Comments on: Dubious Behaviour from a Link Sales Site

by: Kirsty

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:48:27 +0000

Maybe this is the start of the internet ’selling out’ so to speak? So far I think it’s been relatively ad free when compared to the onslaught we face every day when we turn on the TV, radio or walk out the front door.

It makes sense for companies to want to advertise within a site’s content but I’m not sure it sits well with me. I wonder how many people have signed up to this. I wonder if there’s any way of even knowing.

by: Matty

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:01:04 +0000

i much prefer to have total control over what links are going into my site - if it’s an adsense block, you can make it fairly obvious to the reader that these are google adverts, but just as you’ve said, with these text links, i’d not be very happy with it looking like i was recommending some site i’ve probably never even heard of.

by: Beijing

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 11:29:27 +0000

You are going to see this more and more with how G changed their link selling policies.

by: Susan

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:19:43 +0000

Thanks for the heads up- I think I might have signed up with them. But then again they were kind of sleezy anyways I might have to cancel that account. Also, I never got it straightened out quite right to go on my site…

by: Nath

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:42:39 +0000

Well, it all sounds a bit iffy to me. My initial gut reastion is that it seems a pretty underhand way of going about business - I think it betrays the trust of the reader and would also completely ruin the credibility of the blog and in turn the blog’s author. If I thought a site was writing purely for dollars (literally) I would start to question every single post they wrote. ie - is this genuine advice or is it simply posted with the ulterior motives of simply scooping in more cash?

I dare say I wouldn’t stay in my reader for long.

Also, i think that that it would be all to easy for a blog authot to trash their site in this quest for this new type of ad revenue. Principles would start going out the window and a person using this kind of scheme would have sold out before they new it.

I don’t mean to sound riteous, as we all welcome a bit of cash to cover hosting etc, but you have to question the ethics of this kind of advertising. I don’t know, maybe I’m being a bit hard line on this, but if you don’t consider your readers (who, lets face it, are the main factor that determines whether your blog is popular or not) the number one priority then a website will surely sink without a trace. And what’s the point in writing if there is no-one there to read it and gain peasure from it? And also from a payment point of view, if no one visits then there IS no ad revenue.

Like you, I don’t think I’d want to support an organisation sporting such sneaky, underhand tactics.

by: Cecilia

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:57:08 +0000

To monetize or not to…that is a M$ question. I hate gambling, and that’s exactly how I feel now. Or, maybe I’m just exaggerating since I can’t even make the affiliates work. I thought I knew how to follow directions(sometimes) but when it gets to the end, and the last step says ‘copy’ and ‘paste to your website’…then, it doesn’t do that–holy guacamole!

But, I’ll keep paying attention to what everybody is talking about so when I stumble upon something similar…hopefully I won’t feel I’ve floated into another universe. It’s an eye-opener to all the ‘fun’ things you can learn after fifty.

by: Lissie

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:12:30 +0000

I think these in context links are far from perfect too - I was reading a blog that was using linkedin sp? and every time they said something like tours or adventures it linked to “appropriate” content - all fine except the blog was about Sydney and the links were all US content duh!

by: David Wilson

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:09:48 +0000

I had the exact same experience with I think the same company. I looked at the words that people were buying and they had nothing to do with the post that I was writing about.

David