I love to post these bad poker link requests as I receive them, because they’re so incompetent that they hurt. (Most of the really bad poker link requests just get deleted. I only post the really heinous examples here.)
Here’s a poker link request email I got today. This is a perfect example of how NOT to get poker links:
Subject: delete link?
Body: Hello,
In good faith we’ve already added a link to your website at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Please link to our site xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the information below and reply to this email with the exact location in order to avoid your link being deleted.
thank you in advance,
shell
Please use the following info to add our site.
Anchor Text: Poker Downloads Online
Description: Get poker downloads online and play free poker games with our free software.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Email: webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Why this is a bad way to get poker links.
Uh, mostly because it just doesn’t work. What kind of response do you think I’m going to have to someone who starts their link exchange request with a threat in the subject line? You’re going to delete my link? Who are you, anyway?
And why would you start an email with the phrase “In good faith”? Is that to differentiate this link email from all of the link emails you sent out in bad faith?
And given the nature of my websites, did you really think it was impossible to figure out what my name is so that you could write a proper salutation?
“Hello, Randy.”
“Dear Mr. Ray”
“Hi, Randy Ray”
Geez, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
I thought they got one thing right at first. They linked to my site before they sent me this email. (At least they said they did.) But sure enough, when I go to visit the page, my link is nowhere to be found.
Hey, “George” or “shell” (whoever you are) – you just sent me that email 41 minutes ago. Did you really think I’d had ample time to post your link before you deleted mine?
Or maybe you just never added my poker link to begin with, eh?
If one of my employees ran a poker linkbuilding program with this shoddy an approach, I’d fire him.
The great thing about seeing emails like this is that it makes me realize just how easy it is to make money in the poker industry, and just how easy it will continue to be for a long time. If this particular poker webmaster does such shoddy work on a simple email requesting a link, my guess is that he’s going to take the same shoddy approach to writing his content. And to building his website. In either case, he’ll never be competition.
Honestly, is it really that hard to something like this (request a poker link) with a certain minimum amount of competence? I’m probably the most generous person in the industry when it comes to linking to people just because they publish meritorious poker content. You have to be a real clown to screw up a link request to me.
Hi Randy,
I get tons of these mails myself. At one point I replied “Bla bla bla” and likely they didn’t get the point (or just forgot to actually read it) and replied right away with another stupid proposal. Oh, it’s always some girls’ name at the end. LOL, like that still works
Anyway, what about writing your next article on the subject “how to write a proper poker or casino review”?
Cheers,
Giorgio
Hi, Giorgio-
Thanks for the suggestion. You can look for an article about how to write real poker reviews in tomorrow’s post. I dropped a link your way as a thank-you for suggesting the topic. That was a great idea.
Randy
Great article Randy. What really bothers me is people assuming that I am stupid or new to this, like I just woke up yesterday and decided I would build a website. The last link swap someone asked me for I specifically told her that I would not be doing three way links especially when the link to me is from a shady site. She says great and made up this big sales pitch story about us receiving a link from her “colleague’s” website which was a pr4, hadnt been updated in about 12 months, the domain wasn’t even related to gambling in general and the pages were whored out to a dozen people. I was so annoyed that after I specifically told her I wouldn’t do that she continued to offer the crappy exchange.
Michael Bluejay also has a great list of what not to do when requesting a link. (Hope that’s ok to share the link)
http://websitehelpers.com/seo/why-you-didnt-get-link.html
[...] I never get tired of writing about poker link requests that suck. Here are two example poker link request emails, along with some explanations of what’s wrong and what’s right with them. (Yes, I’ve written similar posts in the past, but I never get tired of these.) [...]