Reply to "Link exchange spam – I've had enough, thanks!"

In a previous post on link exchange spam, I briefly outlined receiving a series of spam emails advertising MiraPoint, and sent by DigitalGrit.

The following was sent by Steve Curtin – Corporate Vice President, DigitalGrit.

Posting this does not represent an apology, and I will follow this up with a further reply I sent to Steve.

Here is Steve's reply:

Ouch. We obviously owe you an apology and an explanation – which I'll preface with the fact that we are 100% dedicated to best practices, and we are *not* spammers.

As an agency working for Mirapoint, a company committed to combating spam, we noted in your FAQ's an invitation for requesting links (http://spamlinks.net/about.htm#faqs-add) and sent an email per your instructions. So, your blog is extremely relevant, you list commercial vendors, and provide guidelines on submitting links. We did our very best to play by your rules.

Here's where we slipped: our employee inadvertently created 2 emails rather than 1 requesting to be listed on your blog. How did that happen? Well, two emails were created since you have 2 pages listing commercial vendors. Obviously, we should have generated one email for the request, but due to human error that didn’t happen - again, my apologies, but as we're all human, some cutting-and-pasting happens, hence the identical emails. Again, HUMAN error.

And, I'd like to reassure you, that as we do not believe in using automated solicitations like the ones described in your post, the emails that you received were sent by an actual human employee of our firm. And, in our defense, the employee who sent those emails did include his real name, a return email address, and an explicit identification of our company in full compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act.

So, to reiterate, we do certainly own up to having made a mistake – and one that clearly raised your ire – and please accept my apologies on behalf of DigitalGrit for that. However, at the same time, I feel it important to convey that we are more than a little upset and disappointed in having been branded a "spammer" in your post. That's just not who we are. For the record, who we are, in fact, is one of the top 25 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America, as noted by the Society for Human Resource Management and one of the Best Places to Work in New Jersey, as noted by NJBIZ for the past two years (including the #1 ranking in 2005). And as the leader of DigitalGrit's SEO practice, I personally want to assure you that we are 100% white hat.

So, please accept my sincerest apologies again for the annoying emails. Despite our missteps though, we do feel that Mirapoint offers a product worthy of listing on your site along side the other products you list, and I hope you'll take the time to review Mirapoint's products.

Thanks for your time and consideration,

Steve Curtin – Corporate Vice President,

DigitalGrit