Marcia - 11:38 pm on Oct 8, 2006 (gmt 0)

>>All were placed as a condition of getting listed on several 'authority' sites in my industry.

It's probably safe to assume that if they gave you a "normal" link they'd expect a "normal" link back as the condition. The "nofollow" is actually withholding recommendation for the site linked to, it's hard to imagine that being the case with authority sites sending over 50% of your traffic.

If you get caught playing tricks on the deal and not keeping your end of the agreement, you could not only lose over 50% of your traffic, but get yourself marked as a "cheat" and lose highly valuable links that could mean your PR dropping, not only now but in time to come.

If you don't want outbound links on the homepage, then write and be honest or pay - but don't try to pull a fast one, hoping that you won't get caught.