Re: Did anyone else get this dubious request?

**D* G* <d*@gmail.com>**

Hey JF .Doug had his head down and was working.... (he does it every now and
then)
I get this article submission stuff all the time on all my sites.  It's
considered a form of "marketing" and generating incoming links to a site.
 You can see it mechanized at article-marketing sites such as
ezinearticles.com

Inbound links are considered to be one form of currency of the Net - and one
way to get them is to offer a "free article" in exchange for one.  You also
get folks who want to buy them and we've had that discussion.  If you really
want to see whether she's interested in doing it - simply tell her the link
will contain a "nofollow" tag.  That pretty much ends the discussion right
there and then.  Google doesn't follow "nofollow" tags so the link has no
value other than from somebody clicking on the link.

I would accept guest posts from somebody in the garden writing area or
somebody of related-experience who wanted to create a conversation and had
an idea  - but my .02 (and I understand it differs from others on this list)
is that I'm not interested in this kind of article-submission process.  So
folks on this list would be welcome - but somebody with an unrelated website
would be viewed with a great deal of suspicion given how the link-article
process tends to work.

But if you believe her - then it's your call,  your website.  And if you
think she's genuine, then please help her.

Somebody asked about Google's response (sorry,it's a long thread and I'm
only on my second cup of coffee)   You are never penalized for incoming
links from any site.  You are however penalized if you link out to a site of
dubious reputation.  So if you have a Google Page Rank of 5 and link out to
a site with a PR of 0, then that site gains something and you "might" lose
some scoring depending on that site's overall ranking and reputation with
Google.  This is why you always want to make sure you're linking out to
something consistent with the theme or content in your post/blog to a site
that creates real value if one of your visitors clicked on the link.  My
rule of thumb is, "would I want to go there?".  (insert creepy music) Google
knows what evil lies in the bad link (end creepy music). :-)  I never look
at the PR of a site if I want to link out and if I think it creates value
for my reader.

Bottom line - you get to make your own call on it.

Having said that, there has to be another cup of coffee out there somewhere.

Doug

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 10:57 PM, Betty Mackey <BettyMackey@verizon.net>wrote:

> I appreciate Shauna's comment.
>
> Back in my earlier days as a young mother and writer I was a freelancer for
> a business weekly,

-- 
Doug Green @douggreen
Editor-in-Chief
SGF Publishing  www.simplegiftsfarm.com
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