Speaker 1: 0:24

I don't think anything is possibly more anxiety-producing than a fidget spitter that doesn't spin, that doesn't move, that doesn't fidget. This episode, brought to you by Brought to you by.

Speaker 2: 0:36

Brought to you by. I can't ever remember the name and I have to remember it.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Hungry Roots.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Hungry Roots, do it again.

Speaker 1: 0:43

This episode is brought to you by Hungry Roots. Hungry Root. Thank you, Hungry.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Root.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Okay, let's talk about shitty emails.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Oh yes.

Speaker 1: 0:53

So you know what I mean I do. You forwarded to me yes, you don't send me shitty emails you forwarded to me an email that you had received.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Yes.

Speaker 1: 1:04

And it is one of these like out of the blue I call it spam. Yeah, out of the blue emails asking 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 your site and link back to us. Sure, great, thank you. Okay. So these are.

Speaker 2: 1:21

The only one.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Yeah, my opinion of these is and I'm probably biased but 99.9999999% of the time they are total garbage. Yeah, however, I have changed my views on them a little bit over time. I'm going to tell you how I used to deal with these and then what happened. How I deal with them now.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:41

And what I recommend that you do, or ie I'm probably going to do for you with this email that you have been sent.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Not for those listeners.

Speaker 1: 1:49

Well, but they can do it. It's not difficult, right? No, no, you're going to show them.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Yeah, exactly, okay.

Speaker 1: 1:55

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 that ask for it. Let me just I'll't know who. Well, actually there is a name. It came through your contact form, which is a bit of a warning sign that it's kind of spam. But it has a name. There is a phone number, first and last name, and the email is you know, it's well written, it's nice, it sounds authentic and I'm going to read it right now. Okay, and I'll do this as quickly as possible, because I don't read very well. Okay, so here's the email that came through the contact form. Quote.

Speaker 3: 2:34

Teaching kids the importance of self-care is crucial in today's fast-paced world.

Speaker 1: 2:38

My response Okay, check, good enough. The email continues.

Speaker 3: 2:43

By instilling healthy habits early on, we can help them manage stress and build resilience.

Speaker 1: 2:48

Okay, Super healthy habits early on. We can help them manage stress and build resilience.

Speaker 3: 2:50

Okay, super Second paragraph. As someone passionate about this topic, I'd love to share an article with self-care strategies for children, including mindfulness techniques and creative activity.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Third paragraph.

Speaker 3: 3:00

Please consider publishing this piece on your site. Together, we can equip parents with the tools their children need for a brighter future.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Signs off name website and then.

Speaker 3: 3:12

PS. If you're interested but prefer a different topic, I'm very much open to discussing that with you. However, if you do not wish to receive any further emails, I understand. Please respond and let me know Right.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Okay, you know fair enough. I don't want to say I welcome that kind of email. Right but yeah, okay, and inevitably this went out to hundreds of people, but still it's well written.

Speaker 2: 3:33

Yeah, enough for me to go wait a second For you to send it to me, bam, or is this it?

Speaker 1: 3:39

was written in. It was very well written in English. Yeah, obviously written by an English speaker, et cetera. So you sent it to me, or an AI, or AI, right, although it seems sincere. It does seem sincere Especially the PS. It seems sincere and that's why it caught my attention Because, like I said, most of these are junk. They are just garbage.

Speaker 2: 4:05

When you say they're garbage. Why are they doing this?

Speaker 1: 4:09

What's in it for them? Good question, they are doing their own SEO. I don't know exactly, because an article was not attached to this and they didn't specify what the piece. They didn't say exactly what they wanted to have published, but typically these things are going to be looking to links that you will build to their site one way or another. This looks like he's going to be looking to links that you will build to their site one way or another. This looks like he's going to give you an article. I bet I'll bet money that in that article is going to be a link back to their site. Right, Okay, Sometimes, and like I said, this is a sincere I think it's a sincere email. So you know good, you know fair enough, Good for you. What I really dislike is when emails come through and like, hey, you won this award, You're a top 10, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Put this badge and then they give you a badge to encode on your site, but in the encoded code, in the code that you embed on your site, is a whole bunch of links. It's very spammy, very shady Right. So it's very spammy, very shady Right.

Speaker 2: 5:08

So, and then the thing is is that clients can't tell the difference. They'll look at somebody who has all these quote badges.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Yeah, but also, you know, if a badge is not recognizable, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 5:22

They wouldn't. Most clients aren't going to recognize it because it says like Well, then it's. Ponce Bank recommends calls you the best photographer right?

Speaker 1: 5:31

Well, if it's a badge that you think your clients would be like, oh, that's impressive, Then it's a badge. A badge I think you should potentially put on your site.

Speaker 2: 5:39

I just wanted to know because why they would do that yeah it's for it, it's SEO.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Yeah, it's SEO, and I know that because I used to send these.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Oh, no, not like this yeah, oh, years ago, we would send out things and looking and essentially and this is one way you can build links Right, but we've talked about this before the trick is you have to give before you get. You have to give something before you get something Right, and so I used to receive probably a dozen of these per day. Oh, like there was a time in SEO, probably a decade to a decade and a half ago, where, oh my gosh, it was just overwhelming and, like I said, we were sending some of these too. In fact, I remember a client that I had, but not maliciously.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Not maliciously, no, like I actually wrote them.

Speaker 3: 6:26

Right.

Speaker 1: 6:26

I actually sent them out. No, like I actually wrote them, right, I actually sent them out. But I do remember one client I was working for sent something to me and one of the emails I had sent out, the recipient of that email had a lawyer write a cease and desist letter to my client and the client contacted me. I was like, holy fuck, dude, just mark it as spam If you don't want to just block it, like that seems excessive. That seemed very excessive, but it also caused me to reevaluate what I was doing. So, yeah, anyway, used to send them, used to receive tons of them, probably why I have such a god awful opinion of them. However, occasionally they seem somewhat authentic. And what happens?

Speaker 2: 7:07

Can you hear Marcel? Sorry, he's crying because Buster has the chew.

Speaker 1: 7:13

He's so dramatic. If only life were that easy. But nowadays these emails are not as common, not nearly as common, although they still get sent around, and usually I should say a common form of these emails is hey, can you push this or can you link to our site somehow? Right, and nine times out of ten, it's just not worth it.

Speaker 2: 7:36

It's not in your benefit, it does not behoove you.

Speaker 1: 7:39

It's definitely not in your benefit.

Speaker 1: 7:41

But, even if you were to reply to one of these emails, you would quickly figure out that this might be a well-written email backed by God knows what, and so most of the time it goes straight to garbage. However, occasionally one catches my eye. One of these caught my eye in probably a decade ago. Plus, it was from somebody who was just starting a company, and the company was one of these things that is going to be online reviews. It was called clutch, clutchcom or clutchco, and the guy wrote to me who was starting it. He was just seemed to be starting out. He was doing all this stuff himself.

Speaker 2: 8:22

I get those emails.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Yeah, I wrote. I wrote back to him. Actually, we kind of I don't want to say it was a friendship, but we had a sort of friendly rapport and yeah. So I did whatever he was offering. I don't remember what it was, but there was something I got in return. There definitely was. So at that time when he first contacted me, clutch, it didn't exist, like it was potentially a scam sham, whatever. It was potentially a scam sham, whatever. Every once in a while, those sites end up becoming something where you might like to have been involved early on.

Speaker 2: 8:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:56

You got an email from expertisecom. Do you remember that?

Speaker 2: 8:59

Yes, I do Okay.

Speaker 1: 9:02

And at the time expertisecom was just starting. It was nothing. It looked like garbage. We didn't do anything Since then. It has become something. The links coming from expertisecom are actually valuable?

Speaker 1: 9:16

Yes, they are, and now I think, oh well, we should have replied. However, I actually did follow up with them. They no longer so. Expertisecom, if you're wondering, is a site that reviews vendors, photographers being one of those types of vendors, and they had a section on children and family and newborn photographers, and if you get into their article or their, I think it was a top 10 list. That link ended up being quite valuable. However, they have since knocked off or they have gotten rid of the newborn children, family photographer category, so that is no longer up and they're focusing on, like digital I don't remember what it was.

Speaker 2: 9:57

Where the money is. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1: 10:01

And that's kind of what Clutch did. Is they focused on, like digital marketing agencies and professionals? Yeah, okay, and so it worked out. Expertise, an example where it looked like garbage ended up being something, and so you have to be aware of that. Sometimes, every once in a while, you get an email and their website might be garbage now so how?

Speaker 1: 10:21

do you know, but it might turn it Well. You don't, you honestly don't. The only thing we have to go on is the email that they sent you Right, somewhat professional. I would like to think that maybe they're going to undertake their other endeavors equally as professional, in a professional manner.

Speaker 2: 10:41

You know what I mean, so how do you find out?

Speaker 1: 10:44

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 and what I kind of recommend that people do. What do you have to lose? What I would do, and what I probably will do for you, is reply to this email.

Speaker 1: 11:08

And they didn't attach any. They just said consider publishing this piece, didn't attach anything, didn't provide a 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 please respond and let me know. So I feel comfortable responding and I will probably say something along the lines of well, if you can provide a link to my site as well, yeah, I could do that, or something along those lines.

Speaker 1: 11:35

I would start off by asking for something that might even not be realistic, right, like they're probably not going to just provide a link to your site, right, or something else that I might say, but I might not put in the first email. It's like well, for SEO reasons, I don't publish duplicated content, so I don't want to publish a piece that's already published on God knows how many other websites and so. But I bet that would get their attention, yeah, you know. And who knows what they might offer in return? Maybe nothing Right, chances are pretty good like nothing. But they might come back and say well, we can give you this or we can give you that and then I would evaluate that.

Speaker 2: 12:12

My question is in responding. Does that then put you on some list? That then goes to other scamming things.

Speaker 1: 12:24

That's a fair question and yes, it could technically, but again, I'm just going by my gut instinct and this seems to be a reasonably well-written email.

Speaker 2: 12:41

If I click on the site it looks also if there's a link, if you know the site, and then I'm afraid to click on links because I think then they'll have my information.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Okay, well, if that's the case, they put this this came through your. This is sort of technical, but this came through your technical. This came through your technical this came through your it came through your contact form, which means that it's just text. Okay, there's nothing embedded. There's no secret links.

Speaker 3: 12:59

Right, so you can click on a link.

Speaker 1: 13:01

You can do that. If there's no, if it's just like you know, abccom, yeah, you can click on that. They can't track that. If it's abccom, slash question mark and then a big string of characters, I would recommend you don't click on those links. Now if somebody sends you this. See, I'm fascinated by this. It's totally boring If somebody sends you an email and there's a link on it, even if the link says abccom, and you click on it inside that link can be tracking.

Speaker 1: 13:29

But when it comes through your contact form, they can't do that. They can't, they cannot.

Speaker 2: 13:33

Because, because it's just text.

Speaker 1: 13:36

They can include links, but it's just text. They can't hide any text. They can't have hidden text In an email. You can do that.

Speaker 2: 13:47

With your contact form. You usually cannot do that, and to me, as the recipient, it's just another email, right, but actually it's a slightly more filtered email.

Speaker 1: 13:57

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 then go open it up in a browser that will not include any tracking information.

Speaker 3: 14:15

Okay.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Whereas the links in an email definitely they're almost always going to be tracked.

Speaker 2: 14:20

Terrified of clicking a link and then forever being spammed with yeah and again this.

Speaker 1: 14:28

This wasn't even emailed to you, so it wasn't sent to your email address. It came through your contact form so.

Speaker 2: 14:33

So you could, which was emailed to me, but through a different tunnel.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Yes, yeah, it came through, it came through your your the gate on your website.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Let's say that's what the difference is, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:46

So, yeah, what I'm going to do is I'm going to write back to this person and say, hey, this is sort of a negotiation. So I'm going to start off by not being like, yeah, please, you know I'm not going to go 100% full board in.

Speaker 2: 14:58

Oh my gosh, I've been waiting for this. This is so happy I'm going to grow my business.

Speaker 1: 15:02

I would write back something like yeah, well, maybe.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Show me what you got yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Show me Like what piece. Nothing was attached, nothing was linked. Show me what you're considering. I might. Would, you be willing to. And then I would ask, I would have some sort of probably over-the-top ask. Such as yeah if you can provide a link to our site, yeah. And they might come back and say something like oh, we'll do a post on social media.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Well, to me that is less than, but this would be such good exposure Right.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Anyway, that's what I plan to do. I think that's a pretty good approach and I'm still expecting very little. I'm expecting nothing, to be honest, but I'm curious what would they offer? They've got to offer something in exchange. I'm not just going to publish a piece on your website just for the fun of it, just to help this person. What do they have to offer? So that's the gist of my response. It's like well, maybe Can you give me something in return. Right Period, that's kind of what I would do.

Speaker 2: 16:02

I can do something for you. What can you do for me?

Speaker 1: 16:04

Yeah, like I said, you have nothing to lose, except maybe you get spammed in the future If you receive emails like this and your gut just says it's a spammy email. Yeah, you trust your gut on that one. The things I would look for is it well-written, is it seems sincere? This one has a phone number. I mean you could look up the phone number. Does it go to this company? That's a pretty good sign. Yeah, you know, has his name. Doesn't have his email address.

Speaker 3: 16:28

Oh, it does have his email address.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Yes, yeah, it has his yeah, and it's. Everything looks like legit here. So I would. I am going to write back to this person.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Very exciting. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Right after we eat our dinner from a hungry root.

Speaker 2: 16:44

Yes, hungry root. Oh my gosh, the ravioli, so yummy.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Today was no today no. Summer, not today. Yesterday we had the heater on. Today we'll probably put the AC on.

Speaker 2: 17:00

Spring happened between 1 am and 3 am. Yeah, we had two hours of it Now, my favorite season ever.