To all of you who send these..

[mojo]

It goes like this:

'Hi, I like your site. Please let me know how much to advertise?'

Or something similar.

There is no Salutation, Greeting, Body or Signature. Just a rude solicitation.

I DO NOT answer these so please Stop sending them! You could at least have the courtesy to name your URL. Oh, I forget, your URL sucks!

[Chips]

Well said Mojo I have received solicitations for sites I already promote! So I do make a point in answering those emails and including a link to the review page. I just received an email form a program I had sent a link to before and with that the banners , review page and all traces are GONE!

As I am now working on the dark side (Affiliate Manager), I make it a point to actually visit the site, look a the pages and decide if the affiliate is worth my time contacting. It is a slower process but, I feel better knowing what kind of work an affiliate will do for my brands.

(BTW, we need to talk)

[masontech]

I am getting three or four of these emails a week. They always get shirty when you refuse...

[Doolally]

I'm getting loads of these too, they get the delete button treatment. If someone isn't bold enough to tell me which site my link will be coming from, then they're hiding a really bad site.

[AE-Martyn]

Being an affiliate manager I also hate these!

By the sounds of it I would suggest that whoever sent the mails sent them in bulk from a list they obtained from source that is not too trustworthy or are part of an organisation that could have access to affiliate details.

As it is part of the job we have to do, and trust me I dont like doing it as much as you dont like receiving them, I also tend to take my time over who I contact by checking out the site. In the past I have missed our banners on sites and contacted the affiliate but these things happen, all you can do is appologise and see if you can squeeze some further coverage out of you!

I try to be a little more personal with my approach but I also try to include some info about the program which will be the same in most emails I send depending on who I am sending it to.

[mojo]

I see I'm not the only one who keeps getting these. It's almost like they are fishing to see how much I might charge for links. Either that or they are just plain spammers.

I don't think they are from affiliate programs Martyn. I get those but they are signed and I know who I'm talking too. I don't mind those. These are more one sentence solicitations that are for advertising and link exchanges/sales.

Seems to be more and more of them so now I don't open any.

[robertmedl]

and really -- why would any of us take them up on their offer of selling them a paid link? given that G frowns on paid links -- and even solicts webmasters to report paid links in the G Webmaster Tools?

seems silly to me that one would even send out these solicitations....

[Simmo!]

and really -- why would any of us take them up on their offer of selling them a paid link? given that G frowns on paid links -- and even solicts webmasters to report paid links in the G Webmaster Tools?

seems silly to me that one would even send out these solicitations....

Sounds like a good way to eradicate your competitors. Offer a competitor cash for links, when they reply giving a cost, report them to Google with the email response. Call me a cynic

[bb1web]

I didn't know about google wanting reports of paid links. Now how can anyone prove a link is purchased short of providing a receipt?

that sounds like a structure for google bowling if I ever heard of one. Surely that isn't correct? (no offense to who brought it up), its just I don't see how this can be a tool that will be used for good.

[Simmo!]

I didn't know about google wanting reports of paid links. Now how can anyone prove a link is purchased short of providing a receipt?

that sounds like a structure for google bowling if I ever heard of one. Surely that isn't correct? (no offense to who brought it up), its just I don't see how this can be a tool that will be used for good.

I've often wondered about this too. My guess is that a report simply flags up a "maybe" to Google and then possibly it automates queries against it's database looking for proof. IE: forum posts offering link sales etc. It's just been flagged on an SEO forum that Google appears to store all historical data about every page it finds so even a brief offer since deleted might be in their DB.