Link requests in Inbox

[bregan]

I have received a few email requests for link exchanges with other pages that are much older and have PR, seemingly more authoritative pages than mine. I have a 4 month old site.
Thing is, they're giving me like 3-4 links from their pages for one link from my page. There must be a catch in it.
Well, I've checked the sites for nofollow tags and they are indexed in G. I've also checked the page(s) they want me to link to for excessive ads or hidden text or cloaking, but maybe there's something I'm missing.

I've only been doing this for a few months and I learn a new black hat technique every day. But I don't want to learn three months from now that a site I'm linking to is using something I've never heard of, so Google put me in the box.

Should I be checking whois for verifiable contact info?

Is there an online tool that checks pages for hidden text/cloaking/ other known issues that I might not know about? How, for instance, -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[krippy]

The three links to your page will be from some banned pages in a site you never heard of, while you'll be linking to their site.
You get nothing from the deal, except a possible Google ban when someone caught the same way complains to google.

I would say that unless it is a verifiable, personal email, from someone who has visited your site then it's either an email spam or an SEO scam or chances are they will never deliver what they promise.

God luck buddy -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[bradshaw]

hello

You can usually spot a garbage throwaway site by looking at it. You say their sites look good? That's a good sign. First rule is don't link to garbage.
If there's full contact info on the sites/emails that would be another good sign. Consider giving a phone call if that's provided. If you email, be sure to ask a question that requires a thoughtful answer.
Also, check their Alexa traffic rank. Ranks lower than 300,000 are pretty decent.

may this help you -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --