Yesterday my email stream included two starkly contrasting approaches to getting links and mentions from bloggers. 

One offered me free guest posts, supposedly good quality posts on relevant business topics. The email had links to examples. It’s author said…

Having graduated in International Business and Journalism a few years ago, Ive covered everything from global politics to local news, economics, sustainability issues and a lot in between.

Sounds good, right? But what about this:

I work on behalf of one of my business clients, and as long as I am able to link to them within the content (in a related and subtle manner) 

Ouch. No thanks. I’m not an attorney so I don’t know, but I thought the FTC had issued guidelines for bloggers that rule out that practice. If it isn’t illegal it’s still sleazy. 

And in contrast to that, yesterday I also received an email from somebody at onlineMBA.com suggesting I should link to that site’s video titled Why Women Make Better Business Leaders. I don’t know that organization, I don’t endorse it, but I do like the fact that they generate good (in my opinion) content and make it available. They don’t offer to pay me. They just do good stuff. 

So I posted about the video, and it included it embedded, earlier today on our companion blog Up and Running. And tagged onlineMBA.com on both posts. 

And — let me make this clear — I have no deal, no incentive, no financial interest. I just liked the content they offered. And it’s not the first time. I think this is what that organization is doing to win some links. 

Content is king? Yes, I think it’s pretty important. And self-serving links (in a related and subtle manner) are not.