Stupid question- is this email a scam?

[Gusthetheatrecat]

I have an email from someone - let's call him David - offering me a 'free' post on my blog. The only condition is that it should have a link in it to one of 'his sponsors'. A perfectly pleasant email. Bit cut and pastey, eg 'I have a similar style to yours' without giving any info or detail!

This rings a big bell with me. I'm sure I read an article by someone about a guest piece, where the person wanted a link kept in, and for some reason (excuse my technical jargon here) to do with Google and follow-on links (?) this wasn't what she wanted as it would jeopardise her blog's ranking in searches...

Does this make any sense to anyone?
Can anyone help to jog my memory / tell me what to look out for?

A related question is that I have had a couple of emails related to the blog, and I am torn between feeling very excited (esp since my little old blog is, with the best will in the world, very small, and although I have high hopes for it, as I'm sure we all do, I feel very much a blogging beginner still) and worrying a bit that I might make some silly mistakes. Is there some good info online somewhere about business managing of a blog? Steering cleer of scams? Making good decisions about working with companies, etc.?

I have received a lot of emails like this in the past few days.

I don't normally accept guest bloggers on SaltandCaramel, but Jump! Mag is set up for guest bloggers. To see if it is a genuine offer - look at the email. Does the person tell you a bit about themself, and why they want to write for your blog in particular? Do you get the impression they have actually read your blog (ie. do they mention a particular post or issue your have written about).

Good idea for a blog post - about the whole scams/working with companies thing. I haven't seen one, and might write one when I have time. If I come across one in the meantime, I will let you know.

oh, and I meant to say - of course it is not a stupid question, and it is exciting to receive response to your blog.

Delete it. Dave is notorious, he's been emailing lots of bloggers lately. He hasn't read your blog. It's all about SEO and building links to whatever site has employed Dave. There is no benefit to you the blogger, other than you will probably get targeted for other crap guest posts by Dave clones.

I know some bloggers reply to emails like this with details of their charges for hosting a link, but the Daves of this world very rarely pay. I get a lot of these and always delete them.

Actually, this post explains it better than I could: www.thealphaparent.com/2012/05/bloggers-beware-guest-post-scams.html

Thank you all! And thank you JoanneMallon - that alphaparent entry was the one I'd seen and forgotten, so it was very handy to re-read it.
Interestingly, I have since received another very similar email, but this one is much more convincing and reads much less like spam. I am going to ignore the first, and have politely declined the second.
What would I do without mumsnet?!