The other day, a content manager reached out to me after reading a listicle I wrote a few years ago on my personal blog: “41 Tips to be a Successful Freelancer.”

I am inundated with these emails every day, marketers asking me to link to something of theirs on some of the websites I contribute to. I typically ignore them, but this email was clever in both the subject line and the body. I decided to give it a thorough read, and I responded.

What was great about the email was its honesty. Many of the digital marketers who compose these emails are obsequious and disingenuous and it is obvious what they are after. Plus, these professionals usually just demand something and offer nothing in return.

Just check out the opening:

Hi Andrew,

This is a cold outreach, which gives you 3 options:

1. Ignore me, and continue working (most popular)

2. Send me an angry reply with lots of profanity.

3. Find out what I want to give you in exchange for you linking to our amazing blog post.

It doesn’t take itself so seriously and it injects a little bit of humor. The offer wasn’t cash either, but useful information: ebook, webinar, and audiobook. I rejected this remuneration because of a paucity of time and lack of need, but I’m still sharing it because I respected a unique take on the 25-year-old email marketing strategy. Great stuff.

Here is the article, which is also a superb and helpful read for the millions of people worldwide who are starting out freelancing:

How to Move from Being a Solo-Freelancer to Starting a Digital Agency