have a link to me or not – i’m more interested in encouraging the new folks. but that’s the web hippy in me coming out.
I try not to randomly add people. I tried it once and someone got all offended. So I stopped. Now I try to ask in a comment of one of the users post. Most often they reply with a ‘sure’ go ahead. I then add a link to my site also..
Jason,
Normally I do. Like I said, 7 out of 10 are crap. It’s the 3 out of 10 that I will usually try to link back to or at least put on a watch list to see that they don’t dwindle and die in a month.
Of course, the best way to get linked is for me to run across your site and find something useful enough to say “Hey, I should link to this dude/gal in case I ever want to check him/her out again.”
Only 1 or 2 a week? I get that many per day. I virtually always delete them without even checking as most are shill sites as far as I can tell. Whenever they start out as “Dear Webmaster” I just delete. If it sounds like they have actually read my blog, then I’ll take a look.
I’m glad you broached this topic – I have mixed feelings (on my fence again) – I’ve (almost) ceased caring if someone adds me to their blogroll or not. If I’m linked at all, I much prefer to see a link in the context of a post rather than the blogroll – that means someone is actually reading – lol.
I get one or two link requests a week myself and will usually check the site out. I used to automatically add them only to see them languish and die pretty quickly. I’ve since trimmed my blogroll to those sites that I read on a regular basis. I also read some sites in Bloglines which aren’t on my blogroll…
Anyway, while I want to be encouraging to new bloggers, I do agree with you that if they are going to ask for a link, common sense should tell them to link to you first. Maybe adding a “here’s some new bloggers” section and listing the links for a week or month, then decide if they should go to the permanent blogroll or be banished to the ether…. ???
(btw – you can code links so that the googlebot doesn’t follow them, thus quashing the ranking seekers.. add rel=”nofollow” to your href tag.)
” If they aren’t willing to link to my site based on merit alone, why should I link to their site?”
Why don’t you then read their site and link based on merit alone, not self serving motivations?
I think you’re right on Bill. I get a couple a week and they are usually a bunch of tripe.