No Comments Written by Robert on August 12, 2008 – 9:43 am

Perhaps more heated than the debate on paid blogging is the debate on the ethics of selling text links. The debate is based upon the belief that advertisers buy links in an effort to manipulate Google’s search-engine algorithm that analyzes back links to rank Web sites.

Despite countless hours of debate, many Web site owners find that selling links is an efficient way to monetize their Web site traffic. Sites like Text-Link-Ads serve as a connection between link buyers or publishers and link sellers or advertisers.

Once you become a publisher on Text-Link-Ads, advertisers can purchase a text link on your site; you receive 50 percent of the amount paid by the advertiser on a monthly basis. Text-Link-Ads payouts range from $2.50 to as much as several hundred dollars per link, per month. The more popular your Web site is, the more money you can charge for a text link.

You can monetize your Web site without ever having to worry about click-through rates, conversion rates, or sale percentages through simply selling text links.

Sites like Text-Link-Ads serve as a connection

Networks like Text-Link-Ads have made selling text links on your site extremely simple. These links are most commonly placed in a Web site’s sidebar, which prevents the ads from distracting the user from your page content. This fact alone is extremely attractive to many publishers who are fed up with using the standard-size banner advertisements that many affiliate programs offer. The motivation for advertisers purchasing these links varies. The most common, however, is to gain link authority and higher positions in the search-engine results.

Google’s organic ranking algorithm is strongly based on the number and quality of backlinks a Web site receives. This simple fact has caused the market value of high PageRank links to soar, and networks like Text- Link-Ads act as a middleman to take the hassle out of buying and selling these text links.

You receive a certain amount for each link an advertiser purchases on your Web site, which varies based on several factors, including your Google PageRank, your Alexa traffic rating, the number of pages the link appears on, and also the location in which the link is placed.

Generally speaking, the more powerful your site, the more you earn for selling text links. Selling links through Text-Link-Ads is simple. Just sign up for an account, specify how many links you want to sell, and insert a piece of code into your Web site. As advertisers purchase link spots on your Web site, the ads automatically appear on each page that contains the Text Link Ads code snippet.

There is much debate in the Webmaster community about selling links. Google discourages the sale of text links because it is commonly used to attempt to “manipulate” the search results at Google.com. Google has responded to this growing trend by filtering the purchased links from PageRank.

In theory, this would remove any SEO value from purchasing text links. This is a factor to consider when making the decision to sell links on your page. Many Webmasters have responded negatively to Google’s actions, claiming that the search giant is attempting to control the way Web publishers monetize their Web sites outside of Google AdSense. Examine the facts, and make the decision on selling links based on your Web site needs and goals.

Text-Link-Ads acts as a middleman in the link buying/selling process, connecting publishers to advertisers. As payment for their role in the transaction, Text-Link-Ads currently take 50 percent of all transactions. This means that as a publisher, if a link on your Web site sells for $20, you receive $10. A more profitable method is to find advertisers on your own and negotiate prices; however, that method is much more labor intensive.

Sell Links through TextLinkBrokers.com

An alternative to Text-Link-Ads is the popular link broker network TextLinkBrokers. TextLinkBrokers offers a link selling feature that is similar to Text-Link-Ads and other networks. One of the factors that recently set TextLinkBrokers apart from the pack is the addition of hosted marketing pages. This is a step up from just buying a link; you actually rent a page on someone else’s Web site.

For the purposes of buying links, many search-engine marketing experts suggest that the Hosted Marketing Pages program is incredibly effective. Additionally, hosted marketing pages allow you to monetize your Web site traffic with little effort other than initial placement of code on your Web site.

Recently, the topic of buying and selling text links has caused a large stir in the Webmaster community. Google has taken a strong stance against buying links, thus making discretion on the part of link-brokering networks a must. One leader in discretely buying and selling links is Text Link Brokers, located at www.textlinkbrokers.com. Founded in 2003, Text Link Brokers allows you to buy and sell links “under the radar” of the major search engines.

The ultimate goal is to allow you to buy and sell links without leaving any visible footprints that identify the link as being paid. Text Link Brokers has taken numerous steps toward making sure that its link services remain footprint free.

Another precaution Text Link Brokers has taken is a careful review of each potential link buyer and seller prior to acceptance into the network. This helps to ensure that your Web site is never penalized for linking to a “bad neighborhood,” a low-quality site that the search engines have deemed untrustworthy. Linking to a bad neighborhood or low-quality site is one of the most common worries of publishers thinking about selling links on their Web site.

This large level of security acts as a comfort to link buyers. By now, it is widely known that purchasing high-quality links can greatly increase your rank in the search engines. However, the search engines may end up filtering an obviously paid link, thus providing zero SEO benefit for your Web site.

Keep in mind that in addition to algorithmic detection of paid links, major search engines including Google allow anyone (your competitors, for example) to report Web sites that buy or sell paid links. Therefore, you must carefully consider the risks and rewards before buying or selling links from any network, including Text Link Brokers.

Text Link Brokers currently does not accept any Web site that has a Google PageRank of less than 4. This means that you must wait until your Web site gains a PageRank of 4 or higher before you can even apply to its program to sell text links on your Web pages.

This may take some time, but the wait allows you ample opportunity to grow your Web site content before you monetize it. If your Web site is at least a PR4, there are a few options for monetization with Text Link Brokers.

The first is the traditional link inventory. Your site is included in the database and made available to advertisers looking to purchase links. The second option lies in Text Link Brokers’s hosted marketing pages. With the Hosted Marketing Pages program, an advertiser pays you, the publisher, to add an additional Web page to your Web site.

The additional Web page often contains numerous links which the advertiser specifies. This second method enables you to make far more revenue from your site than just selling links. The fact that hosted marketing pages provide higher-quality links for the advertiser dictates a significantly higher price tag than normal text links.