April 21, 2025 • 17 mins
We examine the world of unsolicited business emails and when they might actually be worth responding to instead of immediately deleting.
• Most "link to us" or "publish our content" emails are spam designed for SEO purposes
• Well-written, personalized emails with legitimate contact info may deserve a second look
• Some seemingly sketchy opportunities (like early Clutch.co) can evolve into valuable platforms
• Consider responding with a counter-request for reciprocal value rather than immediate rejection
• Protect yourself by not clicking suspicious links directly - copy domain names and visit separately
• Ask what they can offer you in return when someone wants to publish on your site
• Even if 99% are garbage, the occasional legitimate opportunity makes selective engagement worthwhile
---
Meredith's Husband
https://www.meredithshusband.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't think anything is possibly more
anxiety-producing than a fidgetspitter that doesn't spin, that
doesn't move, that doesn'tfidget.
This episode, brought to you byBrought to you by.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Brought to you by.
I can't ever remember the nameand I have to remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hungry Roots.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hungry Roots, do it again.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This episode is brought to you by Hungry Roots.
Hungry Root.
Thank you, Hungry.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Root.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Okay, let's talk about shitty emails.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh yes.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So you know what I mean I do.
You forwarded to me yes, youdon't send me shitty emails you
forwarded to me an email thatyou had received.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And it is one of these like out of the blue I
call it spam.
Yeah, out of the blue emailsasking hey link to.
That's not exactly what it does, but hey, link to our site.
Or put you won an award.
Here's a badge, put it on yoursite and link back to us.
Sure, great, thank you.
Okay.
So these are.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The only one.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, my opinion of these is and I'm probably biased
but 99.9999999% of the timethey are total garbage.
Yeah, however, I have changedmy views on them a little bit
over time.
I'm going to tell you how Iused to deal with these and then
what happened.
How I deal with them now.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
And what I recommend that you do, or ie I'm probably
going to do for you with thisemail that you have been sent.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Not for those listeners.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, but they can do it.
It's not difficult, right?
No, no, you're going to showthem.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, exactly, okay.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So you received this email out of the blue.
You sent it to me.
I'm going to go over it.
It's one of these things thatask for it.
Let me just I'll't know who.
Well, actually there is a name.
It came through your contactform, which is a bit of a
warning sign that it's kind ofspam.
But it has a name.
There is a phone number, firstand last name, and the email is
(01:56):
you know, it's well written,it's nice, it sounds authentic
and I'm going to read it rightnow.
Okay, and I'll do this asquickly as possible, because I
don't read very well.
Okay, so here's the email thatcame through the contact form.
Quote.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Teaching kids the importance of self-care is
crucial in today's fast-pacedworld.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
My response Okay, check, good enough.
The email continues.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
By instilling healthy habits early on, we can help
them manage stress and buildresilience.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, Super healthy habits early on.
We can help them manage stressand build resilience.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Okay, super Second paragraph.
As someone passionate aboutthis topic, I'd love to share an
article with self-carestrategies for children,
including mindfulness techniquesand creative activity.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Third paragraph.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Please consider publishing this piece on your
site.
Together, we can equip parentswith the tools their children
need for a brighter future.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Signs off name website and then.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
PS.
If you're interested but prefera different topic, I'm very
much open to discussing thatwith you.
However, if you do not wish toreceive any further emails, I
understand.
Please respond and let me knowRight.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, you know fair enough.
I don't want to say I welcomethat kind of email.
Right but yeah, okay, andinevitably this went out to
hundreds of people, but stillit's well written.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, enough for me to go wait a second For you to
send it to me, bam, or is thisit?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
was written in.
It was very well written inEnglish.
Yeah, obviously written by anEnglish speaker, et cetera.
So you sent it to me, or an AI,or AI, right, although it seems
sincere.
It does seem sincere Especiallythe PS.
It seems sincere and that's whyit caught my attention Because,
(03:35):
like I said, most of these arejunk.
They are just garbage.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
When you say they're garbage.
Why are they doing this?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
What's in it for them ?
Good question, they are doingtheir own SEO.
I don't know exactly, becausean article was not attached to
this and they didn't specifywhat the piece.
They didn't say exactly whatthey wanted to have published,
but typically these things aregoing to be looking to links
that you will build to theirsite one way or another.
This looks like he's going tobe looking to links that you
(04:06):
will build to their site one wayor another.
This looks like he's going togive you an article.
I bet I'll bet money that inthat article is going to be a
link back to their site.
Right, Okay, Sometimes, andlike I said, this is a sincere I
think it's a sincere email.
So you know good, you know fairenough, Good for you.
What I really dislike is whenemails come through and like,
hey, you won this award, You'rea top 10, blah, blah, blah blah
(04:28):
blah blah.
Put this badge and then theygive you a badge to encode on
your site, but in the encodedcode, in the code that you embed
on your site, is a whole bunchof links.
It's very spammy, very shadyRight.
So it's very spammy, very shadyRight.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So, and then the thing is is that clients can't
tell the difference.
They'll look at somebody whohas all these quote badges.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, but also, you know, if a badge is not
recognizable, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
They wouldn't.
Most clients aren't going torecognize it because it says
like Well, then it's.
Ponce Bank recommends calls youthe best photographer right?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, if it's a badge that you think your clients
would be like, oh, that'simpressive, Then it's a badge.
A badge I think you shouldpotentially put on your site.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I just wanted to know because why they would do that
yeah it's for it, it's SEO.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, it's SEO, and I know that because I used to
send these.
Oh, no, not like this yeah, oh,years ago, we would send out
things and looking andessentially and this is one way
you can build links Right, butwe've talked about this before
the trick is you have to givebefore you get.
You have to give somethingbefore you get something Right,
and so I used to receiveprobably a dozen of these per
(05:44):
day.
Oh, like there was a time inSEO, probably a decade to a
decade and a half ago, where, ohmy gosh, it was just
overwhelming and, like I said,we were sending some of these
too.
In fact, I remember a clientthat I had, but not maliciously.
Not maliciously, no, like Iactually wrote them.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I actually sent them out.
No, like I actually wrote them,right, I actually sent them out
.
But I do remember one client Iwas working for sent something
to me and one of the emails Ihad sent out, the recipient of
that email had a lawyer write acease and desist letter to my
client and the client contactedme.
I was like, holy fuck, dude,just mark it as spam If you
(06:23):
don't want to just block it,like that seems excessive.
That seemed very excessive, butit also caused me to reevaluate
what I was doing.
So, yeah, anyway, used to sendthem, used to receive tons of
them, probably why I have such agod awful opinion of them.
However, occasionally they seemsomewhat authentic.
And what happens?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Can you hear Marcel?
Sorry, he's crying becauseBuster has the chew.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
He's so dramatic.
If only life were that easy.
But nowadays these emails arenot as common, not nearly as
common, although they still getsent around, and usually I
should say a common form ofthese emails is hey, can you
push this or can you link to oursite somehow?
Right, and nine times out often, it's just not worth it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
It's not in your benefit, it does not behoove you
.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's definitely not in your benefit.
But, even if you were to replyto one of these emails, you
would quickly figure out thatthis might be a well-written
email backed by God knows what,and so most of the time it goes
straight to garbage.
However, occasionally onecatches my eye.
One of these caught my eye inprobably a decade ago.
(07:39):
Plus, it was from somebody whowas just starting a company, and
the company was one of thesethings that is going to be
online reviews.
It was called clutch, clutchcomor clutchco, and the guy wrote
to me who was starting it.
He was just seemed to bestarting out.
He was doing all this stuffhimself.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I get those emails.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, I wrote.
I wrote back to him.
Actually, we kind of I don'twant to say it was a friendship,
but we had a sort of friendlyrapport and yeah.
So I did whatever he wasoffering.
I don't remember what it was,but there was something I got in
return.
There definitely was.
So at that time when he firstcontacted me, clutch, it didn't
exist, like it was potentially ascam sham, whatever.
(08:20):
It was potentially a scam sham,whatever.
Every once in a while, thosesites end up becoming something
where you might like to havebeen involved early on.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
You got an email from expertisecom.
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yes, I do Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And at the time expertisecom was just starting.
It was nothing.
It looked like garbage.
We didn't do anything Sincethen.
It has become something.
The links coming fromexpertisecom are actually
valuable?
Yes, they are, and now I think,oh well, we should have replied.
However, I actually did followup with them.
(09:00):
They no longer so.
Expertisecom, if you'rewondering, is a site that
reviews vendors, photographersbeing one of those types of
vendors, and they had a sectionon children and family and
newborn photographers, and ifyou get into their article or
their, I think it was a top 10list.
That link ended up being quitevaluable.
However, they have sinceknocked off or they have gotten
(09:23):
rid of the newborn children,family photographer category, so
that is no longer up andthey're focusing on, like
digital I don't remember what itwas.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Where the money is.
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And that's kind of what Clutch did.
Is they focused on, likedigital marketing agencies and
professionals?
Yeah, okay, and so it workedout.
Expertise, an example where itlooked like garbage ended up
being something, and so you haveto be aware of that.
Sometimes, every once in awhile, you get an email and
their website might be garbagenow so how?
(09:57):
do you know, but it might turnit Well.
You don't, you honestly don't.
The only thing we have to go onis the email that they sent you
Right, somewhat professional.
I would like to think thatmaybe they're going to undertake
their other endeavors equallyas professional, in a
professional manner.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You know what I mean, so how do you find out?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
So well, you reply.
My go-to response used to be,for these types of emails,
straight to garbage Right, okay.
Now I would think okay, well,there's, you know.
What do you have to lose?
So this is my approach now andwhat I kind of recommend that
people do.
What do you have to lose?
What I would do, and what Iprobably will do for you, is
(10:42):
reply to this email.
And they didn't attach any.
They just said considerpublishing this piece, didn't
attach anything, didn't providea link, and that says PF
interest If you're interested.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.
And at the end it says pleaserespond and let me know.
So I feel comfortableresponding and I will probably
say something along the lines ofwell, if you can provide a link
(11:05):
to my site as well, yeah, Icould do that, or something
along those lines.
I would start off by asking forsomething that might even not be
realistic, right, like they'reprobably not going to just
provide a link to your site,right, or something else that I
might say, but I might not putin the first email.
It's like well, for SEO reasons, I don't publish duplicated
(11:27):
content, so I don't want topublish a piece that's already
published on God knows how manyother websites and so.
But I bet that would get theirattention, yeah, you know.
And who knows what they mightoffer in return?
Maybe nothing Right, chancesare pretty good like nothing.
But they might come back andsay well, we can give you this
(11:47):
or we can give you that and thenI would evaluate that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
My question is in responding.
Does that then put you on somelist?
That then goes to otherscamming things.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's a fair question and yes, it could
technically, but again, I'm justgoing by my gut instinct and
this seems to be a reasonablywell-written email.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
If I click on the site it looks also if there's a
link, if you know the site, andthen I'm afraid to click on
links because I think thenthey'll have my information.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Okay, well, if that's the case, they put this this
came through your.
This is sort of technical, butthis came through your technical
.
This came through yourtechnical this came through your
it came through your contactform, which means that it's just
text.
Okay, there's nothing embedded.
There's no secret links.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Right, so you can click on a link.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You can do that.
If there's no, if it's justlike you know, abccom, yeah, you
can click on that.
They can't track that.
If it's abccom, slash questionmark and then a big string of
characters, I would recommendyou don't click on those links.
Now if somebody sends you this.
See, I'm fascinated by this.
It's totally boring If somebodysends you an email and there's
a link on it, even if the linksays abccom, and you click on it
(13:01):
inside that link can betracking.
But when it comes through yourcontact form, they can't do that
.
They can't, they cannot.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Because, because it's just text.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
They can include links, but it's just text.
They can't hide any text.
They can't have hidden text Inan email.
You can do that.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
With your contact form.
You usually cannot do that, andto me, as the recipient, it's
just another email, right, butactually it's a slightly more
filtered email.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, and if you do get an email like that and there
is a link in it, personally,what I would do instead of
clicking on it look at the link,copy and paste the name of the
domain just the domain and thengo open it up in a browser that
will not include any trackinginformation.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Whereas the links in an email definitely they're
almost always going to betracked.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Terrified of clicking a link and then forever being
spammed with yeah and again this.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
This wasn't even emailed to you, so it wasn't
sent to your email address.
It came through your contactform so.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So you could, which was emailed to me, but through a
different tunnel.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yes, yeah, it came through, it came through your
your the gate on your website.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Let's say that's what the difference is, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So, yeah, what I'm going to do is I'm going to
write back to this person andsay, hey, this is sort of a
negotiation.
So I'm going to start off bynot being like, yeah, please,
you know I'm not going to go100% full board in.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Oh my gosh, I've been waiting for this.
This is so happy I'm going togrow my business.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I would write back something like yeah, well, maybe
.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Show me what you got yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Show me Like what piece.
Nothing was attached, nothingwas linked.
Show me what you're considering.
I might.
Would, you be willing to.
And then I would ask, I wouldhave some sort of probably
over-the-top ask.
Such as yeah if you can providea link to our site, yeah.
And they might come back andsay something like oh, we'll do
a post on social media.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, to me that is less than, but this would be
such good exposure Right.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Anyway, that's what I plan to do.
I think that's a pretty goodapproach and I'm still expecting
very little.
I'm expecting nothing, to behonest, but I'm curious what
would they offer?
They've got to offer somethingin exchange.
I'm not just going to publish apiece on your website just for
the fun of it, just to help thisperson.
What do they have to offer?
(15:28):
So that's the gist of myresponse.
It's like well, maybe Can yougive me something in return.
Right Period, that's kind ofwhat I would do.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I can do something for you.
What can you do for me?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, like I said, you have nothing to lose, except
maybe you get spammed in thefuture If you receive emails
like this and your gut just saysit's a spammy email.
Yeah, you trust your gut onthat one.
The things I would look for isit well-written, is it seems
sincere?
This one has a phone number.
I mean you could look up thephone number.
Does it go to this company?
That's a pretty good sign.
Yeah, you know, has his name.
(16:02):
Doesn't have his email address.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Oh, it does have his email address.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yes, yeah, it has his yeah, and it's.
Everything looks like legithere.
So I would.
I am going to write back tothis person.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Very exciting.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Right after we eat our dinner from a hungry root.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yes, hungry root.
Oh my gosh, the ravioli, soyummy.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Today was no today no .
Summer, not today.
Yesterday we had the heater on.
Today we'll probably put the ACon.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Spring happened between 1 am and 3 am.
Yeah, we had two hours of itNow, my favorite season ever.
I don't think anything is possibly more
anxiety-producing than a fidgetspitter that doesn't spin, that
doesn't move, that doesn'tfidget.
This episode, brought to you byBrought to you by.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Brought to you by.
I can't ever remember the nameand I have to remember it.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hungry Roots.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hungry Roots, do it again.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This episode is brought to you by Hungry Roots.
Hungry Root.
Thank you, Hungry.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Root.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Okay, let's talk about shitty emails.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh yes.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So you know what I mean I do.
You forwarded to me yes, youdon't send me shitty emails you
forwarded to me an email thatyou had received.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And it is one of these like out of the blue I
call it spam.
Yeah, out of the blue emailsasking hey link to.
That's not exactly what it does, but hey, link to our site.
Or put you won an award.
Here's a badge, put it on yoursite and link back to us.
Sure, great, thank you.
Okay.
So these are.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The only one.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, my opinion of these is and I'm probably biased
but 99.9999999% of the timethey are total garbage.
Yeah, however, I have changedmy views on them a little bit
over time.
I'm going to tell you how Iused to deal with these and then
what happened.
How I deal with them now.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
And what I recommend that you do, or ie I'm probably
going to do for you with thisemail that you have been sent.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Not for those listeners.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, but they can do it.
It's not difficult, right?
No, no, you're going to showthem.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, exactly, okay.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So you received this email out of the blue.
You sent it to me.
I'm going to go over it.
It's one of these things thatask for it.
Let me just I'll't know who.
Well, actually there is a name.
It came through your contactform, which is a bit of a
warning sign that it's kind ofspam.
But it has a name.
There is a phone number, firstand last name, and the email is
(01:56):
you know, it's well written,it's nice, it sounds authentic
and I'm going to read it rightnow.
Okay, and I'll do this asquickly as possible, because I
don't read very well.
Okay, so here's the email thatcame through the contact form.
Quote.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Teaching kids the importance of self-care is
crucial in today's fast-pacedworld.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
My response Okay, check, good enough.
The email continues.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
By instilling healthy habits early on, we can help
them manage stress and buildresilience.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, Super healthy habits early on.
We can help them manage stressand build resilience.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Okay, super Second paragraph.
As someone passionate aboutthis topic, I'd love to share an
article with self-carestrategies for children,
including mindfulness techniquesand creative activity.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Third paragraph.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Please consider publishing this piece on your
site.
Together, we can equip parentswith the tools their children
need for a brighter future.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Signs off name website and then.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
PS.
If you're interested but prefera different topic, I'm very
much open to discussing thatwith you.
However, if you do not wish toreceive any further emails, I
understand.
Please respond and let me knowRight.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, you know fair enough.
I don't want to say I welcomethat kind of email.
Right but yeah, okay, andinevitably this went out to
hundreds of people, but stillit's well written.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, enough for me to go wait a second For you to
send it to me, bam, or is thisit?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
was written in.
It was very well written inEnglish.
Yeah, obviously written by anEnglish speaker, et cetera.
So you sent it to me, or an AI,or AI, right, although it seems
sincere.
It does seem sincere Especiallythe PS.
It seems sincere and that's whyit caught my attention Because,
(03:35):
like I said, most of these arejunk.
They are just garbage.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
When you say they're garbage.
Why are they doing this?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
What's in it for them ?
Good question, they are doingtheir own SEO.
I don't know exactly, becausean article was not attached to
this and they didn't specifywhat the piece.
They didn't say exactly whatthey wanted to have published,
but typically these things aregoing to be looking to links
that you will build to theirsite one way or another.
This looks like he's going tobe looking to links that you
(04:06):
will build to their site one wayor another.
This looks like he's going togive you an article.
I bet I'll bet money that inthat article is going to be a
link back to their site.
Right, Okay, Sometimes, andlike I said, this is a sincere I
think it's a sincere email.
So you know good, you know fairenough, Good for you.
What I really dislike is whenemails come through and like,
hey, you won this award, You'rea top 10, blah, blah, blah blah
(04:28):
blah blah.
Put this badge and then theygive you a badge to encode on
your site, but in the encodedcode, in the code that you embed
on your site, is a whole bunchof links.
It's very spammy, very shadyRight.
So it's very spammy, very shadyRight.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So, and then the thing is is that clients can't
tell the difference.
They'll look at somebody whohas all these quote badges.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, but also, you know, if a badge is not
recognizable, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
They wouldn't.
Most clients aren't going torecognize it because it says
like Well, then it's.
Ponce Bank recommends calls youthe best photographer right?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, if it's a badge that you think your clients
would be like, oh, that'simpressive, Then it's a badge.
A badge I think you shouldpotentially put on your site.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I just wanted to know because why they would do that
yeah it's for it, it's SEO.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, it's SEO, and I know that because I used to
send these.
Oh, no, not like this yeah, oh,years ago, we would send out
things and looking andessentially and this is one way
you can build links Right, butwe've talked about this before
the trick is you have to givebefore you get.
You have to give somethingbefore you get something Right,
and so I used to receiveprobably a dozen of these per
(05:44):
day.
Oh, like there was a time inSEO, probably a decade to a
decade and a half ago, where, ohmy gosh, it was just
overwhelming and, like I said,we were sending some of these
too.
In fact, I remember a clientthat I had, but not maliciously.
Not maliciously, no, like Iactually wrote them.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I actually sent them out.
No, like I actually wrote them,right, I actually sent them out
.
But I do remember one client Iwas working for sent something
to me and one of the emails Ihad sent out, the recipient of
that email had a lawyer write acease and desist letter to my
client and the client contactedme.
I was like, holy fuck, dude,just mark it as spam If you
(06:23):
don't want to just block it,like that seems excessive.
That seemed very excessive, butit also caused me to reevaluate
what I was doing.
So, yeah, anyway, used to sendthem, used to receive tons of
them, probably why I have such agod awful opinion of them.
However, occasionally they seemsomewhat authentic.
And what happens?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Can you hear Marcel?
Sorry, he's crying becauseBuster has the chew.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
He's so dramatic.
If only life were that easy.
But nowadays these emails arenot as common, not nearly as
common, although they still getsent around, and usually I
should say a common form ofthese emails is hey, can you
push this or can you link to oursite somehow?
Right, and nine times out often, it's just not worth it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
It's not in your benefit, it does not behoove you
.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's definitely not in your benefit.
But, even if you were to replyto one of these emails, you
would quickly figure out thatthis might be a well-written
email backed by God knows what,and so most of the time it goes
straight to garbage.
However, occasionally onecatches my eye.
One of these caught my eye inprobably a decade ago.
(07:39):
Plus, it was from somebody whowas just starting a company, and
the company was one of thesethings that is going to be
online reviews.
It was called clutch, clutchcomor clutchco, and the guy wrote
to me who was starting it.
He was just seemed to bestarting out.
He was doing all this stuffhimself.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I get those emails.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, I wrote.
I wrote back to him.
Actually, we kind of I don'twant to say it was a friendship,
but we had a sort of friendlyrapport and yeah.
So I did whatever he wasoffering.
I don't remember what it was,but there was something I got in
return.
There definitely was.
So at that time when he firstcontacted me, clutch, it didn't
exist, like it was potentially ascam sham, whatever.
(08:20):
It was potentially a scam sham,whatever.
Every once in a while, thosesites end up becoming something
where you might like to havebeen involved early on.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
You got an email from expertisecom.
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yes, I do Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And at the time expertisecom was just starting.
It was nothing.
It looked like garbage.
We didn't do anything Sincethen.
It has become something.
The links coming fromexpertisecom are actually
valuable?
Yes, they are, and now I think,oh well, we should have replied.
However, I actually did followup with them.
(09:00):
They no longer so.
Expertisecom, if you'rewondering, is a site that
reviews vendors, photographersbeing one of those types of
vendors, and they had a sectionon children and family and
newborn photographers, and ifyou get into their article or
their, I think it was a top 10list.
That link ended up being quitevaluable.
However, they have sinceknocked off or they have gotten
(09:23):
rid of the newborn children,family photographer category, so
that is no longer up andthey're focusing on, like
digital I don't remember what itwas.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Where the money is.
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And that's kind of what Clutch did.
Is they focused on, likedigital marketing agencies and
professionals?
Yeah, okay, and so it workedout.
Expertise, an example where itlooked like garbage ended up
being something, and so you haveto be aware of that.
Sometimes, every once in awhile, you get an email and
their website might be garbagenow so how?
(09:57):
do you know, but it might turnit Well.
You don't, you honestly don't.
The only thing we have to go onis the email that they sent you
Right, somewhat professional.
I would like to think thatmaybe they're going to undertake
their other endeavors equallyas professional, in a
professional manner.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You know what I mean, so how do you find out?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
So well, you reply.
My go-to response used to be,for these types of emails,
straight to garbage Right, okay.
Now I would think okay, well,there's, you know.
What do you have to lose?
So this is my approach now andwhat I kind of recommend that
people do.
What do you have to lose?
What I would do, and what Iprobably will do for you, is
(10:42):
reply to this email.
And they didn't attach any.
They just said considerpublishing this piece, didn't
attach anything, didn't providea link, and that says PF
interest If you're interested.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.
And at the end it says pleaserespond and let me know.
So I feel comfortableresponding and I will probably
say something along the lines ofwell, if you can provide a link
(11:05):
to my site as well, yeah, Icould do that, or something
along those lines.
I would start off by asking forsomething that might even not be
realistic, right, like they'reprobably not going to just
provide a link to your site,right, or something else that I
might say, but I might not putin the first email.
It's like well, for SEO reasons, I don't publish duplicated
(11:27):
content, so I don't want topublish a piece that's already
published on God knows how manyother websites and so.
But I bet that would get theirattention, yeah, you know.
And who knows what they mightoffer in return?
Maybe nothing Right, chancesare pretty good like nothing.
But they might come back andsay well, we can give you this
(11:47):
or we can give you that and thenI would evaluate that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
My question is in responding.
Does that then put you on somelist?
That then goes to otherscamming things.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's a fair question and yes, it could
technically, but again, I'm justgoing by my gut instinct and
this seems to be a reasonablywell-written email.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
If I click on the site it looks also if there's a
link, if you know the site, andthen I'm afraid to click on
links because I think thenthey'll have my information.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Okay, well, if that's the case, they put this this
came through your.
This is sort of technical, butthis came through your technical
.
This came through yourtechnical this came through your
it came through your contactform, which means that it's just
text.
Okay, there's nothing embedded.
There's no secret links.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Right, so you can click on a link.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You can do that.
If there's no, if it's justlike you know, abccom, yeah, you
can click on that.
They can't track that.
If it's abccom, slash questionmark and then a big string of
characters, I would recommendyou don't click on those links.
Now if somebody sends you this.
See, I'm fascinated by this.
It's totally boring If somebodysends you an email and there's
a link on it, even if the linksays abccom, and you click on it
(13:01):
inside that link can betracking.
But when it comes through yourcontact form, they can't do that
.
They can't, they cannot.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Because, because it's just text.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
They can include links, but it's just text.
They can't hide any text.
They can't have hidden text Inan email.
You can do that.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
With your contact form.
You usually cannot do that, andto me, as the recipient, it's
just another email, right, butactually it's a slightly more
filtered email.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, and if you do get an email like that and there
is a link in it, personally,what I would do instead of
clicking on it look at the link,copy and paste the name of the
domain just the domain and thengo open it up in a browser that
will not include any trackinginformation.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Whereas the links in an email definitely they're
almost always going to betracked.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Terrified of clicking a link and then forever being
spammed with yeah and again this.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
This wasn't even emailed to you, so it wasn't
sent to your email address.
It came through your contactform so.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So you could, which was emailed to me, but through a
different tunnel.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yes, yeah, it came through, it came through your
your the gate on your website.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Let's say that's what the difference is, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So, yeah, what I'm going to do is I'm going to
write back to this person andsay, hey, this is sort of a
negotiation.
So I'm going to start off bynot being like, yeah, please,
you know I'm not going to go100% full board in.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Oh my gosh, I've been waiting for this.
This is so happy I'm going togrow my business.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I would write back something like yeah, well, maybe
.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Show me what you got yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Show me Like what piece.
Nothing was attached, nothingwas linked.
Show me what you're considering.
I might.
Would, you be willing to.
And then I would ask, I wouldhave some sort of probably
over-the-top ask.
Such as yeah if you can providea link to our site, yeah.
And they might come back andsay something like oh, we'll do
a post on social media.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, to me that is less than, but this would be
such good exposure Right.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Anyway, that's what I plan to do.
I think that's a pretty goodapproach and I'm still expecting
very little.
I'm expecting nothing, to behonest, but I'm curious what
would they offer?
They've got to offer somethingin exchange.
I'm not just going to publish apiece on your website just for
the fun of it, just to help thisperson.
What do they have to offer?
(15:28):
So that's the gist of myresponse.
It's like well, maybe Can yougive me something in return.
Right Period, that's kind ofwhat I would do.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I can do something for you.
What can you do for me?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, like I said, you have nothing to lose, except
maybe you get spammed in thefuture If you receive emails
like this and your gut just saysit's a spammy email.
Yeah, you trust your gut onthat one.
The things I would look for isit well-written, is it seems
sincere?
This one has a phone number.
I mean you could look up thephone number.
Does it go to this company?
That's a pretty good sign.
Yeah, you know, has his name.
(16:02):
Doesn't have his email address.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Oh, it does have his email address.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yes, yeah, it has his yeah, and it's.
Everything looks like legithere.
So I would.
I am going to write back tothis person.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Very exciting.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Right after we eat our dinner from a hungry root.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yes, hungry root.
Oh my gosh, the ravioli, soyummy.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Today was no today no .
Summer, not today.
Yesterday we had the heater on.
Today we'll probably put the ACon.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Spring happened between 1 am and 3 am.
Yeah, we had two hours of itNow, my favorite season ever.
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