I just got an email that cracked me up - and it's actually pretty smart.

The gist is that this company registered a domain name, then approached me about one of my more popular sites and wants me to submit to them a review of my own site. There's no catch, there's no cost to me, it's flattering to be approached, etc. And it would be a link to my site, so why not - right? And they’re only going to accept 25 reviews, so it’s exclusive – cool, right?

But the thing is it would benefit them far more than it would benefit me. They're requesting an "original" review - so they get unique content for free. And they want a link back to their site on my front page - and since mine is a popular site, that would be a VERY valuable link.

I’m obviously not even considering it – but I think it’s a brilliant idea – from their point of view! Register a bunch of domains, then go through your bookmarks and send out flattering emails to every site you think is a valuable resource, then sit back and if only a small percentage respond, you still get all this great content and links from popular sites.

I can’t see a downside from their point of view, and it’s not too bad of a deal for the sites that do agree to it. After all, it is a link…