Advertising Off-line
Before I start I know everyone has an opinion about paid links. I guess I should share mine. Not a fan and this is why. If I open up a bookstore I may pay for a few radio ads a week. As a result in purchasing advertisement my bookstore’s presence will soon become known to the community. So the next few months I buy 5 billboard placements around town and the following month I move onto T.V advertising. As I continue growing my advertising campaign throughout the city my ranks as an authority in my industry will grow. Could you imagine putting a bunch of money and working hours into an advertising stratedy, suddenly you wake up one morning and nobody knows you. If a business moves up in the ranks in the real world and it’s products happens to be bogus, the company will soon earn a bad reputation “rank” and go out of business.
Advertising Online
So why should it be any different online? I think paid links should be seen as a positive thing. If the owner of the company is paying for advertising, that means the owner probably believes the product or service can serve others well. Just like off-line, if a bad website moves up the ranks, it’s only a matter of time before good related companies and search engine staff begin flagging it to be banned. Instead of placing so much focus on those who pay for links, put more effort into developing more ways to spot Company’s using bad practices. Think about our current economy. Is placing fear in the hearts of hard working bloggers and web advertisers a good idea. I know there are several bad seeds out there and penalizing paid links has now became the solution. I personally hope a better solution will come along which will give bloggers piece of mind.
Blog Post Advertising
Thousands of blogs have been hit hard for selling links within posts. Some play it smart and keep the advertiser as well as their own rank in mind when posting a paid link within a freshly written post. However, there are blogs who dont place to much thought into how to advertise for a company purchasing a post link. There are a few companies out there who play as the middle man in connecting advertisers with blog publishers for post advertising. The results are a hit and miss, when it comes to how natural the text link appears. If the link looks like a paid link, you now run the risk of a search engine staff members coming across it and penalizing the blog for selling and the advertiser for buying.
