How to Handle Reciprocal Link Requests

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Why you shouldn’t always say yes.

This morning, I got a feedback message from the owner of another Web site:

My name is [omitted] and I have recently visited your site and wondered
whether you might be interested in exchanging a reciprocal link with our site.

If interested, please respond with a reciprocal link to my website.
======= ======== ======== ======================
Here is our website information:
————————————
Home page URL: http://[omitted[
Website Title: [omitted] Directory
Description: A Wholesalers and Dropshippers directory for traders, ebayers and new businesses.
E-mail Address: [omitted]
Category: (wholesale, wholesalers, dropship, dropshippers, suppliers, trade, Business, Business Services)
Keywords: wholesale, wholesalers, dropship, dropshippers, suppliers, trade, wholesaler, wholesales, directory, list, goods, products, uk, usa, Wholesale Products, wholesale directory, jewelry, clothing, product, gift, t shirt, bead furniture, dvd, watches, apparel leather, food, shopping, USA, America, American, Canada

My, that’s quite an informative request for a reciprocal link. I wonder whether he expected me to set up a Web page for him on my site.

I deleted the request without even replying. Why? Let me tell you.

Reciprocal Link, Defined

To make sure we’re all on the same page (no pun intended), let me start by explaining what a reciprocal link is.

A reciprocal link is an arrangement where one Web site owner includes a link to another Web site owner’s site, with the understanding that that other Web site owner will include a link to his site. A links to B and B links back to A.

In general, it seems like a good deal. After all, you’re getting exposure for your site on another site, right? And all it’s costing is the time and effort and page real estate to add the other link — in other words, hardly anything at all.

But Is It a Good Match?

Consider the request I got this morning. The site owner operates a site that’s a directory of wholesalers and dropshippers. Okay. So what does that have to do with my site?

The answer is nothing. There’s no relationship between what I write about here and the information that’s available on his site.

As a result, only a small percentage of my site’s visitors would be remotely interested in the information on his site. And a small percentage of his site’s visitors would be remotely interested in the information on my site.

What’s the Real Cost?

So you might be wondering, what’s the harm of including a link to an unrelated site on your site? After all, it doesn’t really cost anything.

Well, here’s the way I see it. If you included a link to every single site that asked you for a link, you’d soon have a huge link list with little or no value to your site visitors. You’re using up page real estate to clutter up your site with pretty much useless information.

And on the other side of the reciprocating agreement are sites that are doing pretty much the same thing: building long lists of links to unrelated sites, just so they can get your link to theirs. Is anyone really going to find your link — provided they even bother to look — in that long list?

Is it worth degrading your site to get those links? I don’t think so.

And Are These Requests Real?

That brings up the question of whether the requests you receive are real. In other words, did the site owner who contacted you really visit your site and think it would make a good candidate for a reciprocal link?

In this day and age, spam is all too common. It’s possible that your e-mail address got into the hands of someone who is sending the same exact message to thousands of other Web site owners or bloggers.

The message I received is certainly generic enough to go out to anyone. But in my case, I didn’t get it directly by e-mail. Instead, I got it through the use of my Feedback form, which requires either a really smart spambot or a person to create and send the message. So there’s a good chance that this site owner actually did visit my site.

If so, however, what gave him the idea that I’d link to a dropshipper directory?

When to Say Yes

Of course, some reciprocal link requests will be beneficial for both you and the other site owner. But how can you tell? Here are some things to consider:

  • Is it a good match? As I mentioned before, there should be some relationship between the two sites. Would a link to the other site benefit your site’s visitors? If so, it’s worth considering.
  • What is the other site like? Is it a quality site, one you want to send you site’s visitors to? I’ve ignored many link requests to sites that just weren’t up to my standards due to content quality, design, or excessive advertising.
  • How many links are on the other site? Are they links to related sites? Remember, if the other site has hundreds of links to other sites, it’s not likely that anyone looking at the list will find yours.

Of course, once you decide to enter into a reciprocal link agreement with another site, you’ll need to keep tabs on the other site. Has your link to the other site been created as promised? Is it still there, week after week, month after month? This will increase your site management workload a bit. But if the reciprocal link is one worth having, it’s worth the extra effort to keep track of.

Conclusion

If you get a request from another Web site or blog owner for a reciprocal link, don’t just say yes. Do your homework to make sure you really want that link on your site.

A free link isn’t always free.

A Google AdSense Milestone

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I break the century mark.

RevenuSenseFor the first time, monthly AdSense earnings from all of my Web sites has passed the $100 mark. That means I actually get a payment for a single month.

Woo hoo!

AdSense is currently covering all costs of hosting and renewing domain names for all of my sites. But that’s about it.

(Obviously, if I was blogging for money, I would have quit a long time ago.)

In case you’re wondering, two thirds of my AdSense revenue comes from wickenburg-az.com, which gets about half as many visitors as this site. That site is a general info site appealing to people interested in the town of Wickenburg. They’re not necessarily techies, so they’re more likely to click ads. This site attracts mostly techies, who are less likely to click (or even see) ads.

I removed all my LinkShare ads from wickenburg-az.com today. I removed them from this site about two months ago. What a waste of code.

Revenue TextLinkAds is just starting to pick up. But I don’t ever expect revenue from that source to surpass AdSense.

And in case you’re wondering, the image shown above is from the RevenuSense widget, which I reviewed here in March.

Internet Scam Foiled

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Another foreigner attempts to separate me from large sums of money.

It’s unfortunate but true that the Internet is being used by con artists. Here’s my most recent experience.

The Hook

It started with a query using the form on the Flying M Air web site:

My name is [omitted], I want to book for an Helicopter /flight charter for my family because,during our stays in your your state,we will be going on tours around the town.

These are information for our Booking,
Preferred Date of Tour: 10th,11th,12th, and 13th July 2007 (4days)
Time: 1hr in a day.
Passengers: 4
1. MR. MR. [omitted] ——-weigh 130pounds
2.MRS [omitted]{My Wife} weigh 120pounds
3.[omitted] 16 yrs}weigh 95pounds
4.[omitted] 13yrs } 80pounds
Mode of Payment: Credit Card(Visa Card).

I want you to give me the total expensis for the 4days tour at 1hr per day.
I hope that you accept credit card payment.

It looked legitimate enough. The English was dismal, but that’s to be expected from someone whose first language isn’t English.

I didn’t read the message very closely because my helicopter seats only 3 passengers so I couldn’t accommodate his party. (If I had read closely, I would have wondered a bit about his 16-year old son weighing only 95 lbs.)

I replied as follows:

Unfortunately, we can take a maximum of only 3 passengers. You can try the following other companies, which both have larger helicopters:

Gold Coast: 623-935-3388
WestCor: 480-991-6558

If you call either one, please tell them Maria sent you.

Good luck!

I figured that would be the end of our exchange. But I was wrong. The next day, I got this message:

I want you to indicate the price for the 3 pers. one of us will be staying back each day.

This was a bit weird, almost as if he was willing to leave a member of his family behind just to use my services. But I reasoned it out. He may have contacted the other companies (or planned to) and wanted to work up pricing to be better informed about his options.

I replied:

For flights out of the Phoenix area, our rate is $795 for the first hour and $450 for each additional hour that same day. That covers up to three people with a maximum passenger weight of 650 pounds (290 kilos). There is a one hour minimum flight time for all flights out of the Phoenix area. The Phoenix area includes departures from Scottsdale, Deer Valley, Glendale, and Sky Harbor Airports.

We can fly throughout the Phoenix area and to places like the Grand Canyon, Sedona, etc. We cannot fly OVER the Grand Canyon — we do not have a permit to do that — but we can make arrangements with a company at the Grand Canyon for you to do that flight if you like. Prices start at about $175/person for canyon overflights. There are also a few restricted areas within Arizona where we can’t fly, mostly to the south.

We need at least 48 hours advance notice for all flights booked during the summer months. We accept payment by cash, MasterCard, or Visa, but we must have a credit card deposit to book flights.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

The Line

His response came almost immediately:

Thanks for your kind response, i would like to inform you that i have concluded arrangement with hotel/logistic agent that will book hotel and other take care of other service that will be requested from my family during the stay in the state.

I will send you credit card to deduct the total charges of your service and my logistic agent, because i don’t want to share the details with a third party,beside the agent runs a private and does not have a credit card facilities to runs his full payment.

So once you are in receipt of credit card,you will charge the amount of ($8000) then you deduct the cost of your service ($3180(for four days) and send the balance of ($4820) to my logistic agent whose information will be forwarded to you once you charge the credit card.

I am also aware that there will be charges for the credit card, i want you to mention the figure so that i will include it on the total amount that will be charged from my credit card.

I want you to confirm this and get back to me with your name, mobile number and address for my personal documentation.

The alarm bells went off in my head. Back in 2004, when I sold my old helicopter, someone had tried a similar scam. They’d offer to pay you more than they owed you for an item you had for sale (in my case, an R22 helicopter listed for $110,000) using a certified check. The additional amount was to be forwarded in cash to an “agent” somewhere in the U.S. (In my case, it was $12,000 for shipping fees.) Once the agent had the money, the check would somehow bounce and you’d be out the extra cash. Of course, all correspondence would be via e-mail and fax. I’m not quite sure how the cash was to be handed over because it never got that far.

In my case, I insisted on using an escrow agent, which would cost me an additional $500. (Worth every penny.) The R22 “buyer” — who was willing to pay $105K for the ship, sight unseen — kept ignoring my requests to contact the escrow agent. He finally stopped our correspondence and I knew a scam had been attempted.

Someone else I knew fell for a similar scam when selling an RV and lost $2,000.

The Sinker

I knew this was a scam. How many people tell you to charge their credit card for a trip when all you asked for was a deposit? We hadn’t booked anything, I hadn’t given him any total prices, I hadn’t even asked for a deposit. But he was telling me to charge his credit card for $8,000.

But I had to play it cool, just on the off chance that it wasn’t a scam. So I replied:

I didn’t mention anything about prepayment. All I need is a deposit. And I don’t take deposits until I have reservations booked. You did not make any reservations.

I don’t charge credit cards for more than the amount of my services. And I don’t pay “agents” from money collected by check or credit card. That’s a popular internet con that I’ve seen in the past. (I didn’t fall for it then, either.)

If you want to book a flight, let me know the details so I can draw up a contract. I will fax it to you for your signature and credit card information for the deposit. You can then mail or fax it back to me with the address I provide on the contract form.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

And, as you can imagine, I never heard from this character again.

Don’t Be Conned

If someone contacts you via e-mail to offer you something that’s too good to be true, it just isn’t true.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t sell any large ticket item to someone you haven’t met personally without using an escrow agent.

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

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A memoir, a history, by Lewis Buzbee.

The Yellow-Lighted BookshopIn clearing out my reading pile, I stumbled upon The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee. I read this book several months ago, then put it aside with a mental note to write up some comments in my blog.

I’ve been incredibly busy lately and not focused on what I’ve been reading. As a matter of fact, I’ve been having some trouble getting back into reading these days. My “To Read” pile is tall, but for some reason, I’m not impelled to read any of the books on it. And every time I pass a bookstore, I have trouble keeping myself from dropping in.

That’s why this passage from the first chapter of Buzbee’s work really hits home:

For the last several days I’ve had the sudden and general urge to buy a new book. I’ve stopped off at a few bookstores around the city, and while I’ve looked at hundreds and hundreds of books in that time, I have not found the one book that will satisfy my urge. It’s not as if I don’t have anything to read; there’s a tower of perfectly good unread books next to my bed, not to mention the shelves of books in the living room I’ve been meaning to reread. I find myself, maddeningly, hungry for the next one, as yet unknown. I no longer try to analyze this hunger; I capitulated long ago to the book lust that’s afflicted me most of my life. I know enough about the course of the disease to know I’ll discover something soon.

In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Buzbee, a former bookseller, writes about his life with books, taking detours along the way to discuss the history of books, printing, publishing, and and the book selling industry. Chapters cover the business of books — including the surprising (for some) truth about what an author earns on each book sold and the impact that large booksellers (think Barnes and Noble and Borders) and online booksellers (think Amazon.com) have on the industry.

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is a look into a life where books are more than just bunches of paper with words on them. Educational, amusing, insightful — the book will appeal to any book lover in a way that few other books can.

I highly recommend it.

Treo Internet Connection Problems Resolved

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But not very satisfactorily.

palm Treo 700p Smartphone (Verizon Wireless)A few days ago, I reported “The Trouble with Treos.” In short, I’d bought a Treo 700p so I could access the Internet from my off-the-grid camping shed on Howard Mesa. Although I’d been told that the Treo would “tether” with my Macintosh for an Internet connection, I later learned that feature wasn’t supported by Palm (maker of the Treo) and Verizon (my wireless provider).

Motorola Q Phone (Verizon Wireless)Today, while running an errand in the Phoenix area, I stopped by the Verizon Wireless store where I bought the phone (Happy Valley, north of Phoenix) and spoke to the woman who sold it to me. I believe her when she says she thought it would work. But I also don’t know why she didn’t tell me about the Motorola Q phone, which definitely would work. Could it be because it cost $150 less?

Could I Love My Phone?

Now, after spending the past week sending photos to my TumbleLog and text messages to Twitter while on a business/vacation trip to California, I’m rather attached to the darn phone. Just the other afternoon, while Mike was driving from the LA area to Santa Barbara, I was stuck in the back seat of the convertible he’d rented. With no chance of participating in the conversation between Mike and his cousin due to wind noise, I amused myself by exchanging a series of photos with my brother in New Jersey who was lounging by his friend’s pool with his friend’s family, his wife, and his dog. I sent him photos I’d taken earlier in the day, as well as a few scenes from the Mustang’s cramped back seat as we made our way up the coast.

That’s something I couldn’t do with my old phone.

I know that other people have been doing stuff like that for years, but I was never into the cell phone thing. Now it’s almost an addiction. And I just don’t want to give up my new phone, even though it doesn’t do everything I want.

But I’m a logical, reasoning person — at least at times — and it makes no sense to be emotionally attracted to a smart phone that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. So what was I to do?

Make it do what I needed it to.

Doing the “Impossible” — Poorly

So I got on the Web and I tracked down a software package called USB Modem. Available in Mac OS, Windows, and Linux flavors, this package includes software for the Treo as well as drivers for my Mac. I installed a few things, configured a few things, plugged in my tether, and connected to the Internet. In other words, I was able to do what Verizon had belatedly told me I couldn’t do: connect to the Internet using the USB tether cable.

But the connection seemed painfully slow. I fired up the Speakeasy Speed Test and tested it out. Sure enough, I had download speeds of only 120Kbps and upload speeds of only 20Kbps. Sheesh! This is broadband?

To be fair, I ran the same test on the Bluetooth DUN connection. I got 135 down and 85 up. Not much better.

Then I ran it on my house connection just for comparison. 524 down and 516 up.

(All these tests were done with the same computer.)

At Least I Have a Reason to Keep the Phone

The only good that comes out of this is that now I have a reason to keep the phone. True, it’ll cost me another $25 to buy the software to do the tethered connection — I was using a demo version to make sure it would work before I coughed up any more hard earned money — but at least it does work.

It just doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Or as well as the salesperson at the Verizon Wireless store said it would. Very disappointing.

I still have three weeks to decide.

Anyone out there use a Q phone with a Mac? Please do use the Comments link or form to share your experiences, good and bad.