Poker Based Forum Linking To My Directory

I am actually disappointed by the techniques people use for link exchange and stuff. Firstly, i don’t believe much in link exchange, yet i constantly get emails regarding the same. The most irritating thing is that all emails have the common tag line that says “We found you website on net and we see it as a highly related niche. We would request a link exchange and we have added your link already to our site. We expect the same from you”. Huh? Firstly, these people should notice that sites like AllyDirectory and few others do not have a single homepage or a sitewide link. So it should be a complete waste of effort mailing such sites. Secondly, when i check their sites, it turns out that both the sites have no relation by far. For my directories, sometime i get emails from fishing based sites, some from golf, some from Malaga travel and so on. Frankly, i am very disappointed with them.

However, this time around i got a unique email for the link exchange which actually made me very very angry.

Here is the copy of the mail:

Hello,

Recently I visited your website AllyDirectory.com ; while visiting your site I noticed that you link to WebDe.biz at this address: (Had the AllyDirectory’s link here). As we are closely related to them, I would love to exchange links with your website, currently there are about 5,000 – 7,000 people per day that go to my site and search for information, Therefore I would to link to an excellent site like yours.

I have taken the liberty of adding your site to my home page: (His Site’s Address) to determine if it is of any benefit to you, if you have a stats program you can check it and let me know. By looking at my stats, it looks like today I have sent you 33 visitors but it may change by the time you receive this email.

Some website owners do not like when other sites link to them so I thought I might ask first. I think the information on your website could be useful to my visitors; and maybe you could receive some extra relevant traffic if you want. Please get back to me when you have a chance to let me know if its ok to link to your website like this.

Have a good week,

Mark (Cannot reveal his full name as i respect his privacy)

The mail technique is surely very unique. But hell no. I haven’t had such stupid mail in long time. Firstly, AllyDirectory and WebDe are both sites owned by me. So his relation technique failed miserably. Secondly 5000-7000 visitors a day, well i had a in depth look at the forum and honestly, i do think he meant 500-700 visitors. Then he says i sent you 33 visitors, well i use awstats and webalizer and i didn’t receive a single visitor from that site. So another failure in the technique. Amazingly in the same mail he contradicts his own sating. First he says that i have taken the liberty to add you link to my forum And in next paragraph he says that some website owners do not appreciate linking this way, so he thoughth he might ask me first. Lol. Please, some one pinch me as i cannot believe this stuff.

What really fumed me is that the concerned site of his is actually a poker forum. That’s right. A gambling forum. And my Ally Directory is right up there, linked sitewide from his forum and that too without a “no follow” attribute. How can someone do this to me, specially when we have never talked even. Now you all know Google. Their stupid algorithms and bots are going to visit that poker forum, see my link over there and penalize me for purchasing link on that forum. nd a link to a good site, from a gambling site is never good. They are considered bad neighbours. Another problem is, that i received the mail on 4th March. Very likely the link was added on the same day. Ten minutes after receiving the mail, i replied him back, politely refusing for the link exchange and requesting him to remove Ally Directory‘s link from his forum. After 48 hours i still see my link there 🙁

I am not sure what to say. Sometime i do feel powerless because of such marketing techniques. Google already has made our life pretty miserable. Last i wanted to see were guys like these. Shame on people who use such techniques for their success and killing my site in the process.