need help evaluating ad offer

advertiser wants me to host text link

[richards1052]

An text link advertiser has offered me $75/mo. to host a text link on a single page of my blog site. He says he doesn't care where on the page the link appears and doesn't even care if it's invisible.

I'm guessing he's trying to raise the visibility of his own sites which would be linked in my blog. This clearly isn't traditional advertising. But is it kosher? And what damage might I do to my own site if I accept such ads?

I just wonder whether there are any issues here I need to consider. The price seems OK to me though I have no idea what the going rate for this type of link sale should be. Let me know if this price seems off to you.

Since I've never dealt w this company before how does one generally arrange for payment? Do you get paid through Paypal & then add the link to your site to ensure everything's on the up & up?

[purplecape]

Is this someone you would even consider linking to if not paid? Would you actually run away from linking to them if not paid? And how much traffic does that page get? Is it currently earning from other sources? $75 could be a great price for a page getting few visits and if the link is to a relevant site, but a terrible price for a heavily visited page and if the link is to a junk site.

I've received offers like this. They've either involved sites I would never want to link to on my own, or sites that seem OK but that just aren't paying much--my rule of thumb is that they have to replace my current AdSense income from that page plus 50%, because I don't want TWO ads where before I had only one, and this involves extra effort on my part.

[richards1052]

He doesn't care where the link is placed. He's willing to place it on the page of an individual blog post (not even the main page).

But I do think the sites he may be advertising are what you & I would call junk sites full of advertising but little real content.

Many of his sites are in Italian so I don't even think he wants my readers to visit his sites (esp. since he's said the links can be invisible to my readers). This is purely a way to pump up his Google rankings I'm guessing.

[purplecape]

I would walk away from that. Even if the link is buried somewhere, so that my visitors weren't affected, I would be concerned that that link could send the wrong message to Google about YOUR site.