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Private Link Sales
By Max | July 8, 2007
I just entered a couple of my sites on this link sales listing. I don’t know if I’ll make any money off this. There appears to be a lot of people listing sales, but I don’t know how many buyers are browsing the listings. At the very least it appears I will get a free link back to my site.
I would like to see this marketplace take off because they take a much smaller cut than Text Link Ads does. I think that she should rewrite her software to only charge the $2 listing fee when a sale is made. Right now the links listings are free, but I bet the volume of listings will dramatically decrease once the $2 fee kicks in.
Topics: Ad Network Review |
July 8th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
The thing with text link ads is that it doesnt disclose the url until you are signed up. I believe this is key, Google considers sellings backlinks to be illegal and actually issued a request for web masters to nark in other web masters doing it.
I don’t think openly displaying the url on the front page is wise. I would like to know what happens to some of these sites when google stumbles across it.
July 8th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Have a look at this to understand what I am talking about http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/
July 8th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
in response to my comment, this is only if you don’t want to be dropped from google, for most sites (especially the ones coming up in top results for keywords) a lot of traffic comes from search engines, more specifically Google, plus you will lose your page rank.
July 8th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Thanks for the tip Mark. I won’t be putting my link up there again. I wonder why so many TLA advertisers haven’t been reported?
July 8th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
A lot of it is just a matter time, they have a team of people doing manual work but as the article states, they prefer to use algorithms to speed things up, that an relying on nark’s.
July 8th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
that and relying on narks *correction*
July 8th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Narc’s you mean
Google is ridiculous for implementing such a stupid and archaic system.
Reporting paid links has nothing to do with search engine relevancy, and everything to do with Google owning one of the biggest ad networks on earth.
July 8th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
It does effect search engine relevancy when google penalises you be dropping you from their index which they do. They have a very small set of ways to punish you but they do.
And I do believe its spelt Nark in English(UK). Although both Nark and Narc are correct.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Nark
July 9th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Hey Mark, thanks for the article on paid links. I am a google fan but sometimes I think they take too much control. I understand trying to protect the relevancy of search results. It is a very fine line. I have run into some folks online that are using Ask as their favored search engine. Is anyone here having any organic referrals from ask.com?
July 9th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I get a small fraction of searches from ask. That doesn’t mean that their search algorithm is bad, just that very few people use it.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
The reason Google is so popular is because they deliver the most relevant results. I don’t think its a bad thing that they punish for catching people trying to fool THEIR algorithms.
I do think it sucks how people target keywords so heavily in their site content when your an honest site trying to get by but there are better ways, one is to learn patience. Good things take time…
July 9th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Sorry about my ignorance on the Narc/Nark thing Mark
I do understand what you are saying about Google being popular because they are the most relevant. That is why they became so popular, and continue to be.
What I have an issue with, is that they are now trying to undo things that have been going on for years, and are very vital to the web itself.
Greywolf is the master of this topic (from http://www.wolf-howl.com/google/google-adds-paid-links-reporting/):
Unfortunately, not all websites have users’ best interests at heart.
That is quite funny. Assuming that I’m not buying text link advertising to screw with my competition, or more correctly use the flaws in Google algorithm to make Google screw with my competition, there’s a 99.9% chance I’m buying that text link ad because I’m actually selling the product or service that’s in the anchor text. Ok I might by “Coke” as a keyword if I was selling “Pepsi” because it’s direct competition, but more often than not if I buy “coke” chances are really pretty good that I sell Coke in one form or another. Want something else to think about, we all complain about crazy JS redirects through “.EDU” sites for terms like [buy Viagra] but when things work the way they are supposed to you’re almost certainly going to end up at a website that is selling Viagra. So when Google kills those results do they really have their users best interests at heart? I think it’s slightly more self serving on Google’s part, as they are really attempting to counter the perception that their ranking algo can’t be easily manipulated, because letting people who search for “buy viagra” get to a site that sells Viagra would seem to me to really be in the users best interests.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
You raise a very good point Joshua, but I think in terms of a viagra site, its not really in the best interests of their users to be buying it online, because chances are its either a scam or its coming from south of the boarder and therefore may not be safe to take. Something like med’s should be brought through a doctor and a pharmacy.
But in terms of what they are doing I think they are doing the best with what they have got and they can’t always please everyone but have been doing a pretty good job and not pissing the majority off.
Thanks for that link too, its a good read.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Oops…GrAywolf!
July 9th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I wonder if this type of ‘narcing’ has anything to do with John Chow’s site dropping out of the top spots for ‘make money online.’ He had a good scam going for a while, but someone must have reported his abuse.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
John Chow does make money online AND helps you learn how to make money online while he does it.
This is a bad move on Google’s part, I’m sure of it. They’ve created the system they now fight against. Nobody would game Google if they couldn’t be gamed.
This is just a weak play, in my opinion.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:44 am
@Joshua
What do you mean gamed?
I think that anyone artifically inflating their pagerank etc deserves what they get. It’s like a clip I saw on youtube where someone was cheating at a LAN and they smashed his PC and beat him up, thats what you get….
July 10th, 2007 at 1:46 am
Not everyone is a “SEO Expert” so for Google to level the playing field the only option is bring everyone down to the same level. SEO as a trade is very unpredictable anyways! SEO Experts are like the dodgy car dealer of IT.
July 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Great article from SEOMoz on this subject!
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/paid-links-can-you-rank-well-without-them
July 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am
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