Alert: Link exchange proposal between and my site

I often receive these link exchange requests. In years gone by requests link exchange requests looked like they were written by the person concerned. A check of the site and you'd see their name on the site and you had a pretty good feeling as to whether or not you wanted to exchange links.

Now I receive link exchange requests most days, and sometime multiple requests a day. I've tried to unsubscribe with no effect. They just keep coming. That's OK because usually I just let OzEfilter delete them at the mail server so they don't get read or reach me.

In this case the email was sent from Peru. I checked the site and it has Google advertising which is designed to generate them income by people clicking on the ads. There are a serious of articles. I checked the About page and they hadn't bothered to enter any information. This site feels like it has been quickly set up as a marketing exercise.

I really don't know the idea behind these sites. Maybe it is to get people to visit the site and click on the Google ads. The marketers could be sending out hundreds of thousands of these invitations and if a small percentage link to them that could get them traffic and clicks.

The following is the body of the email I received today.

My name is , Web Marketing Consultant. I’ve greatly enjoyed looking through your site justlocal.com.au and I was wondering if you'd be interested in exchanging links with my website, which has a related subject. I can offer you a HOME PAGE link back from 2 of my Online Business websites which are:

 with page rank 3  with page rank 3


If you are interested, please send me the following details of your

site:
TITLE:
URL:

I'll add your link as soon as possible, in the next 24 hours. As soon as it's ready, I'll send you a confirmation email along with the information (TITLE and URL) regarding my site to placed at yours.


I hope you have a nice day and thank you for your time.

Kindest regards,

My feeling is you should delete these emails and ignore them. Their approach appears is to use a standard template to simply market themselves. It is highly unlikely they have never visited your site or read what your site offers. You'll see there is nothing in the email that relates to my site except for the domain. Anything they've included about me is easily harvested from the internet.
 
In this case the lack of real contact details on the site is a concern. The fact the email came from Peru flags that something is a bit weird. Checking the domain shows it is registered in Peru, but then checking the site for the domain contact shows another site quickly put together with an About page that has not been set up.
 
I'd suggest to anyone receiving these offers to simply bin them. If you want to exchange links get to know the people. Make sure they are bona fide and you'd be happy to refer people to them. Your users will thank you for the extra effort.
 
- Kelvin Eldridge

PS. Another clue I missed in the domain registry information which indicates this request is highly suspect is the domain was registered two days ago. I wouldn't be interested in exchanging links with a site that has zero track record. There is nothing to say it will still be around in two more days.

Take care with any unsolicited offers you receive via the internet.