I want to welcome you back to Part 6 in my series of “Blogging For Cash”.

In this part, I want to talk a little about selling link space on your blog. In spite of the changes over the last couple of years for search engine optimization, links are still worth their weight in gold. You can think of your “Blogroll” as real estate that can be leased out to others.

Other website owners want to get their links on web pages and blogs around the internet. They do this becasue inbound links carry a lot of weight with the search engines.

The theory is that the more inbound links they have, the higher their page ranks are in the search engines. Those inbound links give the site importance and the presence of a high number of inbound links and that makes the site seem more important.

One thing that I have noticed is that search engines have gotten more particular about the practice of linking. One of the most important things to keep in mind, especially when you are tying to get your link on sites is to make sure they have quality content.

So, where can you find these people who are willing to pay for your link real estates?

Again you can find hundreds by doing a search, but here are a few to get you started.

  1. Linking Service - http://linking-service.com - Allows you to set your price and time limit. This is a free service, however they may retain a portion of the links sold on your site.
  2. Link Adage - http://linkadage.com - They offer a link auction and an exchange program. If you are selling your links, the auction is what you will be most interested in.
  3. Back Links - http://backlinks.com - Pays 50% of the revenue generated from your link sales. These are for text links, and you will have control over which links appear on your site, including the look and feel of those links.

You must use some caution when selling links on your blog. You need to be very descreet. You are not breaking any laws, but your site could be penalized by Google if they happen to find out you are selling link space.

Don’t ever state publicly that you are selling your link real estate. Don’t post it in forums and don’t post it in you blog. To be safe, just use a link service and make sure that the service operates in a professional manner.

Too often, people think that Google can’t legally control anything and that they have no right to penalize them for anything - especially if they are not signed up for any of Google’s services.

Wrong!

Google is a corporation, they can do anything they want when it comes to their company. Should they find out you are selling link space to help get better rankings in the search engines, they can completely exclude you from their listings if they want to and there is nothing you or I can do about it.

So, you can do it, but be as discreet about it as possible. When you sell a link, and add them to the Blogroll, make a short post about it and recommend the site to your readers. Make it look as ‘legitimate’ as possible for Google’s benefit.

How much are you link space worth?

This depends on your Google PageRank. The higher the page rank is, the more the link is worth. These are only approximate, but a PR-3 = $3, PR-4 = $4, PR-5 = $7, PR-6 = $20, PR-7 = $50, PR-8 = $100.

You will probably have a hard time selling link space if you have less than a PR-3. When you first start your blog, you should definitely work on search engine optimization if you want to rank high. Good quality content is the best way to improve page ranking.

Yes, the objective is to make money - but at the same time, your objective is also to keep your site useful for your readers. Your readers are why you have a blog….

In our next session, I’ll be covering what I feel is the best way to monetize your blog.

Til then…keep on blogging!

Mike Van Bergen

StartYourProfitsToday