Offer Permanent Contextual Linking
With text link networks under fire and causing angst among webmasters everywhere, there are still ways for publishers to sell text advertising without relying on networks and with little risk of ‘paid link detection’.
This method works especially web for bloggers, but can apply to content on any website.
The idea: Offer to hyperlink specific phrases within articles or content. Offer permanent content links for a one-time fee. For a small website, you could offer a bundle of links for a set price, such as 5 links for $25 or $50 dollars. For the publisher, it’s easy money with no further commitment. For the advertiser, it provides inexpensive permanent backlinks.
The publisher can offer particular pages or sections that they are willing to backlink, and the advertiser can select what phrases they want linked and where. Sometimes the content may need to be tweaked a bit to get the proper phrasing in place. This can be worked out during the negotiation process.
In many cases, it’s better to sell links from older content that is already backlinked from other outside sources.
The key is that the paid links should be contextual. If an article is about buying commercial real estate, paid link should be a related term, such as ‘commercial real estate’ that links to a website or web page about commercial real estate. It’s better to reject inappropriate advertising than potentially compromise your search engine standings for a few dollars.
Tips: Only sell one or two links per page. Do not repeat the link throughout every instance of the term on a page. Do not employ the same text link phrase sitewide. And most important, make sure the contextual links are in the body of the content.
There are many ways Google can spot paid links. And whether paid links are evil or not is up for debate. Done properly, offering links through the above method is virtually undetectable.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
So many people are scared of selling their own links now. This is a good idea though, I am embarrassed to say selling them w/o a network rather freaks me out too though LOL
October 10th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
The Web Ad Classifieds site is intended to make the process more streamlined and help connect webmasters and advertisers. Having privately sold web ads, I’d actually be MORE scared of using a network to place ads due to the loss of control and the fact that these ad networks will inevitably be discovered.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
[…] such a way as to avoid detection. That is why this technique works particularly well when creating permanent paid links. Save and […]