12 replies to this topic

[arlen]

Not that I'm even considering this, and with my budget, I'm sure I never will ... but, I occasionally hear talk about people paying for links to well ranking sites, and I'm curious ... I just find it interesting how much of an industry is built around link building (I was listening to an online broadcast by an "expert" that recommended buying links).

Do a lot of sites do this and roughly what do they charge per link? I'm sure it varies widely - but are people paying $100s or $1000s monthly for such a thing?

Is the practice frowned upon by the SEs? I'd think that link brokers would likely fall into the same category as link farms, but not necessarily, assuming they are selective. You sure can't blame a well ranked site for charging ... especially if they've worked hard to climb the serps, and someone is soliciting a link to as a shortcut to the top.

(I tried to search btw, but "link" returns so many unrelated topics, and "paid" returns mostly paid directory inclusion threads)

[SearchRank]

There is nothing wrong with buying a link from another site but if it were me, I would want to make sure I might have the possibility to actually receive some traffic from that site and not buy the link just for the sake of gaining some link popularity.

I have seen links go anywhere from a one time fee to monthly fees starting in the range of $10/mo to hundreds and hundreds a month. It usually depends on the popularity of the site and the Google PageRank of the link or links you are buying.

Is the practice frowned upon by search engines? It is hard to answer that with a direct yes or no but I can tell you that Google especially does frown upon anyone who tries to "falsely" inflate their link popularity. That being said, I couldn't see a search engine coming down on anyone because they choose to buy some text type of ads on other sites as that is an acceptable practice even before Google ever came to be.

[sweepthelegnate]

Is the practice frowned upon by search engines? It is hard to answer that with a direct yes or no but I can tell you that Google especially does frown upon anyone who tries to "falsely" inflate their link popularity. That being said, I couldn't see a search engine coming down on anyone because they choose to buy some text type of ads on other sites as that is an acceptable practice even before Google ever came to be.

I agree, I don't see how exactly google can frown on this. I mean they had to think at least this far ahead in regards to pagerank. It's a natural transition and certainly was foreseeable - sites that are in the position to charge - will. Sites were already doing it before the advent of pr to some degree...except the criteria for payment rate was visitors or hits as opposed to PR.

Its completely natural and happens all over not just online. It would be like the head cheerleader going out on a date with the class geek. The geek may have a great personality, but lacks in popularity. the head cheerleader is in a position to help him out because going out on a date with the geek will do wonders for his popularity at the school. the head cheerleader should expect a little something in return for this favor (a little help on her homework or bandwidth costs for that matter) will the principal of the school penalize the geek? I sure hope not...


nathan

[arlen]

I hadn't thought about buying a "link" and buying a text based ad including a link being more or less the same thing. My research into affiliate marketing turned up text ads as a part of that strategy … though I understand the tracking code might keep the link from counting towards link popularity.

I assumed people were doing this to build link popularity, or gain whatever bump in pr it might bring. So far I've refused to even check my site for PR (from what I've ready you could drive yourself over the edge worrying about that one, and it doesn't mean that much anyway).

It did occur to me though that buying advertising on a related and highly ranking site to gain exposure, hopefully drive some sales, and hopefully encouraging others to link to you naturally might be a worthwhile investment. Though I doubted my budget would allow for that, certainly not for much of a graphic ad.

Nathan, that's a hilarious analogy ... maybe I didn't offer that cheerleader enough of an incentive - she never did agree to go out with me.

[Googlewhacked]

It would be like the head cheerleader going out on a date with the class geek. The geek may have a great personality, but lacks in popularity. the head cheerleader is in a position to help him out because going out on a date with the geek will do wonders for his popularity at the school. the head cheerleader should expect a little something in return for this favor (a little help on her homework or bandwidth costs for that matter)

Sounds like Nathan's been watching 80's pop movies again...

[sweepthelegnate]

Sounds like Nathan's been watching 80's pop movies again...

haha, I've never seen that movie, but I know that it is a premise that's made it in many sitcom episodes and movies...heck, I lived it

everything I know I learned from tv...I often say that I was raised by CHiPs

nathan

[torka]

Y'all knew I wouldn't be able to resist popping in and noting that the character of Fran in that movie was played by Ami Dolenz, eldest daughter of former Monkee Micky Dolenz (aka Micky Dolenz, new morning drive-time DJ on WCBS-FM in NYC...)

Monkees rule...

--Torka

[Randy]

We need to get you a Monkee's avatar Torka.

Back to the original question...

There is a whole industry out there of link brokers. Many still push PR to this day because of webmasters infatuation over the little green bar. I've never bothered getting into it for that at all.

I do however pay to run some (very small) text ads in several national and regional newspapers that have an online presence. But I control in which sections the ads appear and only do it because we do actually get click thru traffic from people reading those sections of the paper.

I've also run ads in trade publications that service the market niche I'm going after. I don't have any of those running right now, but will probably start up some more in the spring.

Looking at those links from the outside someone might think I was buying the ad space for PR effect. When in actuality I could care less about the PR. All I look at when evaluating those is the quantity of quality traffic they send me.

[sweepthelegnate]

I do however pay to run some (very small) text ads in several national and regional newspapers that have an online presence. But I control in which sections the ads appear and only do it because we do actually get click thru traffic from people reading those sections of the paper.

I've also run ads in trade publications that service the market niche I'm going after. I don't have any of those running right now, but will probably start up some more in the spring.

Looking at those links from the outside someone might think I was buying the ad space for PR effect. When in actuality I could care less about the PR. All I look at when evaluating those is the quantity of quality traffic they send me.

or to say it another way...it pays to have the hottest girl on your arm at a dance (ie buying an ad) because it might get you a few slaps on the back from guys who normally wouldn't even say hi (new visitors to your site) or even a few girls might slip your their number which turn into dates (conversions) you never would have gotten without that orginal date. (the ad)


nathan

[qwerty]

I may be doing some research on this topic soon. I've got a prospect who already have quite a few backlinks, but have a huge (at least by my standards) budget for more, so I think buying some ads might be a good idea for them.

[Debra]

Do a lot of sites do this and roughly what do they charge per link? I'm sure it varies widely - but are people paying $100s or $1000s monthly for such a thing?

I don't know of a resource that lists what types of sites charge what for a text based link, but I can tell you, based on experience, that certain industries definitely charge more than others. The link brokers may have pricing guidelines you can look at.

Is the practice frowned upon by the SEs?

After having been to conference after conference where the SE reps openly talk about link building and what they consider "no-nos" I can tell you that buying links has never come up as a "thing not to do".

A few years ago a company got in trouble for openly advertising the sale of PageRank and after that, the rumors started to fly. Search engines have no way of knowing if you paid for that text link or the owner was just being generous and gave it to you.

Go Links Go <shakes pom-poms>

[Randy]

<shakes pom-poms>

That sounds dangerous Debra.

Almost as dangerous as girls sending me their phone numbers as Nathan suggested.

[Debra]

Yeah, I'm SURE Tammy would have something to say about that.

IMO, the hardest part of buying text link ads is finding good sites/places to host them. Something to consider - ezines.

Ezines reach a targeted audience and are usually archived on an authoritative site. Double win-win here since:

The ad will have a keyword rich anchor text link in it that people
will see and click while they read the ezine and

Ezines are usually written by authority figures who store them on
their authority/hub sites. Your link is then archived and becomes
part of that content.