# What's really going on here? (solicitations for paid links on my website) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-really-going-on-here-solicitations-for-paid-links-on-my-website/618592 "2012-04-12T19:15:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-really-going-on-here-solicitations-for-paid-links-on-my-website/618592/1 "2012-04-12T19:15:46Z")
I’ve had two similar offers from a marketing guy, both like this: > [@](#): > > I’m interested in contributing an article to [atomicshrimp.com](http://atomicshrimp.com) - I can select a topic that matches the tone and theme of your site, or if you prefer, I can write about something of your choosing. The article will be unique and interesting to read. In return, I ask that I be able to subtly include a link to my site [ledlightswarehouse.com](http://ledlightswarehouse.com) within the article. If you are able to put a permanent link to the article in a prominent place on your website, I may be able to make a one time Paypal donation as well. The second time, he wanted a link to [silkflowerswarehouse.com](http://silkflowerswarehouse.com). I’m not the slightest bit interested in the offer, and it’s obvious this is some kind of SEO thing, but what’s his endgame? Both of the sites he mentions are just bland, pointless content with no contact details, nothing to buy, etc. Is he going to replace those sites with something else later, or is he going to try to persuade me to insert the links as Javascript into my site or something? What’s the game? ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-really-going-on-here-solicitations-for-paid-links-on-my-website/618592/2 "2012-04-13T07:52:38Z")
It’s just SEO. The offer itself is automated spam. Those bland endpoints are part of a linkwheel - a network of interlinked fake sites used to (a) obscure the true destination, and (b) help to further manipulate search engines. Don’t be tempted to accept. The reason they’re soliciting blogs is to use them as cannon fodder. Once they’ve got their links on blogs that accept the deal, they’ll start spamming forums and wikis with links to those blogs. That way any repercussions (Google penalties, blacklists) will affect the blogs who signed on and not the SEO’s client. Most SEO firms do this sort of thing to some extent, incidentally. Even purportedly reputable ones sub-contract out this part so as to give themselves plausible deniability if they’re caught. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-really-going-on-here-solicitations-for-paid-links-on-my-website/618592/3 "2012-04-13T12:53:58Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > Don’t be tempted to accept. Don’t worry - I’m not - in fact, the contact and about pages of my site both explicitly state my ad policy, which includes the following: **What I Will Not Do (Don’t Even Bother Asking)**[ul][li]_I will not mix or conceal ad links within article content. I won’t disguise ad links as personal endorsements or recommendations. (No price will make me change my mind on this)._[/li][/ul] I’m just interested as to why the target sites are so blandly empty - I guess they must be just temporary placeholders for something that is later to be crammed with links or ads or some such. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-really-going-on-here-solicitations-for-paid-links-on-my-website/618592/4 "2012-04-13T22:42:16Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I’m just interested as to why the target sites are so blandly empty - I guess they must be just temporary placeholders for something that is later to be crammed with links or ads or some such. In this case what you see is probably more or less the final product. The change they’ll make is to later include links from within the text to the true target. Notice the conspicuous repetition of key phrases like “silk flowers” within the content? Those phrases will be used as the link text. These sites exist only to manipulate search engines. They have a rudimentary design and images so they’ll look real at a cursory glance. They’re bland because they’re built automatically, en masse. Your spammer probably creates several dozen such sites for each of his clients (plus other things like social networking accounts). And he may have hundreds of clients, so it’s all done as cheaply and with as much automation as possible. The design is a template, obviously. The text is written by cheap labour and then run through an algorithmic word substitution process to multiply it into many not-quite-identical variations. The pictures come from the first page of a Google Image search.