Sunday, October 30, 2011

Link Exchanges

Merle Klein from Bigpoint GmbH has asked me to exchange links. Below is the copy/pasted email for you to have a look. What's your opinion ?

From: Merle Klein
Date: Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 1:58 PM
Subject: Link Exchange
To: "NilsMMOBlog@Hotmail.com"

Hi Nils,

While searching for potential link exchange partners, I found your webpage http://nilsmmoblog.blogspot.com/.

Since our webpages have some common themes, I would like to suggest a link exchange from which we would both profit. Related-subject links are especially important for good Google ranking.

I can offer you a link to the following pages:

http://www.drakensang-online.com/big/warrior-games/
http://www.farmerama.com/big/family-games/
http://www.darkorbit.com/big/space-online-games/

All those three games are actively played by millions of gamers. Take a look at the pages for yourself. Choose a keyword from the text which fits in with your content – we would also be happy to integrate specific keywords for you if you prefer.

If you're interested, I can send you further information and concrete offer.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely

Merle Klein
SEO
Bigpoint GmbH
Drehbahn 47-48
20354 Hamburg | Germany

Mail: merle.klein@bigpoint.net

CEOs: Heiko Hubertz, Arthur Bastings
Business Registration: HRB-Hamburg 94148


---
PS: I'm not a professional and I know this can be faked. But the message looks genuine to me.

x-store-info:sbevkl2QZR7OXo7WID5ZcVBK1Phj2jX/
Authentication-Results: hotmail.com; sender-id=temperror (sender IP is 62.146.190.5) header.from=merle.klein@bigpoint.net; dkim=none header.d=bigpoint.net; x-hmca=none
X-Message-Status: n:0:n
X-SID-PRA: Merle Klein
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X-AUTH-Result: NONE
X-Message-Delivery: Vj0xLjE7dXM9MDtsPTA7YT0xO0Q9MTtHRD0xO1NDTD0w
X-Message-Info: NhFq/7gR1vTNPW4OJOnWBwbMfVTuyuWX74TYLI4Ev9ybeD2a6bV447wpfrEuINa0La/5KF1Eqn/IEAK9vxc8U5Ngj3zNYRz5m547C+LX/ps3kI7IYO9arc0cOLK+5/4SROXGq2E+kew=
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Received: from srv011207.nue.bigpoint.net ([10.32.11.207] helo=exchange.bigpoint.net)
by mx2.bigpoint.net with esmtp (Exim 4.72)
(envelope-from )
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for NilsMMOBlog@Hotmail.com; Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:58:51 +0100
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2011 13:58:03 +0100
From: Merle Klein
To: "NilsMMOBlog@Hotmail.com"
Subject: Link Exchange
Thread-Topic: Link Exchange
Thread-Index: AcyXA5s2VQwu6xU3QlGxYWoUddrjbw==
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:58:23 +0000
Message-ID: <027E3886E12344448854B9F8504D91A2712AF6@srv024038.bigpoint.local>
Accept-Language: de-DE, en-US
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x-originating-ip: [10.32.21.175]
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Return-Path: merle.klein@bigpoint.net
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 30 Oct 2011 12:58:52.0190 (UTC) FILETIME=[AC838BE0:01CC9703]

6 comments:

  1. Victor StillwaterOctober 30, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    I got a similar email recently. I didn't think it fit the profile of my blog as well, so I simply ignored it. Not sure if declining through email is wise unless you can verify they're actually who they say they are.

    ReplyDelete
  2. StrawfellowOctober 30, 2011 at 4:46 PM

    Well, they're certainly playing on the idea that a blogger's self-esteem is measured by his pageviews.

    Though I didn't get an e-mail, and I'm certain you've already made your decision not to accept, the thing looks a bit shady. Also the wording is vague enough to be pre-written.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NilsOctober 30, 2011 at 5:31 PM

    Added some mail header information to the bottom of the post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. gabbastormOctober 30, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    Do his games have pandas? If not, Id say go for it :p

    But seriously, I wouldn't worry about it. It just looks like he's been scraping the internet for blogs containing keywords that will help his sites rank high in Google if he can get a link from them. Yours has come up in that search so you've got an email. It wouldn't surprise me if hundreds or even thousands have been sent out. Most people ignore them, but a few don't and that's what makes it worth his time. Not that it takes up much of his time, as most of it usually automated.

    I wouldn't say there's anything shady about it, he just wants a backlink to help his google rankings for one of his sites.

    ReplyDelete
  5. NilsOctober 30, 2011 at 6:23 PM

    Gabbastorm, I pretty much agree ;).

    This hasn't been the first such mail, either. It was just the first from a respectable company like Bigpoint (~50mio € annual revenue). Usually these mails come from some unknown 'consultants'.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AzurielOctober 30, 2011 at 8:05 PM

    Reminds me of this Gawker article where it turns out companies are attempting to "buy" bloggers.

    ReplyDelete

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