The hardest part of asking someone out is rarely the words. It is saying them in real time, watching their face while they decide, and having to fill the silence.
A link removes that pressure from both sides. You get to write it properly instead of improvising, and they get to answer without having to perform a reaction on the spot. That tends to produce a more honest answer than the doorway conversation does.
How to word it
Three things do most of the work:
- Be direct about what you are asking. "Do you want to get dinner on Friday" is a question. "We should hang out sometime" is not, and it will not get an answer.
- Name a reason it is them. One sentence about something specific they said or did beats a paragraph of general praise.
- Make no cheap to say. Explicitly saying that a no is fine and changes nothing is the single most useful line you can include. It also makes a yes mean more.
Avoid anything that reads as a countdown or an ultimatum. Pressure gets you compliance or silence, not interest.