The topic of the ethics on buying text links has been beaten to death because at the end of the day, we all know that buying text links work whether search engines like it or not. Therefore, I am not going to discuss whether you should buy text links or not but instead I wanted to open up a decision on the ideal ways to actually go about buying text links. If I were to buy text links, here is how I would do it:
1.) First, I would find all the related blogs that would be willing to sell me a text link for a one-time fee (I hate paying monthly fees). You can usually find these blogs by doing searches on blog search engines or by browsing sites like ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews, and PayPerPost.
2.) Next, I would eliminate all the blogs that throw up red flags. In most cases this means blogs that have big banners for any paid blog networks such as PayPerPost or blogs that contain tons bad quality blog posts. I personally only like purchasing links from non-spammy sites because the links usually count.
3.) After I generated a solid list I would go through the remaining blogs and figure out who would link to me WITHOUT disclosing that it was a paid review. In most cases if you go through paid blog networks like Blogsvertise you can request that there is no disclosure on any of the paid blog reviews. I know this is a bit sleazy, but the last thing I would want is a Google engineer saying they have proof that I buy text links and then penalize/ban my website.
4.) Lastly, I would try and only purchase small amounts of links at a time. A good idea would be to blend the paid links in with social media links so that the growth looks natural. Plus, when growing the links slowly it is easier to control/rotate up the anchor text because if it is too rich your rankings will usually drop. Sounds weird but Google probably stops tons of spammers this way because when people’s ranking drop they keep on purchasing more text links with the same anchor text and never figure out why they rankings keep on dropping.
There are tons of other ways you can link build, but when it comes to purchasing text links this is the process I would use. How do you purchase text links?
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I’m a fan of TLA actually, based on their stringent quality control and ease of use.
good advice, thanks mijo.
Some great tips. Thanks a bunch, Neil.
Steve
Good tips. I prefer getting to know the owners of the blogs, and offering something in return. It doesn’t always have to be money. (Tshirts, a product on whatever is being sold on my sites, a blog review exchange, blogroll exchange, etc etc).
Rather than buying text links, I prefer to spend advertising dollars in press releases, articles, directories, and the such. I would be lieing if I said I had not purchased links in the past, but from here on out, until Google has said their ultimatum, I will stick with free links, buzz, and Press releases.
I think coming over to Shoe’s site has sent Neil over to the dark side!
I’ve never bought links or payed for advertising. Nothing to do with like morals but never had the cash to do it seriously enough to make an impact. So I’d rather just get traffic by myself and build up my sites profiles individually with effort and quality. And then when I’m rich enough I will start doing some serious experiments with things like this.
spending money at directories is buying text links…
I’ve never bought links or payed for advertising. Whether Google like it or not I couldn’t care less but personally I prefer to build up momentum to my sites purely from self generated traffic. Also I don’t have the money to do it serious enough to make an impact. So I’d rather do everything straight up to know I’ve achieved it all myself. When I’m rich enough, then maybe I’ll start doing big experiments with things like this.
Personally I have never bought links. Just because I’ve never had the money to buy enough links or advertising to make an impact. I don’t care about PR only SERPs and awareness. I prefer to build purely my own traffic. When I’m rich enough, then I’ll maybe start doing big experiments with things like this.
I don’t buy links. I prefer to build my own momentum but when I’m rich enough to experiment big enough to make an impact I might.
Thanks for these tips on TLA. I have not purchased from them yet, but belong to their program and will now investigate it further.
you can say thatagain
Mr. Neil Patel you are truely a genius my friend. Thanks for all your help. Sharing is caring
…loving the quicksprout blog btw. Cheers!
I don’t buy them. I sell them. Working with bloggers privately and not through any system or network is by far the way to go, especially if the blogger is willing to work with you to construct posts around your links and make them look natural.
Sorry, I meant directories that you pay to get reviewed by. Google says if they manually check to see if the content is good, then it is not considered buying a link. Yahoo! directory is a good example of this.
I have never bought a text link as its too easy to get free backlinks if your content is good enough, though now that my company is getting a bit more funding I will be testing out buying text links, Ill probally go straight to the site owner just cause Id like to make sure they like the site being linked.
ROFL! I am just a 22 year old college student. There is no way I could be on the dark side.
at the end of the day buying links is going to be pretty hit and miss if you do it for ranking. but, if your focus is building authority. then the ranking will follow naturally.
but, you will never get a better return on investment from link buying, or even link building from directories and other places. compared to writing content that is linkable. networking. making friends. and sharing the love.
tsk, tsk. Darth VADER WAS young when he began is decent into the darkside……
Wow, thats not spam at all Mr, Nick Sullivan
Related sites with high traffic, could care less about PR.
Doesn’t necessarily have to be spam
Who needs paid links when you spam like that.
my first comment goes here.. When i just searched in google images “Adsense Check” I just come around to see the most famous photo in this blog the check image..
ohhh do you stuff the adsense money into ur shoes..!!
I dot buy any links, i just have some technical promotion techniques, but i have an blog not an own domain….
Yeah I don’t buy many links either, free ones because of posts you make are always better
buying links is against google tos although i guess if your blog is popular enough you wouldnt care
It takes a serious amount of money to make an impact with buying links, I prefer the old fashion way … it’s more “natural”. Maybe I am missing out on a lot of traffic, or maybe not
Well, then in case of ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews and PayPerPost are you paying for the review as well + the actual writing of a blog post. It’s a hell of a lot more work than the Yahoo! guys are doing and does cost a lot less money too.
Saying: Yahoo! Dir “yai” and PPP, RM or SR “nai” is hypocritical.
This (the hypocritical part) is not directed at you, but Google, but it is something for you to think about. Doing it the “Google Way” because of fear to get penalized is one thing, becoming a “Google Spokesperson” who is repeating the Google nonsense is another. I have you for that one hehe.
Cheers!
You need a better SERP result, for example an e-commerce site, it helps a lot (thats what I heard at least)
Thanks for usefull tips, i was looking looking to buy few health related sites.
I would go to TLA, it’s so much easier.
Excellent advice in this post, what is the minimum amount of time you would pay for a link, I see sales on ebay for one month text link etc., so just wondering if there is a minimum to be more effective such as one month, three months, etc.
As someone who fields these requests all the time, I would spend a little time trying to build a relationship instead of rapid firing a lot of these requests off at once.
There’s nothing wrong with buying links, it’s okay.
Neiiiiil, I am your faather. haha
Sometimes that’s not fast enough, especially if you’re doing SEO for a client. They want to see results ASAP, not slow and steady wins the race you know?
As a blogger, I would have to agree; building that relationship is crucial.
Smart techniques. I don’t like text link ads anymore because their style of link inclusion seems to be targeted by Google. I have bought links before for a flat rate and everyone was happy. I got increased rankings and the blog / site owner got a few hundred dollars for a small link.
A quick and very useful post !
That last point about spammers overdoing a keyphrase is one of the most common (and repeated) traps I see nowadays
but totally is based on monthly invoicing. booo
says you. I’m more concerned with what web spam engineers say.
keep in mind you’re paying monthly for your links to stay up there.
Great blog! If you are looking for a company to help with your link building, you should check us out here at LinkWorth. We have just recently launched some new products as well:)
Looks like he doesn’t need help from anyone.
You’re right he could just have a diminished memory;)
Link inclusion is what i am worried about actually.
I liked the #3 point and also the advice of mixing the paid links with social media links.
Also, I ask the advertisers to replace the text like “Sponsors”, “Advertisements” to an image with empty alt tag. Most of the times, not only they implement them but also thank me for it.
TLA is good, but if you can build up a blog with a high readeship, direct sales almost always work better
Pay per Post is the most amazing in terms of providing you quality links. I got 10% traffic coming from the site. Considering my site is only more than a week old but I have considerably gained traffic from them
Nicely done, i still like that facbook trick to make money
I haven’t used PPP for any campaigns yet, but I am very impressed with what I’ve read about them and with their setup after logging in. It’s nice to be able to restrict eligible sites by PR and Alexa ranking – ensures you’re getting value for your links. I may have to start a campaign with them soon. Thanks for sharing your experience.
So what’s the key in building a relationship with those people you’re trying to get links from? Just trying to have a mutually beneficial relationship?
realy nice article. I’m preffer text link for a one-time fee also!
Personally, I buy a great number of links. But I only use TLA as they are harder to track on the websites I link with. I don’t see anything wrong with buying links. Buying links has helped one my websites bring in considerable money this season.
Some great tips. Thanks
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how about paying for guest posts where you link back to your own site?
let me know if you’re interested in those – haha.
I’ve become a total advertising whore.
I’ve resorted to selling anchor links on my sites. I don’t do paid reviews or paid articles, but if there’s an anchor text in one of my existing posts that strikes your fancy I’m definitely selling those!
I figured that if I can get $100 per anchor text-link and I sell 1 link per post, thats a decent enough reward for posting. And I don’t feel I’ve compromised the content of my site in anyway.
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Sometimes that’s not fast enough, especially if you’re doing SEO for a client. They want to see results ASAP, not slow and steady wins the race you know?
All links must be free, i think $)
one more tip i would add – if you are buying based (even remotely) on PageRank, check how many existing outbound links there are – and find out how many there will ultimately be.