- devoted to bringing about fair practices in link trading
Many of us believe in - and use - the time honoured idea of reciprocal link swapping as a means to getting our sites noticed by and attaining better ranking in the various search engines (Google,MSN,Yahoo) that seem to rule the Internet.
Most do so in a sporting spirit of fellowship and co-operation.
- it therefore may surprise you to learn, - that some don't!
On these pages I'll try and highlight some of the more peculiar methods employed by some people, - mostly 'business-people', who - so it appears - don't give a hoot for our trials ands aspirations and burning of midnight oils, - as long as they can use you and me as a ticket to achieving their own goals - for free!
Watch out for these:
added: 10/05/2005
| http://www.msecurenet.com/ | will ask you - (or accept your invitation) for a link. |
| http://www.msecurnet.com/ | - is where your link will be returned from |
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This is quite an accomplished scam: If you should be 'dull enough' to go looking for your link at msecurenet (instead of msecurnet, - which is where they tell you they put your link) - you'll actually find a link to a linkspage at the bottom of their home page, - which - amazingly - takes you to a linkspage actually on site, but then from that page is a link to 'page 2', - which will redirect to msecurnet, and as this site is a carboncopy of the proper site, you'll hardly notice the transition! |
| Inbound Links (Altavista / Yahoo) for msecurenet.com : Approx.: 24.000 - (in contrast msecurnet.com: 12) |
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| http://www.toprealestateinusa.com/ | will ask you - (or accept your invitation) for a link. |
| http://www.toprealestatenusa.com/ | - is where your link will be returned from |
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This is the same accomplished scam as above: If you should be 'dull enough' to go looking for your link at toprealestateinusa (instead of toprealestatenusa, - which is where they tell you they put your link) - you'll actually find a link to a linkspage at the bottom of their home page, - which - amazingly - takes you to a linkspage actually on site, but then from that page is a link to 'page 2', - which will redirect to toprealestatenusa, and as this site is a carboncopy of the proper site, you'll hardly notice the transition! |
| Inbound Links (Altavista / Yahoo) for toprealestateinusa.com : Approx.: 21.000 - (in contrast toprealestatenusa.com: 10) |
- you'll not be surprised, I guess, - to learn that 'msecurenet' is also the designer of the 'toprealestateinusa' site!
In any case don't worry unduly,
- my back links from both went down within a week of having being authenticated by LinkMarket!!
- and there's more:
http://www.topmovingcompany4u.com/![]() http://www.topmovingcompany4u.com/links.html http://www.topmovingcompny4u.com/links2.html |
and this is another fine example of the same practise,
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| http://www.bestwealthmanagement.com/ | Yep, - same 'designers', - this time, link went up, - then disappeared, presumeably after LinkMarket verification . . . |
| http://www.bestdealapparel.com/ http://www.sculptureandstatue.com/ http://www.fortunowinnero.com/ |
... more msecurenet.com associates, nothing found yet though , Regarding sculptureandstatue.com, - having put links up for them from a number of sites, I feel qualified in stating, that 'Up they go and down they come', - it appears that they are constantly 'recycling' the links pages, - probably on a quarterly basis. |
| This is the current 'whois' info: =================== msecurenet.com Whois Server Version 1.3 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered Domain Name: MSECURENET.COM |
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| M SecureNet 340 N.Hayworth Ave Los Angeles, CA 90048 Toll Free: (877) 651-2924 E-Mail: info@msecurenet.com |
Their 'spiel': Having our experienced web designers on your team means we can not only design your website or redesign it, but can devise strategies to make your vision work in the Web environment We believe that your web site is an impression of you. Of your business. It should be constructed to fit your needs and accurately display your company's image. Our goal is to offer professional custom web site design and maintenance that allows independent businesses to have the same advantages that being on the world wide web offers the largest of companies. A portfolio and overview consultation is available on request. |
Mr. M Secure Net has been sent 2 emails querying this matter, but - for some reason - appear not to be in a hurry to enlighten us with any sort of explanation of their professional ethos.

- avoid Links Exchange Cheats - join the Exchange Forum today
| - and now, - for something completely different: Question posed to 'Bonin Group Inc.'
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| The 'Bachcroft Affair' - A shining example: ... recently I was approached, - through LinkMarket.net - by The Bachcroft Publishing Co., who wanted to swap links with one of the sites I administer. A few days later I went to their site again, looking for a return link, and was somewhat surprised to find no links at all!
on 4/24/05 11:52 AM, Per Dindorp at per@dindorp.co.uk wrote: Hi, - according to LinkMarket you have posted a link to rep.uk.com. Thanks
From: Jean Bachcroft [mailto:townandcountry@bachcroft.com]
Per Dindorp, If LinkMarket says a link for your site is posted, it must be. We are guessing that you did not go to our Link Directory site. Here is the home page for our link directory: Sincerely,
on 4/25/05 11:55 AM, Per Dindorp at per@dindorp.co.uk wrote: Hi Jean, - not so glib, my friend, - this is the site you are soliciting links to: http://www.townandcountryshoppingbargains.com/ not: http://www.townandcountrybargainshopping.com/ I think there is a subtle difference, don't you?? Regards Per Dindorp From: Jean Bachcroft [mailto:townandcountry@bachcroft.com]
Hello again, Per Dindorp Yes, there is indeed a difference. One is an affiliate site and the other is a link directory. Through our Link Market account, we exchanged links with you and their program ensures that our reciprocal links with other members remain intact. I certainly was not attempting to be glib. I am a business woman and take what I do and my associates quite seriously. Would you prefer to point your link to our link directory, which is where your site is appropriately listed. If so, please feel free to do so. We would welcome that link also. However, because http://www.townandcountryshoppingbargains.com is an affiliate site, we cannot point a link from there to you. Consequently, our link to you (as listed at Link Market) is from http://www.townandcountrybargainshopping.com. Both sites are new and both are being heavily marketed in the search engines. The site that is pointing to you is visited primarily by businesses, whereas the site that you are point to is primarily for the general consumer. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. We would prefer that our business networking be completely satisfied with our association. Best regards,
Hi again, Jean, This may come as a surprise to a business woman like yourself, but the accepted norm on the net for doing link exchanges, is that one gives a link from the site that one is asking for link to, - what you may call a fair swap.
- that way, people visit your site, and if they like the look or idea of it, - they accept your trade.
This is not what you're doing.
- you're asking the world and his uncle to put up links to your new site, - which will have practically no outbound links. One wonders why? - now, - there is many of us who believe in the idea of 3-way link-swapping as a means to stop search engines detecting reciprocality. - but we don't try and 'hoodwink' people. - the way to get the attention to your site, that you obviously feel it deserves, is to put up quality content and plenty of it! Regards Per Dindorp From: Jean Bachcroft [mailto:townandcountry@bachcroft.com]
We don't want to be unfair to anyone, and I guess that's what is annoying you. You believe we are being unfair, that we are deceiving others, and that we are running a kind of link farm. Perhaps a link farm is a site that essentially has nothing on it except links, but so do directories, so I am guessing that the purpose of a link farm goes beyond that. As you know, we have two sites: http://www.townandcountrybargainshopping.com and http://www.townandcountryshoppingbargains.com. (Incidentally, the reason why the domain names are so similar is that the key words we are most interested in are "shopping," "bargains," and "bargain." "Bargains" and "bargain" return different search results in Google. Now, "Bargain Shopping" is visited primarily by web site owners and webmasters. It's new and we are adding content to it that we believe will be interesting and helpful to this target group. "Shopping Bargains" is for the average, adult consumer (primarily female), so the content on this site relates to their typical concerns and interests. We began exchanging links (in large quantities, at least) through Link Market a few months ago. At that very same time, we discovered that Google, and perhaps the other major search engines, really doesn't think very highly of link pages and link directories. From their perspective, (and mine, I might add) link pages exist primarily as a place for sites to store links from sites that they are trading links with. Realistically, link pages (sometimes called link directories) don't really serve a useful purpose other than that. It would be rather unusual for the typical internet user, say a shopper for example or someone doing casual research, to go to a site's link pages to look for anything. They'll go to their favorite search engine to look for what they want by topic. From the point of view of someone who is not a site owner or webmaster, those pages may as well not exist because they are not going to be visited. The only possible exception to this is if (a) visitors are encouraged to take a look at these pages and (b) they contain only a few links, thus they might be perceived as having the endorsement of that site. Because our second site, http://www.townandcountryshoppingbargains.com, is an affiliate site with many different departments, sites that are related to us come from many different categories. Market Leap has those categories and we asked for link exchanges in most of them. If we are talking only about a fair link exchange in terms of search results placement, this is what every site owner and webmaster should be focused on (a) pointing only to sites that are deemed to be related to them and (b) getting sites with an appropriate PR value to point to them. If we are talking about a fair link exchange in terms of a marketing strategy that would directly impact sales as well, we are not talking about a site's link pages and who is on them. In other words, if this is your marketing goal you had better be asking contacting me and other asking to exchange links on a content (or shopping) page. If you've got the right kind of site, my answer is going to be "yes," and you get to choose the site because you know what's going to work best for you. Both sites attract traffic, but what that traffic expects to find is different. Here is a link for a page at our affiliate site http://www.townandcountryshoppingbargains.com/shopping/homeandliving_bargains.html Recently, we added a link page to the affiliate site, but I am still not sure just how much we are going to use it. If you are good and we are good, we want to talk to you about a title link on one of our article or shopping pages. By the way, Per, please stop sending out emails to other sites telling them that we are running a link farm. Actually, I am looking forward to hearing from you again, but on a more favorable note. Best wishes,
Hi Jean,
- you know you nearly had me in tears reading this bit:
I’m sorry for appearing ‘caustic’, but come on – give over! You ask us all to provide you with free links for your business. We visit the site you ask us to provide links for. We decide this looks OK, and put up a link to help your business along. You then repay us all by putting up return links from another – virtually identical in appearance – site, with a URL that is virtually the same, except under very close scrutiny, - and without telling us about the difference. - you then can’t understand why some of us think that you may be acting in a deceitful manner! The common rule is, that you give links back from the site you asking to receive links to, and this is usually done from a position reachable from and within 2 or 3 clicks from your homepage. That way, everyone is investing a little in your – hopefully - bright future, in the vain hope, that when your PR soars as a result, we’ll all get repaid in kind with proportionally higher value back links. Whether your site visitors actually peruse these links in detail is neither here nor there, - but they should be able to do so. Regards Per Dindorp
- these are all the e-mails on the subject to date - copied and pasted - with nothing added and nothing taken away.
- there's more:
Hi, Per I've been on vacation. Well, I must be awfully dense or something because I am still not getting the issue for you. Maybe we are approaching this from different perspectives. Recently I read that Google allows links to warm for 3 months, so that means it is best get as many links warming as quickly as possible. Then go back and build your site--while your links are warming-- the way you want. These two sites are definitely not identical. "Bargain shopping" is a directory. "Shopping Bargains is an affiliate site. The names are similar because one helps the other --and hopefully a lot of other people, too, in various ways as you can now see. You know, Per, in life it's important to trust more and not try to micro-manage everything. You'll live a lot longer that way and get more done too. Best wishes! You know, I hope your site is a huge, huge success. And I am really not that bad of a person. Really! Just ask my kids. But thanks anyway for the lesson in business ethics. Jean - reply of same date: - glad to hear from you, and I am sure that you are not a bad person, and that your kids are right. They really take the biscuit!! Per 2nd October 2005: Owner of Adult Site Becomes Outraged and Vindictive When Family-Oriented Site Refuses to Link Back to His Site Okay, Mr. Dindorp, I think we've had just about enough of your sleazy, low-life nonsense. You apparently entered Link Market as a non-paying customer looking for sites to exchange links with one of your sites. We requested a link from that site apparently, without first taking a look at it or any of the other sites in that category. We listed every single bit of information about our site http://www.townandcountryshoppingbargains.com, including the fact that the reciprocal link would be returned by our site that is marketed to webmasters (and therefore would be considered relevant to sites in your category as well as thousands of other sites in a broad range of other categories). For paying customers at Link Market, every single piece of information that it would be appropriate for the reciprocal site to know about the trade is made public by Link Market, and easily viewable by each site considering the acceptance of the trade. Apparently, based upon what you wrote in one of your emails to me, since you were not interested in paying Link Market anything you have a basic account with minimum services and therefore do not have the ability to see this information. That is indeed unfortunate and we were unaware that this situation exists for some sites. But it also raises the question of just what kind of business you are running and just how serious you really are about building a business and making a real investment in it? Link Market's fee is only a few dollars. After you stated your "less than business-like approach" I pointed out that in actuality the site that was correctly listed as pointing back to you had a higher PR (and still does, I might add) than the site that had contacted you asking for a link. I also pointed out that Link Market, at that time, did not require that the accepting and returning URLs be the same. Your specious reasoning that the way things were on the Internet 5 or 2 or even 1 year ago is the way they should remain forever is questionable at best. That definitely does not match the reality that the rest of us are experiencing. The leaders in search engine technology are changing the way webmasters market their sites all the time. Moreover, as I stated in my email reply to you, these are the facts: In my reply email to you, I also said that if, for some reason, you no longer wanted to link to our site, you should, of course, remove your link. Well, Mr. Dindorp, evidently that piece of wisdom wasn't at all what you wanted to hear because that was never what you were after in the first place, was it? Of course not! Recently, I've been finding links from the sites that you "administer," like this one, http://www.dindorp.co.uk/index.htm pointing not just to one of our sites, but to others. Each one of your sites looks pretty unsavory to me and shouldn't even be allowed to be in an environment like the Internet where children and decent people might be subjected to this hideous trash. At first, I thought that the best thing to do was to ignore you and that you would slink back to the place you came from. Now that you truly do have my attention, I think you should have Yahoo, MSN, Google, and every other search engine and directory's attention also. It's bad enough that you've put up a bunch of sleazy sites, one of which masquerades as an attempt to keep the Internet honest and good. What absolute nonsense! Anyone who has seen your site http://www.dindorp.co.uk/Link_deception_01.htm would realize that this is definitely not the case. You are obviously just some slimy creep looking for a way to get attention and make a fast buck. You are an insult even to canines! I should have reported you when I saw that you had posted my private email address, without my permission, on your web site. You are just an unscrupulous low-life trying to get away with whatever he can by running a scam whenever he can. I suppose you think that the rest of us are supposed to believe that an honest, respectable, law-abiding person would sink to that level or that such a person would put up a sleazy adult site on the Internet like http://www.dindorp.co.uk/index.htm and then get angry when family-oriented sites are unwilling to link to it. Well, now you have gone too far, much too far. You should have the king's chair in your sleazy little "Hall of Shame." How can someone like you even sleep at night, no less expect the rest of us to be willing to link to your pieces of disgusting trash? I am simply outraged by the likes of someone like you! Did you really think you could get away with attempting to sully other businesses names when they, for whatever reason, refuse to link to your filthy sites. I intend to make sure that you get precisely what you truly deserve. Life on the Internet may be hard for sites like yours, but its going to get even harder if you think you can intimidate site owners into linking to your sleazy sites and then tries to punish them when they refuse. Jean Vileta - sadly, - Jean 1) that I never asked you for a link at all! Town And Country Shopping[Report] 6) - surely, even you must admit that they were not exactly designed to make it clear and obvious what you were doing or hoping to do . . NEWSFLASH Bad news for 2.200+ providers of inbound links, - all links pages appears to have been taken down from both sites . . .
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19/06/2005 sees a new kid on the block! Name of the website : - now for somewhere in the region of $ 200+ per month, - here is a quote from his Site: Our search engine optimization services are not for the average website. We are looking for websites that are looking to be the best in their industry. In today’s ultra competitive marketplace, an average search engine optimization company will leave you average. What makes our search engine optimization service different is that we will market your website as if it is our own. Many of the top SEO firms are using the latest search engine marketing techniques to rank at the top of the search engine rankings for their own website and then offer you a watered down SEO program that will leave you in the middle of the pack. We know what it takes for top search engine rankings and it is a combination of both on page optimization and a very well implemented link popularity campaign. We offer no ranking guarantees whatsoever. We will market your website as if it is our own . . . - perhaps Patrick would like to tell us - right here - what is 'World Class' or even 'High End' about his approach to and treatment of fellow webmasters?
(- or perhaps not) |

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