Comments on: Emails, Link Requests, and the Death of Politeness

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:33:07 +0000

Julie has written a flawless, and universally factual post. I agree with you 100%. But the people you talked about are no different from Rob Wood who in blatant display of affective prejudice, thinks people from abroad are irrelevant and often write poorly.

“I only really mind the poorly crafted totally irrelevant link requests which obviously come from overseas and are essentially a form letter.”

By: Rob Woods

Rob Woods — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:57:04 +0000

I only really mind the poorly crafted totally irrelevant link requests which obviously come from overseas and are essentially a form letter. I can’t imagine why a well written email from someone who’s taken the time to look at your site and find out your name would enrage someone. I have way more important things to do than take time to answer annoying emails. Up until now I haven’t done a lot of email link requests but of the few I’ve done recently have actually been very successful, hopefully because I took the time to understand the company I was communicating with and because it actually made sense for them to link to us.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:46:41 +0000

Hey Ulana,

Basically, I am talking about the initial email, which never ever specifies much of anything in terms of what WE want out of it. I could understand it more if we were being specific and/or demanding, but we’re not.

By: Ulana Illiano

Ulana Illiano — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:53:40 +0000

Would you mind sharing a sample email requesting the link? I am curious to know if you are asking for specific anchor text or making them aware that there is basically nothing in it for them if they link to you. Thanks!

By: 7 Days of Search and Social; the source for search geeks

7 Days of Search and Social; the source for search geeks — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:21:11 +0000

[...] Link requests and the death of politeness – comes from uber groovy SEO Chick, Julie Joyce where she lashes out at all the meanies, the lame and the death of direct contact (she believes it’s still alive and well btw). [...]

By: The latest search and social news for geeks - Ass hats, Crap hats, SEO Sucks and more | Search Engine Journal

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:21:20 +0000

By: Diane

Diane — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:00:12 +0000

I’ve had some pretty inane link requests recently. I’ve not yet ranted back bigstyle but it’s been close.
I hate anonymous style link requests almost as much as I hate the really structured ones where they issue you with a password.

By: Anna Spear

Anna Spear — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:20:25 +0000

Lol, not sure about ouright hateful! Perhaps somewhere in between would work best? (although it would be great fun to see the reactions that a hateful email would incite, I’ve not had experience of hateful link request emails yet!)

It’s probably worth working out what lines in standard emails incite which reaction in people, hate might incite fear and compliance for all we know…?

I’d probably stick to neutral though, no niceness (agree it might show you as weak) and nothing too anything really, if that makes sense. Leave reaction and opinions out of it and it may be more of a business option.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:48:25 +0000

Hi Anna,

That’s a damned good question, and not something I’ve paid much attention to but it’s something I should examine. I wonder if, when you go ahead and apologize, the recipient thinks you’re weak and thus subject to abuse? Maybe we should try being outright hateful and see how far we get!

By: Anna Spear

Anna Spear — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:31:17 +0000

Having read this earlier, I’ve just got an email that seemed to invite abuse, even though it was being extra polite, quite ironic…

Do you find you get more abuse if you start the email with apologies should the email offend (this one had this sentence before ‘Hello Webmaster’) rather than if the email doesn’t incite any emotion at all and can be deleted with less thought?

I don’t know what technique(s) you’re using but I’m thinking that people feel the need to respond more when their personal thoughts/opinions are involved.

Personally I’ve never noticed any hatred back from emails that don’t include an apology. Has anyone else noticed this possible correlation?

Hopefully something can irradicate the abuse!