How to Profit from Google’s War on Paid Links
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or so, Google has recently kicked it’s war on paid links into high gear. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, pause for a minute and go read a couple of articles on this extensive list. No seriously, it’s ok, we’ll wait…
Ok, so now that everyone has been treated to a healthy dose of FUD, let me explain a few things to you. First of all, yes, if you openly sell links on your site and Google finds out about it, they will likely punish you. This had been under debate for a while, I’ve always told people to go ask John Chow, but it’s now official. In fact, Google went even further and dropped the visible page rank scores for several sites such as Mr. Chow’s, Andy Beard’s, and plenty of others. However, contrary to what Google would have you believe, they can’t detect all or even most of the paid links. And rather than following the crowd and kowtowing to the all-mighty G, this is a great chance to zig when everyone else is zagging. Rather than allowing this recent flurry of activity by Google and the mass panic among bloggers and website owners to worry you, view it as an opportunity for you to increase the amount of money you make online.
Of course that brings us to the question of the hour… HOW? The answer is relatively simple. Continue to sell links. With more and more website owners falling for Google’s intimidation tactics, the supply of available links is going to diminish. However, the market for those links is well established and as long as it remains beneficial to buy links (and trust me, it’s still VERY helpful to purchase links), that demand isn’t going anywhere. So, as we all learned in grade school, when the supply drops but demand stays the same, prices go up. Those of us who continue to sell links will have less competition and will be able to sell more links, charge more for the links we’re already selling, or both!
Unfortunately there is a bit more to it than just sitting back and doing nothing. You are going to have to change the WAY you sell links. First of all, don’t flaunt it. The point here is to remain under Google’s radar so if you mention selling links on your site, don’t call it that. Call them contextual ads or something more subtle. Also, don’t join any programs that publicly list their inventory. From here on out the best types of programs are going to be the ones that operate away from prying eyes or better yet, one’s people aren’t even supposed to talk about. (I’ve heard, TLA has something that fits the bill, hint hint.) Also don’t simply list paid links down the side of your site under the header of “Sponsored Links” or “Advertisers” or something like that. Work the links into your text, make them look exactly like any other link you’d drop on your site. Besides, those types of links carry the most SEO value so you’ll be doing your customers a favor.
The biggest problem link sellers are going to have to overcome will be advertisement. One of the nice things about the link broker sites was that they brought advertisers and publishers together in one place. However, I would expect to see more sites cropping up that offer private methods of doing the same thing without risking exposure. Also, publicize your advertising and when someone contacts you, mention that you also offer links. If you have more than one site, when someone contacts you about purchasing advertising or links on one site, mention that you have a network of sites that you’d be willing to place links on. Place listings in different marketplaces mentioning you sell links but don’t include your site(s) URL. Post links for sale in webmaster forums but again, force interested parties to contact you before divulging what you’re offering. Put a message at the end of your advertising page that explains you offer other advertising options with details available upon request.
With large numbers of bloggers and webmasters dropping out of the link market due to these new Google measures, you may very well be able to add to your monthly profits when everyone else is losing a source of income. By standing apart from the crowd, you can pad your bottom line and even INCREASE link sales, you just need to be smart about it, and remain under the radar. Good luck, and if you’re looking to buy any text links, email me, I might know a guy 😉
Since I have just started my site I have realized that instead of google ads, it is almost better to get with someone like LinkShare or CommissionJunction, or AfffilateFuture, and pick and choose what companies you want to advertise on your site. This way you can better target the people you think are going to go to your site. Just my .02, and who the hell am I.
I like your point of view. I’m curious to see how my income from links I “don’t sell” to “my friends” is going to evolve. So far I didn’t manage to sell almost anything, and I started to wonder what other sites have that mine doesn’t. Now I’ve got an unexpected answer: they have a penalty
You have a good point. But this applies only to people who already have certain amount of regular visitors and could really take the benefit from taking this, I would agree with you, very small risk. Startup bloggers, like I am, still should worrie about other things.
Great article though.
Ognjen, what do you mean it only applies to people with regular visitors? Once your blog is up and indexed there is going to be a market for your links. Now you might not get much for them, but you’d be able to sell them, I’m almost certain of it.
I don’t think that startup bloggers, like I am, whose blogs are just being developed, should play with those things, until they become large enough to see if its good for them or not. I think, thus very small, there is risk involved to loose your google account. Even your [ben’s] blog gets more money from other sources, for some bloggers, Google AdSense might become major source of income, and in that case, lost of AdSense account would be a lost of money for them. My point is that it’s maybe too early for startup bloggers to concern these kinds of things, and any income they could might get or loose with this is negligible.
Ahh, I’m with you now. A couple of points to address here. Certainly every blogger should take their own approach and do what they think is right for their site/blog. However, Google’s AdSense team and their Search team usually act as two separate entities. For example, John Chow got beatten down by Google in their rankings. He doesn’t even rank for his own name anymore. However, they didn’t ban him from AdSense. While he’s obviously a large blogger, I don’t think Google would ban anyone for selling links on their site. What gets people banned is click fraud (whether real or perceived).
Also, in terms of ads on a young blog, I think link sales is actually one of the least obtrusive monetization methods and could be done from very early on. However, in the end, as I said, everyone has to go with what they think will work best for their site or blog.
Good comment Ognjen, thanks for the feedback!
No!
Thank you for spending some time to discuss with me.
I’m still learning and this means very much to me.
Goog article Ben, well written and very informative.
google and text links issue was a pain for most blogger
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The only problem with this strategy is you’ll cancel out a lot of advertisers who want their PRs raised.
They may come to your site and think all the traffic you’re getting is social media (that it’s pretty much worthless).
That will probably be the case if Google punishes you for selling links. Not much search engine traffic.
I’m one of those guys who has developed a secure system for buying and selling links. Your views are right on.
I’m amazed that no one created a system for this a year and half ago.
@ Jason, I don’t see how it would cancel out a lot of advertisers interested in PR. The entire point of this article was to discuss ways to go about selling links that continue to pass Page Rank.
Also, your comment seems to suggest that there are only two types of traffic and that’s simply not the case. Not only is social media traffic far from “worthless”, but there are plenty of other sources for traffic. If you depend solely on Google for your traffic you are just asking for trouble.