Automated Link Generators - Not Worth The Trouble
Teacher: Eric Ward

There are automated software programs that some web marketers use to try and generate links for their sites. Most work the same way. You do a search at a search engine for a certain term, and the software program will visit each site in the search results, combing the HTML looking for email addresses. Once found, these programs then send an email of your creation to every site it has found an address for and asks for a link.

You may have seen one of these programs in action. If you've ever received an email that started with something like

I bet you've received one just like it.

As tempting as these tools may seem, in the end you'll end up with at best a couple of useless links and a ton of spam. Automated link generators are useless. Not because the software behind them is flawed, but because hundreds of novice web marketers are using them indiscriminately.

Why would I link to your site about dog grooming? Because I ran a story once about dogs? I don't think so. Link generators have become a scourge. They were never really useful anyway. They are a classic example of the old axiom "just becasue you can automate a process doesn't mean you should".

The process of finding target sites for links must be 100% personalized. I can tell any time I get an automated link request email, and I delete them the moment I see them.

Any link you get as a result of using one of these tools will be just as worthless as the tool itself. It's insulting to tell me you saw my site when you didn't. You sent a software program to my site, you never saw it.

If you had been to my site you would have called me by name in your email.

If you had been to my site you would have known I don't even have a links page in the first place.

If you had been to my site you wouldn't have sent the SAME email request to all 7 addresses on my main page, all of which come to me in the same inbox.

My advice to anyone using one of these programs is to at least take the time to actually visit any site you are asking for a link from. Find out who runs the site. Address them by name. Tell them your name. Show them you have seen their site. Explain why you think a link exchange makes sense, and if they have a links page already, let them know you have been to see it. Offer to talk by phone.

This may seem like a lot to do, but it works. The goal is to leave zero doubt in the reader's mind that you are a real person who has been to their site and taken the time to evaluate it. Give me 10 targeted evaluated links instead of 100 junk links any day.

When Warner BROS launched a site about the movie Ben Hur, I went out and looked for Ben Hur links pages, and found several. I then sent a personal one-at-a-time email to the owner of each of those sites, introducing myself and explaining I was seeking links from them for the Warner BROS Ben Hur web site. 100% of them gave me the link.

About the teacher:
Eric Ward founded the Web's first service for announcing and linking Web sites back in 1994, and he still offers those services today. His client list is a who's who of online brands. Ward is best known as the person behind the original linking campaigns for Amazon.com Books, The Link Exchange, Microsoft, Rodney Dangerfield, WarnerBros, The Discovery Channel, the AMA, and The Weather Channel. His services won the 1995 Tenagra Award For Internet Marketing Excellence, and he was selected as one of the Web's 100 most influential people by Websight magazine. Eric also writes columns for ClickZ and Ad Age magazine, and is the editor of LinkAlert!