Re: web site ads

**D* G* <d*@kos.net>**

Carlo et al.

There are two answers to this question - the short form is that if you  
can't identify the reputable company - don't take the ads.  Period.

The long answer is that it has to do with google and page-rankings and  
hence search engine effectiveness for your site.  A little history  
first.  A very nice business sprang up selling links on websites - you  
put a code on your blog and they paid you depending on much of a  
google page rank  (pr)  your site had.  In my case, I was getting $20/ 
link for six links a month for not doing a darn thing.  Good deal.  I  
removed them when I moved blogs (a long story) so wasn't participating  
for round two of the story.

The companies doing this had a good deal.  They were making money hand  
over fist and so were the bloggers selling links.  A link is a form of  
Internet currency and the links and ads were relatively inexpensive  
considering how much search engine value from google each one link  
brought to the buyer.  So you paid a few hundred dollars for incoming  
links and you made a few thousand on the website the links pointed to.

Except that google was losing advertising money as well as giving  
their competitors link benefits.  You might appreciate that this is  
not in google's long term interest so their engineers figured out a  
way to identify paid links (not foolproof but good enough) and  
overnight - literally overnight - the paid link industry crashed as  
the websites with those links found their google page ranks  
approaching zero.  So - a site that may have been making 4-500 a month  
with paid links and ads found themselves making nothing having moved a  
pagerank 6 to 0 overnight.  There was/is much discussion on the Net  
about whether this also influenced traffic with some sites crashing in  
traffic and others not being influenced at all.  There was/is no  
consistency with this problem.

So - commercial sites  want inbound links.  Because these are still  
valued by google.  But publishing  site owners are now wary - who  
wants to have a lot of work google-bombed because of a few bucks a  
month for a link.   Some don't know about it and are still blithely  
selling links.

Enter the bottom feeders .  Now we routinely get requests from "pr"  
agencies asking us to sell a link.  The offers range anywhere from 5/ 
link to 75+/link for a site in the pr4 range.  A one time fee for an  
all-time link.  You get the money and take the risk that google is  
going to bomb you for that link.   This ranks up there with Nigerian  
cousins asking you to please help them get their money out of the  
country except you're getting 5 bucks upfront before you're messed  
with by google.

And endless variations on the theme abound.

   Now here's the twist that's happening for gardening sites. (see you  
thought I had forgotten there was a gardening point to all this).   A  
company approaches a blogger and says, "would you like a composter?"   
"would you like a XX garden gadget?" , " a book or video?"   All you  
have to do is review it and mention it on your site with our company  
link.   So in effect, they're buying a link on your site for the cost  
of a composter or XX garden widget.  And it's happening quite  
regularly now.    If google decides that this link is a worthless one  
- that the site in question is a spam site of some kind - those sites  
linking into it are also going to get g-bombed.  So instead of 15/ 
month, you're trading the link for a composter and running the risk of  
having the same result.  If the company is a good one ( a reputable  
publisher or other company) the risk is still there but not as much.   
And there is a way to deal with links from reputable companies that  
google loves.  Keep on reading.

Want to figure out if the offer is a genuine one or not if you don't  
know the company.  Tell 'em you only give nofollow links.  Using this  
kind of link tells the google search spiders to ignore the link and  
not count it for search engine ranking.   (for those who don't know  
what this is - you add a rel="nofollow" command just before the last >  
in the url of the link before the text component.)

    The good guys will say "OK" because they're happy with your  
recommendation and natural traffic from the  link.  The bad ones will  
wither faster than an impatiens cutting at high noon on July 4th.    I  
had one this week for a water barrel (rain spout thing) and I can  
guarantee you that after I told him the link to a commercial site  
would be a nofollow tag, I won't hear back nor get my super-duper rain  
barrel. ;-)  That rain barrel retailed off his site for 89 and  
probably cost him 10  (at most) from China.  So his cost for the link  
was around 25 with shipping etc.  Cheap link.

So thats' the long answer.  But it still ends up in the same place.   
Selling links is a fools game if you value your site or blog.   
Exchanging links between gardening sites is still fair game as you're  
linking to sites of similar value and content so don't worry about  
exchanging links with friends.

Hope that explains it well enough.

Doug

Douglas Green
Online Garden Publishing
Blog:  http://blog.douggreensgarden.com
Home: http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com

On 3-Apr-08, at 8:16 AM, carlobal@netzero.com wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I've been contacted by an individual I do not know who would like to  
> advertise on my web site. They have offered payment, but I don't  
> know anything about them or their product. I've googled what I can  
> and have come up with nothing. Does anyone have an idea of how I can  
> do a little due diligence before I question this person directly?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Carlo
>
> Carlo A. Balistrieri
> The Gardens at Turtle Point
> Tuxedo Park, NY 10987
> Zone 6  (845.351.2049)
> Visit:   www.botanicalgardening.com
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