I just got this email from Monkey Digital who appear to be trying to get people to link to their site by offering a fee if anyone ever clicked through for their business, but in reality they are just trying to gain ranking without any decent content.
Hey,
This is Mike Lockwood from Monkey Digital,
I am getting in touch to discuss a mutual opportunity.
How would you like to show our banners on your platform and link back via your personalized referral link towards popular products from our website?
This way, you receive a solid 35% residual income, every month from any transactions that generate from your audience.
Think about it, all businesses need SEO, so this is a massive opportunity.
We already have over 12,000 affiliates and our commissions are paid out monthly.
Last month, we paid out over $27,000 in commissions to our affiliates.
If interested, kindly contact us here:
https://monkeydigital.co/affiliates-whatsapp/
Or sign up today:
https://www.monkeydigital.co/join-our-affiliate-program/
Best Regards,
Mike Lockwood
Monkey Digital
Phone/whatsapp: +1 (775) 314-7914
Monkey Digital? Digital Monkeys more like.
Ah yes—Monkey Digital and their ilk. This sounds like a classic link scheme in sheep’s clothing.
They offer "a fee per click or lead" in exchange for placing a link on your site, which sounds like an affiliate program but is really just a tactic to buy SEO juice without creating quality content of their own. Here’s the real play:
🧠 What They're Really Doing
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They're trying to piggyback off your authority
By planting a link on your site, especially in an article or footer, they leech off your site’s domain trust.
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They're not aiming for conversions
They don’t care if anyone clicks. They just want a followed backlink from a reputable site to inflate their rankings.
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Their “offer” is a smokescreen
Any fee offered is often never paid out. The goal is to create a perception of value exchange to get you to insert the link.
🚩 Red Flags You Might Have Noticed
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The email is vague or over-friendly ("We love your blog!" without naming it).
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They offer a “commission” but don’t have a real affiliate backend.
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Their website is content-thin, full of generic sales-speak, or built entirely for SEO with no real product or value.
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They want a dofollow link (not disclosed or marked as sponsored).
🛡️ What You Can Do
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Ignore or block them. You don’t owe them a reply.
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Add their domain to your site's disavow file if you suspect a manipulative SEO campaign.
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Mark all paid or incentivized links as rel="sponsored" or nofollow to stay in Google’s good books.
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If you're feeling poetic, reply with a haiku about earning links the honest way.
🧱 A Better Response (If You Engage)
If you do reply, here’s a firm but fair rejection:
"Thanks for reaching out. I don’t offer paid link placements, and I only link to content that provides clear value to my readers. Good luck with your marketing efforts."
Or for fun:
"I only link to sites that don't need to ask."
This is a textbook example of a thinly-veiled link scheme masquerading as an affiliate opportunity. Let’s dissect it line by line so we can expose the real intent and why it’s more about SEO manipulation than a legitimate business relationship.
🔍 The Email Breakdown
"How would you like to show our banners on your platform and link back via your personalized referral link?"
They’re not offering high-quality banners, nor talking about relevant product alignment. They’re asking for links placed on your site with commercial intent, likely without disclosing them properly, which could violate Google’s link spam policy.
"Receive a solid 35% residual income every month from any transactions"
That’s high, suspiciously high. If it were legit, they’d be subject to FTC disclosure and would probably be operating through a known affiliate platform (e.g. CJ, Impact, ShareASale). Instead, they want you to trust a random form and WhatsApp number?
"All businesses need SEO"
Yes, and all parasites need a host. This is a generalized claim to trick anyone into thinking the offer applies to them—SEO is the new snake oil when used this way.
"We already have over 12,000 affiliates" / "We paid out $27,000 last month"
These are unverified stats. If they really had 12,000 affiliates, that’s $2.25 per affiliate per month—hardly impressive. It’s classic social proof manipulation with inflated or meaningless numbers.
WhatsApp contact for “affiliate onboarding”
This is not how legitimate affiliate programs onboard partners. No tracking dashboard, no documentation, no platform, just WhatsApp? Red flag. Professional platforms never use WhatsApp for compliance reasons.
🚨 Why This Is Likely a Scammy SEO Scheme
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Their goal is backlinks, not conversions.
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They provide no proof of products, platform, or payouts.
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They rely on manipulative language and vague promises.
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The site is focused on ranking, not value—usually stuffed with low-effort pages targeting keywords like "best SEO tools" or "rank #1 on Google".
🧰 What You Can Do
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Don’t engage. Don’t give them your number, site, or traffic.
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Report the domain to Google via the spam report tool.
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Block the number and email at server or client level.
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Consider writing a blog post or warning page about these scams, which also helps your own SEO by targeting terms like:
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"Monkey Digital SEO scam"
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"fake affiliate email Mike Lockwood"
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"SEO link placement scam"
⚔️ Want a Blog Post Warning Template?
Here’s a short sample:
⚠️ Beware the “Monkey Digital” Affiliate Scam
If you’ve received an email from Mike Lockwood at Monkey Digital, claiming to offer 35% monthly commissions in exchange for placing banner ads on your site, proceed with extreme caution.
This so-called “affiliate program” has all the hallmarks of a link farming operation:
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No real product or marketplace.
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No secure affiliate dashboard.
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Unverifiable commission claims.
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Suspicious contact methods (WhatsApp).
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Targeting webmasters purely for backlink gain.
👉 Don't link to scammy SEO agencies promising easy money. Your website's trust and reputation are worth more than a few empty promises.