How to make a Sure-Shot Link exchange request?

Dear Blogger,

Your blog is great. I really liked the posts, particularly the latest one.

Keep up the good work.

Can we do a link exchange?

Regards,
Mani

————–

I’m sure all of you would’ve come across one of these(at least similar) letters. If you have accepted it, it’s probably because you are not serious about blogging and thinks that link-exchanges benefit you. If you’ve not – you are normal.

Let me start clearing some common mis-conceptions about Link Exchanges.
- Link Exchanges are not good at all.
- Asking for Link Exchange to a professional(i hate that word though!) blogger has only 5% chance of him accepting it.
- Link exchanges are not to be begged.

Yes, a bit of irony here – the title is how to make a sure-shot link exchange request, while I’m explaining here that they aren’t good.

Here’s why i think Link Exchanges are not good.

When you ask someone a link exchange, it automatically shows up that you are a loser, you have a stupid blog and you are trying to get some thing from the other guy. It’s pretty much like begging.

But, this post is for beginner bloggers who have just started blogging and is looking for acceptance from other bloggers. It’s fair to ask for link exchanges if you have a pretty young blog.Because, when i was a starter, no pro-blogger would link to me, I sent a hundred mails to “professional bloggers” asking for links or link exchanges but none of them said Yes, and it wasn’t surprising to me because they could easily sell that link slot(which they may link to me) to another buyer who is ready to pay them.And i got a link from a gentleman called Lysazel, who had a not-so great blog, but i salute his courage to link to me. Today I’ve reciprocated my love to hime by linking back.

I’m always open to linking to young quality bloggers.Let’s get to the point.

So you know you are begging, now beg in style, beg smart so that you know whom to ask and how to. So that you get what you want – always!

(1) Whom to ask for Link Exchanges

Don’t ask for link exchanges to a popular blogger(Yeah the A-List ones as you call). From my experience, they will never even respond to you, or if they will, they will send you their Quotation for buying links from them.

But, you can use them in another way. Read their blog comments, look for their readers, who are consistent and writes friendly comments on their blogs. Reading their comments you can make out if the guy is open to new relations, friendly is social etc.

(2) Make a list of these frequent commenters and their blogs.

I’d prefer making a spreadsheet of the following details.

Blogger’s Name(Not their Nick names, their real names)
Blog name
Blog url
Page rank
Subject that he often blogs about

(3) Now, study their blog, read a few posts and find out more about him.

This can be done by sorting out the blogger’s list by Page rank.
You may want to start with the blogger with highest page rank and then work down. Get details like his profession, what’s his interests, his location and the like.

(4) Draft a smart mail

By smart i mean a personalized one. Personalization is the best way to attract someone’s attention.Keep in mind all the details you have collected and draft the mail. I’ve done a dummy one for you.

Hi (Name goes here),

Hope you are keeping well. My name’s (your name here) and I’m writing from (your place).

You may recognize me as a frequent commenter on your blog. I’m an ardent reader of your blog and I’ve enjoyed a few posts like the one you posted recently on (the subjects). Hope you read my comments on it.

Well, I’m a blogger too, I write on my blog (your blog) on (your topics).

OPTION 1 – One thing i noticed on your blog is that you blog very regularly. I had grabbed your feed the day i visited your blog, and i’ts nice to see it updated every time. Can you please advice me on how to find such interesting topics to blog on? It would really help me improve my blog.

OPTION 2 – I’m quite amazed to see how you manage to write such interesting articles, can you please give me some advice on this? It will really help me improve my blog.

I’m also looking for link exchanges from bloggers like you, if you think that my blog has got some good articles, please feel free to link to one of it in your posts.

I look forward to your tips and advice on how to blog regularly/find interesting topics to blog about.

Many thanks for your time.

Best,
You
(Your blog url)

This is only a suggestion, I’d suggest that you draft one along these lines.
As you might have noticed, there are certain things that you need to pre- equip with.

1 – Write some valid articles on your blog.
2 – Comment on his blog atleast a few times.
3 – Grab his feed prior to sending this email.

Also, note that I’ve not asked him just for another link. I’ve asked him to check your site and if…if he finds an interesting article, link

to it. That’s more genuine than asking for a link. Isn’t it?

Make sure that the subjects on his blogs are studied properly and you make no mistake in it. A blogger can get harassed if you are talking rubbish – complimenting his articles on science when he’s actually blogging about technology.

I hope I’ve listed out everything i can regarding getting a sure-shot link-exchange.

It did most of the times for me, no guarantee though.

Now the most important part.

If the blogger denies your request the first time, don’t let it go there. Develop a relationship with the blogger, keep commenting on his blog.

And i can GUARANTEE you that one day he’ll fall for you – probably with a one-way link!

Possibly related SEO & Social Media Articles

• Link building Strategies Tip 2 – Interviews (for backlinks that is)
  This is second post in the Link Building Strategies series. What do you think about Interviews? They always pass some value to you right ? Interviews are no big deal on the internet. If you have a brand to show off or have done something remarkably different, then you are a candidate for interview. The interesting [...]...
• Link Building Strategies – Tip 1 Rank Lists
  Create your own Rank Lists and get away with some cool backlinks Back to some basics alright…it’s always fun to talk about this. Okay so for all the new/young/budding up bloggers out there, from whatever “interaction” I had with some of them, I sensed that, alarmingly many of the young bloggers out there have wonderful, striking ideas [...]...
• 12 Link Building Tips articles you’ll ever need to read
  Link building is the “thing” I like most in all of the strategies in SEO/SMM. Whatever you call it, the name of the game is to get popular and get people “to vote” for you through links. And hey, link building is not about link exchange requests and automated spam. That’s so old school. Here [...]...
• Link love to Daily dose April 23
  One more reason to prove why Search Engine Optimization, is a much studied discipline(thanks to bloggers) in India, and why there are many SEO educated webmasters – I find anyone who is approaching me for links, well informed about the need for back links, PR, Google SERPs etc. This is really fantastic! Well, Here are [...]...
• How important is an incoming link?
  These days i get a lot of link exchange requests. Especially for the “SEO India” link exchange offer that’s running. I haven’t declined any link requests for the SEO India offer but if i hadn’t been running this, there are certain things that I’d have looked into and decline some link exchange requests as well. When [...]...