you scratch my back and...well, that's it

I recently received a friendly comment from a fellow blogger, offering some words of praise and a "special deal" on one of his custom designed t-shirts. I was redirected to a webpage that he apparently redirects numerous bloggers to, offering me a great deal on a t-shirt for only $8.50 in exchange for a six-month static link on my blog.

Gee, what a great deal. Not! While I hate to pick fights with anyone, you've got to be joking. This is a great example of not understanding your customer base. Sure, I might have been interested in one of your t-shirts. I'm geeky enough and they're kind-of humorous. But your approach is all wrong. If I want a home-made t-shirt, I'll pop on over to CafePress, or I'll Google it. Work on your SEO and work for your inbound links like everyone else.

Are you that enamored with your t-shirt designs that you thought a blogger (even a lowly unpopular one such as myself) would give you a static link (for six months) for what is essentially a $4 off coupon for a t-shirt that I don't need and wasn't looking to buy in the first place? Puhh...lease.

Here's a tip. If you want to build brand recognition and you feel that bloggers are a good target audience for your product, then send them a free sample. Don't "require" a reciprocal link and threaten to charge them the difference if they take the link down prematurely. You need to win your customer base, not bribe/blackmail them. If you send them a shirt, and they like it, you might just get lucky and find an inbound link from their blog.