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Linking to Your Site

Linking to Your Blog or Website

You may have noticed that my blogroll and wine resources links are a little lean. Part of the reason is that I don’t want to clutter up my site with lots of links. The other reason is that I want to be sure of the quality of these links. Practically all the people on my blogroll are people I’ve met in person and write about topics to which I feel connected. They’ve either put a reciprocal link on their own site or they have more than occasionally posted comments. In other words, they have established a relationship with me and I trust their opinions. Here’s a recent email I sent in response to linking to a site:

Hi Drey, 

I’ve never exchanged links with anyone whom I don’t appreciate and respect their site and viewpoint. I have never put a link on my site unless I find it compelling and I think that my readers would benefit from it. I don’t advertise for various reasons and I rarely receive wine for free.

That said, I took a look at some of the links below and I’m a bit disappointed. Everything about wine and the wine industry is fairly subjective. What I saw was an attempt to use a comparison model that would work with dishwashers and LCD televisions applied to something that can’t be compared in the same way. Opinions and ratings about wine are just that—opinions. Something very personal that develops with your own tastes. After a while, you try to discover critics who have similar tastes in hopes that they can find wines you would enjoy. Any site that would give one of my favorite wines from a distinguished vintage year a 77 rating can’t possibly have the same tastes as me.

While some of your readers may actually find the information you supply about wine, wineries and such useful, I believe my readers are a bit more discerning and would actually be offended if I were to point them to a site that attempted to rate wine in the same manner as consumer electronics. Besides, there are already plenty of wine ratings and comparison sites, such as Cellartracker and Snooth, to which I contribute. And while I would like to increase the traffic to my blog, I don’t want to risk offending the sensibilities of the very people I’m trying to attract. I’m happy to receive the small select hits I get through organic search. Thank you for the opportunity, but I think I will continue my blog without a link to your site.

Best of luck with your endeavor.

Cheers,
Eric Hwang 

I’ve never posted a link to a blog without first establishing a relationship with the person writing that blog. Simply writing me an email telling me about your blog and who you are is a good start, but don’t expect me to add your site to my blogroll just because you asked. Once I’ve had a chance to check out your body of work and we’ve connected on other platforms or, preferably, in person, will I link to your site.