Text Link Ads - Some Questions

What are you Paying for When You Buy a Text Link Ad?

[Dominic_X]

Firstly I want to open up a general can of worms on this - i.e. how's it worked out for anyone who has done it.

But more specifically my gripe as an observer is (never paid - never will = can't afford it).....

Why don't they tell you how many total links there are on the page? Surely people value a link from a PR7 with 80 links (internal or external) and a PR7 with 25 links... very differently.

How can you promote the same pages on equal footing and only reveal that they 'only have 5 advertising links per page.' How does that tell you anything?

In real life we are talking PR and links from many different sites - thats what people will pay for if they know their head from a hole in the ground... why don't they tell you how many links are on the page and break it down to internal and external? What are they hiding? How hard is it to detail such a critical factor?

...what are the other issues involved...

[keywordguru]

I see it as a way to keep PR a strong lead while in theory the site with a high PR may be nothing more than an inflation.

I've seen these "Link Sellers" inflate websites up to PR7's and PR8's all day in less than 6 months and then turn around and sell the links for hundreds a month.

The concept is actually quite easy while it just takes a little cash to start.

Want a PR7 or PR8? A few thousand for a few months and you'll have it! Its just a matter of, will PR still work the same in the months to come?
KG

[Matt Probert]

We offer various text link adverts. The best form, bought direct from us, are a solitary text link following a specific piece of data about a topic. The link then reads "More information at <link>", which are very popular with the readers. They have just been reading about an item, it is quite plausible they may wish to visit another site about/or to buy the item.

The other type of text links we carry are Google and Adbrite. These are blatant adverts, often unrelated to the topic being presented and as such have a very low CTR.

Matt

[hbirnbaum]

Why pay when you can get them for free? Many many web masters will trade links with you, if your site offers decent original content. Sometimes, that isn't even important if you have decent PR.

Try a link directory like DMOZ or Yahoo. You can also try automated link swapping services or a varitety of other services for instantly swapping links. Just beware of link farms, as these can hurt you.

There are plenty of ways to get high pr links without buying it. PR isn't everything when it comes to ranking anymore anyway...

[edited by: martinibuster at 2:33 am (utc) on Dec. 24, 2004]
[edit reason] No url's please, not even spelled ones. Thanks. ;) [/edit]

[georgeek]

Why pay when you can get them for free?

Time - you can get a 100,000 links in a day.

PR isn't everything

Very true - when buying text links site-wide a high deep link ratio makes all the difference in my experience.

[edited by: martinibuster at 6:43 pm (utc) on Dec. 18, 2004]
[edit reason] No url's please. Thanks. [/edit]

[jdancing]

One-way links on a high PR homepage have a lot more power than a swapped link buried on a "Links" page. However, now-a-days it is next to impossible to get one-way links for free from a good relevant site unless you pay an advertising fee.

Advertising costs money. Google doesn't give adwords away free and high traffic sites won't put my banner up for free. Bummer.