BlackHat Link Building Technique - *Not Ethical

Geasy

Geasy

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Today one of our clients received an email from a “photographer” saying he owned the copyright to an image that we had sourced from Pexels it was uploaded a few years ago (looked like a mass templates email).

This guy emails saying he owns it and to link to a finance calculator website if we want to keep it live the image was on a health site, on a pretty aggressive tone.

I checked the “Flickr” account he had uploaded over 3,000 images all directly from Pexels saying he “owned” them all and to link to various websites on the images mostly finance all owned by the same guy.

This is a strategy that is very easy to pick up, all you need is good negotiation skills and a solid list of sites to outreach to.
 
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Geasy said:
Today one of our clients received an email from a “photographer” saying he owned the copyright to an image that we had sourced from Pexels it was uploaded a few years ago (looked like a mass templates email).

This guy emails saying he owns it and to link to a finance calculator website if we want to keep it live the image was on a health site, on a pretty aggressive tone.

I checked the “Flickr” account he had uploaded over 3,000 images all directly from Pexels saying he “owned” them all and to link to various websites on the images mostly finance all owned by the same guy.

I’ve heard of this strategy before a bit black hat and easy to pick up.
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It's an old one and a good one.
@craigcampbell03 has taken this one step further :)
 
It's weird AF. If he had a porfolio at least and he asked to link to his portfolio, I would find this logical... but a link to a financial calculator??
This is almost at the same level as the Nigeria king scam :p
 
Good to see some next level stuff but that's what we are here for its tricks like these that make BHW standout
 
SirLouen said:
It's weird AF. If he had a porfolio at least and he asked to link to his portfolio, I would find this logical... but a link to a financial calculator??
This is almost at the same level as the Nigeria king scam :p
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This is an old trick to have backlinks, in any niche where people use stock footage you can have tons of backlinks if your sales skills and email outreach is on point

The financial calculator is a nice tweak

@Geasy Thanks for the share by the way, you always post crazy good things that makes me think and be creative :). You add a real value here
 
SirLouen said:
It's weird AF. If he had a porfolio at least and he asked to link to his portfolio, I would find this logical... but a link to a financial calculator??
This is almost at the same level as the Nigeria king scam :p
Click to expand...
It is easy for us to know that he is not the owner of the images but I wonder how many mommy bloggers fall for this
 
Geasy said:
Today one of our clients received an email from a “photographer” saying he owned the copyright to an image that we had sourced from Pexels it was uploaded a few years ago (looked like a mass templates email).

This guy emails saying he owns it and to link to a finance calculator website if we want to keep it live the image was on a health site, on a pretty aggressive tone.

I checked the “Flickr” account he had uploaded over 3,000 images all directly from Pexels saying he “owned” them all and to link to various websites on the images mostly finance all owned by the same guy.

This is a strategy that is very easy to pick up, all you need is good negotiation skills and a solid list of sites to outreach to.
Click to expand...
yeah getting occasional emails like this - usually doesn't bother to reply to them, but is working for sure, if you have no scruples at all lol.
 
This is a good one. Gotta try it :D
 
Thanks for sharing this sneaky technique.

It definitely isn’t ethical because it’s anybody’s guess whether he really owned all those images, but I wouldn't be surprised if he’s getting quite a bit of backlinks through this technique.

This is similar to a less scummy backlink-building technique that I know of.

If you notice that people are using your blog’s name or one of your products or concepts on their site, you can contact them and say, “It’s okay for you to use my name, my site name, or any of my intellectual property. I just want you to link back to me when you do.”

And, this actually works with more legit bloggers.
 
Geasy said:
It is easy for us to know that he is not the owner of the images but I wonder how many mommy bloggers fall for this
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Ballsy. But I guess it's low effort on his part. Google image search to find websites using the target image and shoot out some emails.
 
I remember watching an NFG seminar recording where Craig C. shared this, except he added in a solicitors firm instead. Good stuff, and yeah very black hat.
 
noellarkin said:
I remember watching an NFG seminar recording where Craig C. shared this, except he added in a solicitors firm instead. Good stuff, and yeah very black hat.
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Wasn't there a Silicon Valley episode on that very thing? Lawyer sending loose patent infringement claims against funded startups to get a quick settlement.
 
What's next? "I'll post your nude video on facebook if you don't give me a backlink" scam? o_O
 
This type of backlinking is as ethical as it comes. It's completely natural, and it benefits everyone involved. Readers find interesting content, and site owners gain traffic, brand awareness, and possibly even conversions.
 
traitrespect said:
This type of backlinking is as ethical as it comes. It's completely natural, and it benefits everyone involved. Readers find interesting content, and site owners gain traffic, brand awareness, and possibly even conversions.
Click to expand...
I think we may have found the person who emailed OP.
 
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