Link pricing

How much should we charge?

[roodle]

I run a site that is ranking pretty well on Google within its niche.
I've recently been approached by an e-commerce agency asking me about the cost of placing outbound links from this site to several of their client company sites. The companies are indirectly related to the site's theme and are all big household names.

I have absolutely no idea how much we could charge for this type of thing. Any advice would be very welcome.

Regards

[oziman]

Depends on a bunch of factors.

A lot of people go by toolbar PR as a benchmark, but I would say in the $yyy range at least just from guessing on your info.

[roodle]

Thanks for your reply.

Depends on a bunch of factors.

What are they?!

I would say in the $yyy range

Per year? Per month?

[oziman]

What goes into any link valuation?

1. Backlinks
2. Ranking
3. Authority
4. Cache Date
5. Domain Age

I could go on but I don't want to give away the secret sauce:-)

Definitely charge per month for as much as the market will bare.

[Sharpseo]

Charge a lot, because you're taking significant risks, mostly #1:

#1 - Google devaluing your outbound links, maybe even penalizing your site, loss of trustrank
#2 - You could get outranked by your link-purchasers

I would throw a really big number out there, can't hurt. But I guess it depends on how much revenue/business your site is currently bringing in.

[jakegotmail]

Charge a lot, because you're taking significant risks, mostly #1:

#1 - Google devaluing your outbound links, maybe even penalizing your site, loss of trustrank
#2 - You could get outranked by your link-purchasers

I would throw a really big number out there, can't hurt. But I guess it depends on how much revenue/business your site is currently bringing in.

Keep obvious signs of paid links off your site and you don't have anything to worry about IMO.

IE. Things you might not want to say around the links so you don't get PR passing abilities blocked:

1. The links below are Paid Links
2. Advertising
3. Sponsored Links
4. Ads
5. I don't like Matt Cutts.

etc. etc.

As far as what to charge, depending on your niche, PR, amnt of backlinks, age of domain, amnt of site traffic, anywhere from 200 bucks a year to upwards of 20+k/year on large, authoritative sites.

[roodle]

Thanks for your comments.

I'm trying to get some details out of the agent over what he wants to do exactly. He says they would just be pure text links and he's not concerned about location on the page or which page they're on.

To be honest, I don't think he's interested in PR. As I said, the companies in question are big household names. It's pure advertising he's looking for IMO.

Domain is about 3.5 years old. Traffic varies but last month we had over 3000 unique visits (nearly 4000 total). As I said, it's niche! and it's not overtly commercial, though you can enquire about services through the site. Backlinks - I would say about 50+ (quality) plus ODP clones.

[Sharpseo]

he's not concerned about location on the page

It's pure advertising he's looking for IMO.

Those don't mesh :)

[roodle]

Sharpseo, I know what you're saying, but he's apparently unconcerned about which page they links appear on as well. I admit it does sound wierd. Maybe I'm not asking him the right questions?

[steve40]

If he is not worried about location he is not interested in advertising but link from authority site / page

be careful or you could find yourself reported for selling links which could affect your authority status

ask couple of questions

what he considers major household names may not be the same as your view of a household name so ask for full details prior to negotiations.

what exactly does he want in the link
i.e.
freds shop
or
buy the very latest green widgets cheap

I would advise caution unless you can get full disclosure of what, who, why, where etc. before you proceed

as for price would also depend on what is wanted and what you are willing to accept

steve

[roodle]

When I say "household names", that's my own way of putting it. If I wrote the names here (he already told me them) and you live in the UK, you'd have heard of them both without question.

I will push him on the actual text wording and see what he says...

Is "authority" status really threatened by doing this type of thing? To be honest I can't believe the site in question is an "authority" as such. It's certainly informative, contains unique, quality content and is well optimized, but we're talking about an 80+ page niche site. Maybe it's a classic case of "quality not quantity"...

[jdancing]

The only safe links to buy and sell now are contextual text links. See if you can work the links into some extra content you add to your homepage, not only is this much safer, you can charge a premium.

Definitely stay away from placing paid links in footers and sidebars of your site.

[roodle]

Basically this agent wants to have "keyword1 keyword2" as the link to his client's site. That's it - 2 words. So I presume it will have to be worked into the text somehow anyway. I think we can do this as the company we'd be linking to is indirectly related to the site theme. Maybe we'll try 1 link and see whether Google likes the idea...

[jakegotmail]

If the link is related it doesnt matter IMO as long as you dont make it evident. I dont buy for one second that the link HAS to be in the contextual part of the site for it to do any good, or vice versa, not identify your site as selling links.