Strategies for buying text links

[tcpn8]

So now that it has become somewhat 'mainstream' to buy text links I'm wondering what specific strategies people employ when buying text links.

Some things seem to be relatively straight forward (correct me if I'm wrong)
-vary your anchor text
-don't buy an enormous amount of links from one site
-make sure links come from on topic sites
-getting a whole bunch of PR8s to a site that has no links is probably a bad idea
etc...

I'm more interested in the nuances and hope we can get some good suggestions as well as generagl survey of different methods tha people employ.

Two areas that i would be particularly interested to here people's feedback would be:
what sort of 'buying schedule' do you use?
As well as do you mix up where your links are pointed to or do they all point to your hompeage?

Curious to hear what people think.....

tcpn8

[awall19]

>what sort of 'buying schedule' do you use?

I would say that from a business perspective you may not want to build too many recurring fee links until after you built some non recurring fee ones. (maybe rent a few links but not a bunch until other link methods are in place)

>As well as do you mix up where your links are pointed to or do they all point to your hompeage?

best to link to the most relevant page if possible.

[wheel]

I don't generally (if ever) buy links from sites that have links for sale. I tend to find them overpriced, maybe not so ontopic, and not the best of links.

Instead, I'll buy links because I've found on topic sites that I don't think would offer me a free link. So I'll offer them a few bucks for an 'ad'. Seems to work well, I can get 3 links for like $75 sometimes, and if you hit on the right place you can pick up a whack of these in a day.

[martinibuster]

wheel is thinking outside the box, good post. The paid link can be anywhere. This kind of thing should be kept as low under the radar as you can get it. So that's my strategy.

Friends don't tell friends: Avoiding Inbred Links
I happened across the donors page of an open source link directory script and recognized a cluster of names in there. I also noticed that the owner of the page had subsequently nofollowed the links that were listed on this PR 6 or 7 page, hehe. Whoops.

It's unwise, imo, to go about clustering your links with someone else's links. I keep my links as separate from the links of friends and associates as I can. So if I see clusters of links to websites I recognize, I often stay away because I want to create a map of inbound links that don't intersect with recognizable SEO IBLs.

If you find a donors page with a pr 7, it's best to keep it to yourself. Otherwise, all these great pages are going to show up all over the internet with the same gang of six listed in each one of them. Ack.

Look at who else is listed
If you see the same SEO brand names popping up in the link directories or text link pages you are considering advertising in, think twice. If those websites are already in there, that page may likely already be above the radar.

One thing I've been thinking a lot about lately is footprints, and the need not to leave any.