oddsod - 7:34 pm on Feb 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

cabbie, brilliant idea!

Ignore the nay sayers, many of them are steeped in the culture of buying/selling links and in the SEO tactics of the past. While I know some webmasters here are big players, many may not be owners of the type of authority sites that could pull off this charge and can't therefore quite get their heads around the argument you make.

Terming it Blackmail SEO is a uncalled for, this is simply business. It takes time / technology to verify a linking website and charging for that is no different to, for example, Yahoo charging to evaluate your site before adding it to their directory (nobody complained about that at the time).

And why exactly are folks supposed to see this a threat?

Because having an authority site disavow your links is a slur on your site. People normally disallow links only from spammy, worthless sites and when an authority site says, effectively, that you're spammy and worthless, the Gorg might just believe them without phoning you to have a chat first. For those who are willing to take the chance, there's no problem here. It's the others who'll weigh up the potential negative effects against the token $5.

cabbie, collect a few examples of sites that didn't cough up and ended up tanking in the SERPS a few weeks/months later! :)