promoting links?

[Kiter5]

I'm not sure where this goes, but this seemed the closest fit for the topic....

I received an email from someone who does marketing for DriveNetwork. He said they are interested in purchasing a small text-link ad on my web page.

how does that work? I assume it is legit (they aren't asking for money)... or are these a scam or virus sometimes?

[Jimmy]

It's pretty common I think, they're probably a online marketing company of sorts that are trying to promote a site that has something to do with your blog (traffic relevance).

What is the link they're trying to purchase? (good indicator, stay away from porn and gambling links)

Might be a good way to make holiday cash... as long as they aren't asking YOU for money I wouldn't worry about it.

-Jimmy

[Kiter5]

thanks, if I can find where I saved their email i'll contact them.

[Karen {Admin}]

I wouldn't say it's a scam and agree with Jimmy that you don't need to worry about it but there are pros and cons to weigh in terms of SEO when it comes to paid text link ads. Here is an article (there are tons more of course) you may want to check out:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/our-stance-on-paid-links-link-ads

When I was doing some research after receiving an offer like this in the past, I came across a few forum posts that indicated a possible black-hat SEO tactic of a competitor getting you to place a text link and then reporting you to Google. It's a conspiracy theory of course (I wouldn't come to this conclusion) but did add to the wondering if it was worth it all if you are going to be penalized by Google.

Another tricky thing is usually they ask you for a quote which can be hard if you aren't already selling text links and or they are asking for it in a place where you don't even have ads, like on a specific post.

[Kiter5]

why would they report me to Google? is it wrong to do?
**
 I checked the link , it doesn't seem to be Against the Rules, just a "not a good idea"- either way, I do not need a promoting link badly enough to get entangled in it. thanks.

[Jimmy]

Not WRONG... but Google doesn't like it. They don't like the idea that someone would pay you to link to their site. It's not illegal to buy a link, but Google would prefer that no one did this. Make sense?

Ultimately it's up to you. My wife and I earn considerable income through paid links on our blog, but Google has no way of knowing who pays us.

I say, since we live in a capitalist free-market society, go ahead. Google isn't God. But that's my very biased opinion.

[Karen {Admin}]

Gave you some karma love Jimmy! Do you have any advice for pricing the text ads? Does the relevancy have anything to do with the price. I've heard bloggers say that completely off top links will be charged more than relevant links.

[adal01]

It's probably not a scam and is pretty common now days for marketers to buy links on other web sites.
However, do be careful. A few paid links on your site is probably safe. If you go overboard with the paid links Google may get mad at you and penalize your site. Paid link value is based on things like, your traffic, page rank, keyword value, industry niche that you blog about.

Ask them what anchor text they want in the link and this will tell you what key word they are going after. Use Google keyword tool to estimate how valuable that keyword is and base your price on that.

Hope this helps
Allen - GroceryWiz.com

[kimmyshop]

There are soooo many ways to promote.  It's a constant process.  By far, the most important way to promote your blog is to create GREAT content.  CONTENT is KING!  Publish short articles of 500 words or less and often.  Another way to get more traffic you might want to consider is posting some cool pictures to http://www.pinterest.com.  This is the fastest growing social network around right now, plus its fun to do!

Ron

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