In the past few weeks I’ve started getting emails asking to exchange links with various websites. They don’t seem to be using templates, since each email has been different, but what they do have in common is that they have nothing to do with anything on my own site. They’ve clearly just let some program look for keywords, built a list of sites, and put webmaster@ in front of them. That’s why I consider these spam. If someone were to use the same software to identify relevant sites, then check them out before sending a “please link to me!” message, that would just be communication between webmasters.

The one case where the site looked even remotely related was someone’s collection of links to super-heroines. Well, super-heroines, female wrestlers, adult fanfic and heroine fetish pictures, but at least it was relevant, even if I couldn’t in good conscience link back to it from my comic book site. The one I got yesterday was more typical: a real estate site that wants me to link to them because the word generations appears in both their URL and the title of one page on my Flash site.

Come on, how hard would it be to actually look at the sites you’re soliciting? Do a little research, will ya?