Text Link Info

It seems our topics for this week revolve around selling text links without getting de-ranked by Google. Despite the number of people saying PageRank hardly matters as a gauge of web site popularity nowadays, they still care anyways. I can’t help but feel we’re in the middle of withdrawal syndrome of some sorts. Whereas in the past, everybody optimized for PageRank, it’s difficult to accept that it might not be as accurate as before. Anyhow, since we all don’t want to get de-ranked, here’s a way to sell text links openly without having to fear Google’s wrath — the no-follow attribute.

I blogged about no-follow in the negative light before. After all, it’s the attribute which prevents us from building backlinks via blog commenting. However, Google had good intentions when they had campaigned for blog platforms to use it as a default. After all, haven’t you been plagued by spammers before? Even worse, these are spammers who won’t be caught by Akismet because they’ll pretend to have read your post and comment on it. The bad thing is even the regulars in your blog, honest to goodness readers whom you’d like to reward with even something as small as backlinks are affected.

To avoid Google de-ranking, however, the no-follow is one solution. If you’d rather not sell text links underground and would prefer to do it out in the open, then you can use the no-follow attribute. You must make it perfectly clear that you’re selling text links for traffic, not for PR purposes and make that your selling point. If you have a high-traffic blog high up in the SERPs, it won’t be too hard getting enough advertisers willing to pay for text links despite the fact that it won’t be for PageRank juice.

Filed under: Tips for Success | No Comments »

This month, I’ve blogged about what everyone else was blogging in the blogosphere — Google de-ranking web sites and blogs selling text advertisements. Understandably, everyone was in uproar over their lowered PageRanks. I, myself have been an unsuspecting victim, my two PR3 web sites getting hit and getting de-ranked by 1 PageRank. I took it calmly but it angered me nevertheless. Why penalize me when the only ads I’ve ever ran were by Google Adsense? I understood it later though — I was penalized because I ran mutual text links under the header tag, “Link Exchange.” I’m pretty much sure Google thought I was selling links. You know what, I should have if I was going to be penalized anyways.

One of my acquaintances reported that his blog was de-ranked because he was selling Text Link Ads in his blog. And apparently, he wasn’t the only one. During the initial de-ranking, a lot of bloggers dropped Text Links Ads from their revenue sources. My acquaintance pulled down his TLA banner too. Apparently though, there’s a work-around all of these. You can still sell TLA without being penalized by Google. Shoemoney has blogged about it. Ever wondered how Google knew you were selling Text Link Ads? The key happens to be in the TLA code. The old TLA codes carry the line “function tla_ads.” Hence, if you do a search for it, all TLA publishers using the old plug-in are easy to pinpoint.

You don’t have to give up TLA after all. If you used to run TLA but have dropped it since the de-ranking, go log in your accounts now and grab the new codes. Update your web sites start earning from TLA revenue again. I wonder how long before Google figures out how to work around this new discovery — what with everyone blogging about it and all. I reckon, not long.

Filed under: Industry News, Google PageRank, Selling Text Links | 1 Comment »

When it comes to text links, I’ve noticed that people are generally divided in opinion. When I was to the idea of text links, I’ve researched quite a bit and came across differing advice. There are those who said that it’s best if you blend your text links with the rest of the page, making sure the background is the same and the links are of the same color as the other links in the page. There are those, however, who said it’s best to flaunt links, design them with borders, and use a background different from that of the background itself. Both has their own pros and cons.

1. Blending Them

Pros: When you blend text links with the rest of your page, the visitor is most likely to treat it as part of your web site and click on the links. You can blend it in with the other content of the page and make it look like it’s not out of place.

Cons: When the links are too blended in, the visitor might actually ignore them. They’ll think it’s an inane part of your page and just plain skip the links altogether. To compromise, although the text links perfectly blend with your page, make sure they have a section of their own.

2. Making Them Stand Out

Pros: When your ads stand out, they’ll get noticed, no doubt. And people will see them at first glance too.

Pros: If I’m a visitor to your web site and your links stand out too much, I’m much likely inclined to think that your ads scream “I’m an ad, CLICK me!!!” too blatantly. So, I won’t click them, sorry.

In the end, it all depends on how you want to present your text links and what works best for you.

Filed under: Tips for Success | No Comments »

The purpose of buying text links, of course, is to gain backlinks, not only for PageRank, but also for the traffic. Text links directing to your homepage, however, might not suffice. You want to get backlinks to your internal pages, making sure they’re read and well linked to so they could also get PageRank. The number one practice of using deep links to your advantage is to deep link your own blog. Learn how to interlink posts because you want the reader to stay as long as you can make them. Linking to posts far back would make them want to read more. And then some more. When it comes to backlinks from other web sites however, how do you get a deal for deep links?

1. Get Links from Blog Posts

There are those who offer to post in their blogs with deep links to your web site. There are even those who offer services to post your articles with deep lips to hundreds of blogs in their network. This is a tactic to inflate your backlinks. Make sure, however, that the blogs are somewhat of relevant subjects or else Google might disregard your deep links as spam.

2. Post in Other Blogs and Forums

When subject matter of your niche comes up, dig a relevant post from your blog(s) and post them on other blogs and forums. This not only will be beneficial for both your PageRank and perhaps your Alexa rank, but also of you web site’s traffic.

3. Interlink Your Blogs

When you have more than just a single blog, interlink them using deep links. This will increase readership of all of them as a whole as well provide necessary backlinking to your less popular domains.

4. Write a Damn Good Article

When you write well-researched content nobody can pass up, chances are, you don’t have to go begging or buying — people will naturally link to you.

Filed under: Tips for Success | No Comments »

Last time, I talked about how Google has waged war against the text link market. It wasn’t pretty but some people were able to profit on the whole deal. I surmise, from now on, the text link market would be conducted underground. Despite not being apparent, there’s no denying that you can’t fool Google. If you don’t believe that after their last PR update because you haven’t been affected despite having done things right under their nose, then you must be a genius.

Anyhow, for the rest of us lower mortals, practicing due diligence is what’s best. If ever you decide to buy text links in the future, you must put more thought into it than before unless you really don’t care about your PageRank. Here are a few things to help you out:

1. The Text Surrounding the Text Links

Take a look at the web site where the link is to be placed. If the text links are put under “Sponsored” or “Paid” links, don’t buy one. However, due to recent event, I very much doubt any web master would still be openly proclaiming they sell text links.

2. Choosing the Niche

In many web master forums, there are those who’d still openly sell text links. While some would sell at a higher price due to the law of supply and demand, there are those who’d cash in on the market via what we can call mass production. In short, they’re selling text links dirt cheap to attract as many customers as they can. And as expected, many would jump at the opportunity. Before you jump on it however, take a look at the web site first. If your text link is going to be put in a mish-mash of porn and online gambling links, then it’s no use.

In the end, you might have to spend a decent amount of money to find quality text links sold in niches related to yours. But hey, for some people, it’s better to spend what they have rather than lose brownie points with Google and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Filed under: Tips for Success, Buying Text Links | 1 Comment »

Around a week ago or so, web masters and netrepreneurs around the globe had to scratch their heads in confusion when they went online and saw their Google toolbars showing half the PageRank it used to. This is due to Google’s dynamic algorithm, which was apparently updated during that time. There were numerous speculations but in the end, there was one culprit that was determined in the end — selling text links. There are, of course, other factors to take into consideration. I’ve seen numerous assumptions such as link exchange, etcetera. However, no other aspect has gotten as much attention as selling text links. As such, the practice of buying text link ads has dwindled to underground dealings.

Due to this, many of those who used to sell text links have chosen to stop the practice to get back to Google’s good graces aka to get back their old PageRanks. This means those who used text links to advertise their web sites would have to look to other means for promotion. But have all web masters actually stopped selling text links? Think again. Last November 5, 2007, Darren Rowse of Problogger reports that he has received an email from a web master who wishes to remain anonymous that recent events has actually benefited him greatly.

Apparently, due to other web masters stopping the practice of selling text links, he had been able to sell quite a hefty sum of text links albeit (most probably) through the underground route. I think that in the future, selling text links discreetly will be a common practice in the World Wide Web — it’s inevitable. It’s in human nature to take a risk for profit. Come 2008 or so, the market for text links will again be saturated — the question is if you’re willing to do so.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

When a person owns a website that is able to sell text links, he or she often has the urge to rush to sell as many as possible to generate the most possible income. While this may seem like a good idea at first, the truth is that there are many reasons why overselling is not a good strategy. We will discuss a couple of these reasons in this post right now.

To start out with, it is simple logistics that the value of each text link you sell will decrease the overall value of each link sold. Think about it. Would you rather want your website advertised with one other website or with thirty others? Why would anyone pay top dollar to have their website muddled into a list of many different sites on random and different topics. You won’t be able to sell links at a great amount without greatly having to decrease your selling price. And thirty low-priced sales may not amount to more than three to four well-priced ones.

In addition, you have to take into account the fact that keeping many, many different link sites intact is not easy to do. Would you want to collect from thirty different site owners? Most of whom probably do not have much income to begin with? The chances are that a good number will renege on paying and you will be out cash you sorely need. On the other hand, if you only have to deal with a few people you have much less of a chance on missing out on payments and can deal with much fewer people.

All in all, it just isn’t good business to diversify your client list to the point where you can’t handle everyone. Make sure you get the most value out of each of your links and to only sell a few. Its better to get lots of money per link for one or two than a few bucks each for twenty to thirty.

Filed under: Selling Text Links | No Comments »

Some of the stuff in this post may seem repetitive and redundant, but the simple fact is that if you want to buy text links you have to be smart and most of all, you have to conserve your money for future purchases. Running a web site may not seem like it will require a lot of capital, but it might if you don’t play the game right. With that said, here are some tips to buying text links;

1. Always follow your budget. If you start spending more money than you wanted to spend, you will find yourself in a bind really soon. You may not care about losing an extra five or ten dollars here and there, but that money adds up. Be smart and know how much you want to spend from the start…and then have the brains to stick to your estimate.

2. Don’t get over-excited by high PageRank offers. Look, I know that getting your link on a high PageRank site may seem exciting now, but if the cost is the same as getting a link on ten smaller sites with good traffic you may be giving something up. Don’t give up all of your budget for one link that may not be worth it. Do your research and spread out your link as much as possible within your budget.

3. Be courteous. No one likes to deal with an ass and there is no reason to be one in a negotiation. People you give mean comments to now may refuse to work with you later when you need them. Be as nice as possible and make sure you don’t make any enemies for no good reason.

4. Always haggle. There is never a final price on a text link and anyone who refuses to budge should not receive your money. A good business transaction is one in which both the buyer and seller have to give something up. You have some power in this situation to, the seller needs to sell links to make money.

5. Do your research. Look through all possible venues and forums for link partners before giving a lot of money to anyone.

Follow these principles and you should make smart, useful transactions.

Filed under: Tips for Success, Buying Text Links | No Comments »

Last post we discussed when trading text links with smaller sites is good and bad. We talked about how some sites are deserving of getting a free link on your site and others aren’t. But how exactly do you make these determinations on which site should have to pay and which ones shouldn’t? While the final answer to that question can only be answered by your own preferences, I can give you a simple template right now.

First of all, it is never a good idea to just give a text link for free right away if you don’t have the space for it. When I was starting my blog, I asked a lot of people for text links. The best answer I ever got from someone was when I was told that I could have a link if I proved myself. Meaning the site owner monitored my blog and checked it regularly to see if my content updates and quality held up. If the site owner was happy after a few weeks, I’d get a link. If not, too bad.

The truth is that this is a great approach to trading text links. A site might look great right now, but what happens if the owner stops adding new blog posts or stops updating? Is the link still one you want to have on your site for free? Probably not.

Of course, you probably don’t have time to check a lot of blogs constantly. So you need to make sure you only accept free blog requests from sites who talk about topics you actually are interested in. This will prevent boring periods of checking blogs that don’t appeal to you.

These are just basics on how to pick out good sites to trade with, but we will go into more depth later. For now, just make sure to be sure a site deserves a text link before giving it to them.

Filed under: Trading Text Links | No Comments »

As you may have noticed with some of my early posts, I am a big fan of helping others out. When I first started several of my now-defunct sites, I had a lot of help with free text links given to me by bigger sites. This kindness and generosity was not something I forgot. But the truth is that big sites can’t afford to give out unlimited text links for free without some consequence to the bottom-line. It is fine to trade text links when you aren’t given the possibility of selling them, but what happens when you have to choose between money and being a good site owner?

Most people out there will say the obvious answer. You should take the money and turn away anyone looking for a free ride. That is fine to a certain point, but the common saying is that what goes around comes around. My opinion is that there are some sites that do truly deserve to get a free text link.

Knowing how to differentiate the good sites from the bad sites is critical in this process. Obviously when there is a limited space for free text links on your site, you need to be selective. The best way to do this is to actually check the site in question and see if they have good content. See if the site is one that you would visit. See if the site owner has been updating the site regularly and whether or not the content is unique. If you’re not making money on it through sold text links, you should be providing a site your visitors will enjoy.

If you do this, you should cut down the amount of free text links you trade and improve the quality of the ones you do still take in. There is nothing wrong in lending a helping hand as long as the people getting the favor truly deserve it.

Filed under: Trading Text Links | No Comments »