Link Building and Emails - Humans do it Better.
Posted Wednesday, February 21st, 2007. Filed under Google.
Spam spam spam — we get tons of it every day, and I spend hours weeding out my email. The whole secret to spotting spam is finding what appears to be human, and written just for you.
Embedded in all that junk mail are tons of "link request emails." If you've got a site, you get heaps of this crap. We can spot them without even opening them — morons with subject lines like "Link Request." Delete!
The tipping point for this kind of link request email was back in 2004 — it's worthless now, both from an SEO standpoint and an email campaign standpoint.
So how does this apply to link building? If you're seeking links, you've got to send emails by hand that show you are a human with something of value to offer, specific to that person. Short and to the point is a nice trait too.
Emails that get through are ones that look like they're from a human, with real thought put into them. Writing real emails takes time, but if you want your link building to stick, you've got to go human.
February 21st, 2007 at 2:02 am
Jim,
You ok. Compared to your other posts, the past two post seem to have a overly pissed off theme to them. Maybe it’s just me reading into them to much. I agree with you on the human touch theme, maybe be slower but gets a better response.
February 21st, 2007 at 2:14 am
dude if you are spending HOURS per day weeding out your email then im not sure you’re as “internet savy” as you think you are.
February 21st, 2007 at 2:28 am
regular …yea, I did swear several time in the past few posts…. funny, I was thinking the same thing on my way home at 1am….and on 4 hours sleep from the night before. Needless to say, I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow am….if I can…ha
February 21st, 2007 at 2:52 am
Just FYI, Gmail filters about 13,000 emails for me per month…out of the 13,000 I get about 5-10 a day in my inbox. I haven’t missed anything that I know of.
February 21st, 2007 at 3:30 am
Hey Jim, I just came across was blog article and I had to comment. I think we are all a little tired of spam equally so legitimate e-mail marketers are tired of all the admin created as a result of false positive spam complaints.
As the marketer, I have taken the process of sending my message is very personally which means are treated like a real business and every person on the end of each e-mail is actually a real person and not just another number.
As the consumer, I taken the process of receiving messages equally as personally any spam to my mailbox gets reported and I take every conceivable step towards eliminating the scourge of spam… I think back to Internet marketing it is our duty to clean up the industry.
But at the end of the day, there is only so much we can do!
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:51 am
I run some rubbish “coming soon” sites which I haven’t got round to do anything with.
Always cracks me up when my coming soon site with one page gets these…
“I just visited your site and found your content to be really interesting…”
Now I *know* no human would say that about a coming soon page.
It’s no wonder 99% of link exchange emails go directly to trash, do not pass go…
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
[...] Jim tells us why humans do it better [...]
February 26th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Harvey,
All I have to say brother is AMEN.
I do not even look at them anymore.
February 28th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Of course it takes time but it pays off. I know how it feels to get all this spam. The line that fools me the most is “Re:” I always think its someone who is replying back to me but its really just another spammer.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:43 am
[...] Hey, Humans do it better. [...]
June 1st, 2007 at 5:57 am
[...] Link Building and Emails – Humans do it Better. | Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog [...]
July 9th, 2007 at 12:56 am
[...] I read an article on getting other sites to open my email i sent out trying to get some link partners and it never even crossed my mind that they might be mistaken for spam until this article. [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Amen! Once you create a website, the spam really starts flowing in. I am never caught out these days and alas for the boring emails, nor do I read them. If it’s from a stranger and doesn’t catch me, I spam it.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
[...] Link Building and Emails – Humans do it Better. - Feb 21st, 2007 [...]
February 7th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Yeah its always a good idea to have something you can offer them too, if linking to your site can add value, and vice versa, you will have a good chance of getting linked… that is of course if the email makes it to the inbox…AND they decide to open and read it!
J