Asking for links..

I’ve had a number of people, most of whom I suspect are actually commercial enterprises, write me asking for link exchange, or for me to link to their site. Let’s get a few things clear, ok?

First off, if you ask me for a link, chances are, you’re not getting one. I’m not interested in link-exchange programs, or cross-promotion. This isn’t a commercial site, and I try very hard to not link to very many commercial sites. This is a personal site, and anyone lame enough to beg me for a link without giving me a darn good reason, I’m assuming isn’t worth the personal time it would take to check it out.

Next, I’m only going to consider linking to you if you have good, free and useful information for my readers. I don’t have to agree with everything you say, nor do I endorse all of your opinions by linking to you, but if you don’t have anything to offer me other than links, advertising, pointless junk, or a bunch of affiliation links, I’m not coming back to your site, let alone pointing other people to you!

That being said, here’s a few ways to get my attention in a much better way:

Point to me. I’m egotistical enough to go and find out what you might have said about me if you show up in my referrer logs. (I know I’m not alone on that front either!)

Point to other interesting people, help me find good, useful tech information. It’s hard work keeping up with tech news and info, a blogger who can help me find good stuff is indeed a useful resource in and of themselves.

If you are going to send me an email, send me a link to something you’ve done which you think is relevant to something that I’ve talked about here, or one of the many other pages that try to point to relevant information on a number of topics. Explain why it’s relevant, and point me to it. Do not beg me to link to it, simply offer it. If it’s good enough, I’ll point to it without you needing to ask.

Which brings me to my last point. Have good content! Not everything you say has to be earth shattering, lord knows I have been known to write completely pointless drivel from time to time, but there should be something there that makes me want to come back, and makes me want to tell other people about it! If you write good, useful stuff, people will find it and people will link to it, whether it’s me or some other tech blogger, and we’ll all appreciate it!

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