When your blog becomes established, there are multiple streams to generate income including Google Adsense and alternative CPC programs, direct advertising and many others. Perhaps you’ve been contacted by some marketing agents who want to place an advert on one of your blog posts for their clients and wondering how you should go about it. Selling links on your blog post is a cool way to make money off your blog but there are certain misconceptions about this. Some bloggers believe it’s a bad practice and you’ll probably get penalized by Google but wait a minute, are you gonna tell Google you sold links on your posts?
However there are certain things you should know before you go about selling links on your blog anyhow and to anybody, it may cost you a lot more than you were paid. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it (I do it like all the time) but there are certain precautions to take.
How much should you charge for links sold on your posts?
It’s all about the money, right? Yeah, that’s right and when it comes to how much you should charge, you may probably get confused. What you should charge depends on a lot of factors:
i. Alexa Rank: a lot of advertisers put so much importance on this because the better your Alexa rank, the higher your blog’s market value. Some advertisers believe Alexa ranking can be used as a direct measure of your traffic and they hope to get a good CTR and more visits to their sites from your traffic.
ii. Google Page Rank: While some advertisers are after your traffic, others are looking for nothing but some link juice. The higher your page rank, the more desperate they are to have their link appear on your website.
iii. Advertisers Budget: No matter how good looking your site is in terms of ranking, a marketing agent can’t spend beyond his / her client’s budget. You should put this into consideration when negotiating the amount to be paid.
iv. Your initial price: Even if the advertiser plans to spend $300 on advertising on your blog, once you sell yourself cheap and ask for $100, you lose $200 without knowing it. It’s also the same if the advertiser plans to spend $100 and you ask for $500, you’re definitely going to scare the advertiser away.
The amount you should charge varies and you must be considerate and reasonable when negotiating. I’ve sold a link for the price of $300 per year on a post and I’ve also sold for $180 on another post. Like I mentioned, taking the four points above into consideration and the example of how much I charge on a post should give you a clue on how you should respond.
Is it safe to sell links on your blog posts?
It is safe but a lot depends on you and if you’re the greedy and careless type, you’ll probably regret it. Before you sell links on your website, you must first be sure that the site you’re linking to is legal. If you run Google Adsense on your blog, there are certain categories of sites you must not link to else, your Adsense account will be endangered. Such sites include but are not limited to the following:
- Gambling sites
- Porn sites
- Ammunition websites
- BB guns or related contents
- Sites with racism, violence or related contents
Even if you’re not running Google Adsense, you should steer clear off selling links to sites that fall into this category because you’re sending your readers directly to them and your readers hold you responsible for whatever information appears on your blog. They may lose trust in you and your reputation may be damaged. I reject offers, even juicy ones. I always inspect the site I’m linking to before accepting the offer. Imagine rejecting a $400 offer! Well, that’s how it goes and you’ve got to be very very careful.
You should also put Google into consideration. Linking to blacklisted sites and websites with illegal contents speaks ill about your blog in Google’s shrewd eye.It will kill your page rank and may even have it completely taken away from you. In order to do it right, you must be moderate, smart and considerate. Also, be sure of whom you’re linking to.
Do you have a different opinion on this matter? I really want to hear it.
Twitter: Donjos10
says:
Nice Tips.more to ur elbow,How can submite my site 4 alexa ranking
To make it quicker, install Alexa toolbar on your browser. Btw, thanks for dropping by.
Hi Don,
I must say that this post is really informative. Selling links on your blog posts is safe but it also depends at the same time. I like the sites that you have mentioned where selling links is not a safe thing to do. Thanks for sharing such an informative post with us!!
You’re welcome, Aditi. Glad you found the post useful.
Twitter: jide_ogunsanya
says:
Great info there and as a contribution, the link most be related to the post in which the link will be embedded. Won’t make sense placing a link to an sms site on a post talking about editing html.
You did not explain how to know if the site has been blacklisted. Explain bro. Also, selling links on new posts and old posts, which one do you think is safer?
I think both are safe
Derek Odum recently posted..Top 10 Must Have Blackberry Apps
good question Jide, wanted to ask that.
ahmed onawale recently posted..How To Root Sony Xperia P With Advance Stock Kernel
Twitter: Questechie
says:
Definitely, Jide that’s a good point, as your readers are human and once the link does not agree with the given post, that will raise a flag. Bots too are getting more human-like (semantic search technology) and before long unrelated links will amount to trash!
Concerning backlisted sites, there are handful of online tools that can shed more lights on that. As to older post, I guess editing older posts may not be SEO friendly (also, post may become duplicate on RSS syndicating platforms).
John Onwuegbu recently posted..Twitter Hits Developers with API Restrictions
Twitter: ElevatedBlog
says:
Jide, God bless you. I was about asking him how one is going to know a blacklisted site.
Don keep the flag flying!
Twitter: paschalt
says:
nice tips i support the motion jide put up so don clear us
paschal recently posted..how to get 3years domain name at cost of one year domain
I really do wanna know how i can check if a website has been blacklisted.
Shed more light on this.
Derek Odum recently posted..Getting Traffic With Pinterest
i see that @Caprio
Sites blacklisted for malwares, spam and other reasons may harm your reputation with search engines negatively. A good way to check is by using http://blacklistalert.org/
They offer a service that checks a site against over 30 spam and malware blacklists.
Don Caprio recently posted..7 Reasons Why Your Google Adsense Earning is Low
Twitter: jide_ogunsanya
says:
I tired the link but from the results, can’t see anyone to prove it confirms if a site has been blacklisted by Google. You dig?
Jide Ogunsanya recently posted..MTN Smooth Talk Migration Code
I was talking about sites blacklisted for malwares, spywares and spam, bro, not by Google particularly. But in most cases, Google safe browsing gives a warning about these websites.
Twitter: mavtrevor
says:
What plugin can one use to make all external links nofollow because if i will be selling links i wont share my link juice with you and also send you traffic, you gotta chose one and i only intend to send you traffic and keep my link juice even if it is spilling over.
Twitter: xlimderek
says:
I think one can get that with rel=”nofollow”
Derek recently posted..Top 10 Must Have Blackberry Apps
Twitter: jide_ogunsanya
says:
Don’t try it bro. You need to follow some links ( not the links you are paid for). I mean links to related blogs or posts. There must be some balance. Just my two cents
Jide Ogunsanya recently posted..MTN Smooth Talk Migration Code
Twitter: xlimderek
says:
Yeah you are right
Some balance shud be there
Been there done that
Derek recently posted..5 Steps for Branding through Social Media
Tanks for the tip boss.
Emeka Kamanda recently posted..Adding Stylish Share Buttons to Your Blogger/Wordpress Blog’s Post
Thanks for sharing this post. I’ve been looking into this topic as well trying to figure out how will Google know other than hosting an advertisement page. Also, it seems to be a lopsided rule…. It’s okay to sell banners? but not okay to sell links? what’s the difference? Isn’t presenting information and selling ads what media is made of? TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines (offline/online) none operate free of ADS. Also, why is it okay for Google to sell text links, but not web owners? Things that make you say Hmmmmm!!
Crystal Watts recently posted..Free WordPress Website & 1 Year Free Hosting Giveaway!
Google makes the rules and it seems we have to live with that for a very long time to come. Seriously, this got me thinking if people will be penalized for those normal links in guest posts’ author bio.
I’m getting a lot of offers and I’m turning them down
Chad Agrawal recently posted..Going To Community College? Eliminate Distractions To Study Better
I do turn offers down too, but not all
But Matt said that there is no point in buying and selling links
http://pagearabia.co/6971.html
links sell recently posted..موقعك وبيع وشراء الروابط النصية
Twitter: trueinternet
says:
I have got a couple of link deals from my blog but have not approved any because of the links they present are not related to my blog niche.
samuel recently posted..Media.Net : Got My First Payment From Yahoo/Bing Contextual Advertising Network
Twitter: seojus1
says:
Hey Don,
Great post you have here. I think that people usually just check the PageRank of a site and determine that they want a link there. There are many other factors to consider and you did a great job highlighting them. Although alexa rank does not impact rankings, it will tell you if it is likely that your actual link will have visibility to actual visitors, or if it is just a link to pass juice. Check out my blog when you get a chance.
Justin
Justin recently posted..Setting Up A High PR Domain
Hi Justin,
I think they mostly look at the PageRank, Alexa isn’t that important to most of them. I did check your website just now and left an inquiry on one of your posts. You doing a great job, Justin.
Twitter: harounkola
says:
I’m a first time visitor to your blog. Nice article, thanks for the tips. My site is finally getting enough traffic, and PageRank and advertisers are starting to contact me…
Haroun Kola recently posted..TD Charitable Foundation Surpasses $100 Million in Grants to Non-Profit Organizations
Hi Haroun,
Thanks for visiting. Wish you all the best!
Twitter: harounkola
says:
Bless you Don Caprio, looking forward to reading more of your posts. Thanks for the welcome.
Haroun Kola recently posted..The Youth Employment Index – encouraging corporate SA to invest in our youth!
Twitter: JamiuOloyede
says:
@Don, thanks for these tips on how to sell links on a blog. I do get offers on my PR 2 BLOG but i usually turn them down.
Now i want to ask you a question, Is it good SEO wise to edit my earlier post on my blog?
May be i think they are not well written or i forgot to link them internally with other posts or i wanna add images e.t.c.
Thanks, Don.
oloyede jamiu recently posted..Top 10 Technology Topics that Bloggers are Blogging about in 2013
Of course, it’s alright to edit them, make some changes that would have positive impact and then ping them to notify search engines about the implemented changes.
Twitter: JamiuOloyede
says:
@don, thanks for the quick reply.
Twitter: princeerafe
says:
thanks i believe selling link is also a great way to make money online, thanks for sharing don
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