Will the real link request please stand up?

A common conversation:

Client:”What do I do with all these link requests I get in my emails”.
Jim:”Delete them – 99.9% of them are worthless”.
Client: “But Jim, some of them look good, don’t you even want to review them?”
Jim: “No, it’s not worth my time to find 1 real request out of 1000 emails”
Clients: “maybe I’ll go through them then myself….I might find some “good” ones”
Jim: “If you insist….but just don’t waiste your time getting on someones “Links” page….look at where they’re offering (or have already placed) your link, and decide if it will really help you.

• Can you think of any reason your sites topic and their sites topic could be related in any way? If not, delete the email.
• Do you think you’ll ever get any traffic for their page – even 1 click a year? if not, Delete the email.
• If the word “Links” (or any variation there of) is in the URL – Delete the email
• If the word “Links” is in the title tag of the page – Delete the email
• Go the the homepage of the site, and try to find the page where your link will be. If you can’t find it, or have to go more than 4 clicks, Delete the email
• If the links you had to click on in the above search had the word “Links” in any of the link text – Delete the email
• Is your link burried in a big list of tons of sites (think co-citation (“co-citation” meaning that you are considered to be “related” to other links on a page which links to you))….are these other sites on that page in the neighborhood you want to be associated with? If not, Delete the email.
• Check to see if the page has a google cache – if not, or is older than 2 month – Delete the email
• Where are they proposing you link to them? Does it make sense? if not – Delete the email
• Who you trade links with is your closest neighborhood. Who are they getting their links from, and is it in a neighborhood that’s in any way related to your neighborhood? If not delete the email. (for more info on neighborhoods, see this post.)

Upon following the above advice, you’ll be left with about 1 in 1000 link request emails that are “real”, and that will help you in any way…..they are out there….but they are rare beasts.