Cherry Picking Links - Believe it!
Posted Thursday, May 25th, 2006. Filed under Yahoo Marketing.
Most SEOs hunting for more backlinks deal in "discounted" link pages or pay monthly fees for substandard ad placement. I'm doing something a bit different: cherry picking other kinds of links.
I'll show you one random email sent out today, which happened to go live a few hours later: a short note offering a client's site $30 for a banner ad above the bottom navigation bar on a specific page, with a sample banner attached and asking whether they prefer PayPal or a check.
This isn't a template — every email is a bit different, but there are common things about many of them. This particular site was found via a research search that yielded one of these pages in the top Google 100, has all-natural backlinks (no SEO muck-up), has over 500 backlinks including 6 .edu's, and is extremely relevant to my client.
There are so many resources and so many pages out there — virgin land. It's really about finding the best links from the best places at the best prices, if you know how to look, how to choose the best pages, how to craft the right ad, and have the time to do things by hand. Do you think I'm smoking crack, or do you believe what I'm saying? How do you spend your time getting links?
May 25th, 2006 at 6:31 am
Jim,
That email reads very well, just one question.
Was the $30 a one off payment or monthly/annually?
Peter
May 25th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Maybe pay per view
I think most important point for the success of these kind of mails (how successful are they by the way?) is that they are not made from a template.
May 25th, 2006 at 9:15 am
fyi - one time fee
May 25th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
An email can be concise and still get the job done.
Good example, Jim.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Here’s an example of one of my emails, tell me what you think Jim!
Hi,
I found your site http://www.yoursite.com/ with some outstanding xxx related links. I’d be interested in advertising rates for a text link on your homepage to our site http://www.our-site.com We are a small xxx with two locations in NY and one in Florida. Please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you!
Sometimes I notice that it’s better to offer the price up front (like you did in your email jim) because if you ask them how much they would charge, they tend to jack up the prices. Just an observation.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
gzlatin,
I don’t want to go too deep on this….but I’ll critique your first sentence:
“I found your site http://www.yoursite.com/ with some outstanding xxx related links.”
……I don’t like it….”I found your site” is the start of so many link spam emails I get….to me “I found your site” translates to “I scrapered your email from my scraper program that found your site” …
The second part of that sentence “some outstanding xxx related links” makes me think…yea right….I bet you say this to all the sites….sounds like a template born of a software program.
just my 2 cents on the opening of your email.
May 26th, 2006 at 3:15 am
Also I wouldnt reference the value of the links they have. Why hint at the value of any link while you are buying it. Talk in terms of ad space to keep the rates reasonable. IMHO.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Hi Jim, the Paypal or a check sounds a little pushy. Why not ask another question, or some kind of call-to-action at the end of your email to pry him to respond?
Kinda like: Please let me know, one way or the other.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I totally dig the last line of the e-mail… although it does sound kind of “pushy”, that’s not quite the word I would use for it. It just shows that he is serious, and ready to give the guy a quick few bucks.
The idea of this is to buy “ad’s”, which are really links, from somebody who doesn’t know the true value of their site’s outbound links. You’re trying to target the guy that doesn’t know about linking campaigns, the guy that has maybe herd of some banner ads that give him a few cents a click… and in that case $30 to throw up a banner is a great deal in his eyes.
May 26th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
Depending on who you are dealing with, some people might interpret “Let me know if you prefer pay pal or a check?” pushy, however some might interpret it as “I’m real, let’s cut to the chase”, “I’m ready to put my money where your mouth is”, or “Deal, or no deal?”
May 27th, 2006 at 4:01 am
There is a problem with your assumption about there being a one-time fee. How long is the link to last? Weren’t you still a teenager when the Internet sprang to life, Jim? I think it is naive to assume site owners will not, in general, be aware that there should be some monthly churn. If links have value they have some time component. When reciprocating links there’s no issue as they each compensate each other, but one-way links are rented. Maybe they would agree to an annual payment, but a one-time fee forever link? Ain’t gonna happen.
The other thing you need to come up with is a standard and reliable method of calculating the value since you are offering a dollar value.
May 27th, 2006 at 10:30 am
Neuron,
“Ain’t gonna happen” - happens every day.
“standard and reliable method of calculating value” - As little as we can get it for….that’s our standard.
May 27th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
Neuron, I don’t think Jim was so literal when he said “permanent link”. Nothing lasts forever. We will all die one day along with our websites and the links on them.
I think he just meant that there is no monthly fee associated with the link and the link will most likely stay on that page for as long as that page is around.
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Right on, Jim. I love these little tidbits about you squeezing some unsuspecting old lady’s website for a sweet little banner full of text links–and paying roughly… $30 indefinitely. LOL.
You’re right about there being so many of these too–it’s just a matter of being able to contact them all. I’m not trying to “shard” myself here, but hey, now that you have the manpower…
June 18th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
[...] Purchasing advertising cleverly. [...]
July 19th, 2006 at 3:39 am
[...] http://www.jimboykin.com/cherry-picking-links-believe-it [...]
July 27th, 2006 at 5:16 am
yah. nice point u got there Jim. Nothing’s harm about sending email and be specific of what you want. Juz make sure your email gets through in their inbox. =)
October 20th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
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May 28th, 2007 at 11:31 am
It’s been a year since this post…I’ve debated on deleting this post since we’ve gone so far beyond these types of emails:
see:
http://www.jimboykin.com/human-link-building/
Just keep in mind that this email has many “errors” in it by todays standards…..I’ll let ya know my todays standards “tomorrow”.