Is Paying for Links Legitimate? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I got an email a couple of days ago where a website was asking for some link love for money. I usually turn them away as soon as I see their pitch (usually to support websites that I will not advertise or promote), but saw nothing in their pitch that was like the previous ones I'd seen. So I asked them to be more specific.

They proposed me using a photo they had for an existing post I had written (that had brought in good traffic) and then citing their website as the photo credit. They would pay me in cash via PayPal for this. The photo had everything to do with my post. The website they want me to link to has nothing to do with either my post or the photo but is a legitimate website.

Excuse my idiocy, but is this real?  I typically do not blog for money, but will take it if someone is offering. I don't want to do anything supid, but I don't see it here. Am I really missing the obvious?  Any help would be appreciated!

Yeah, it could be real, but you want to be careful. Your readers may find out that there's an unrelated link and be quite turned off by your site.

As long as it's relevant to the content I don't think it can hurt.

Thanks, guys. It sounded okay to me, but I thought maybe I was totally overlooking something.

@Suba–No…they didn't ask for any anchor text. Just the link for the photo.

Even though the link is unrelated, the picture totally works with the post. And the link is a real link and nothing that I personally am opposed to linking to. I too give photo credit to random flickr profiles when I get my pictures from there.

Thanks for your help. I just made an easy few $$.

What did Shakespeare say about roses?  (really, I forget the quote)

It's another way to get a text link.

How do they want the credit?  Is the photo hosed on their site?  Are you basically hotlinking their photo and giving them credit?  OR are you downloading the photo and hosting it yourself and writing Photo by xxxx underneath it?

Do you know for sure the photo is theirs? What happens if three months down the line you get an email saying you took someone's copyrighted work?

When you credit Flickr, I'm sure the search understand understand the link and find it relevant.  I would worry how it would look to be linking somewhere else entirely that has nothing to do with the picture or your article.

There was a recent JC Penny fiasco where they were getting links anywhere and everywhere in order to rank.  This kinda reminds me of that.

Now to the original question – is buying links legitimate? Legitimate what?  There's nothing illegal about paid links without a nofollow, it's just against the Big G's TOS.

I would pursue the opportunity for sure!

LaTisha @ FSYAonline said:

The Single Saver said:

I'd do it as long as the site being linked to isn't offensive or in contrast with the message you are trying to give.

How do you all get private ads?  I'd love a few of these to keep The Single Saver profitable! 

This is a question I have as well. Do you normally reach out to advertisers or have them come to you?

 

In the past the advertisers reached out to me.  I have recently begun reaching out to advertisers myself.