Now we are done talking about thing to avoid in SEO and web promotion. We are moving on to a new topic:

PPC vs. Link buying

Another way to get links is to buy them. It might make sense, but spending your money on Pay-Per-Click advertising like Yahoo® Search Marketing might make more sense. It just depends on your budget and goals. The big advantage of paying for links is that it not only increases your website visitors by getting traffic from visitors of the website you are advertising on, but it also could help your Search Engine Rankings.

The big advantage of Pay Per Click advertising, is that you are only paying for actual visitors to your website. In the case of buying links or banner space on other people’s sites, you don’t know how much traffic you will get from the links. Also, paying for links is harder to quantify in terms of ROI (Return on Investment). My recommendation is that if you choose to buy links, be sure to buy links that are likely to bring traffic to your website, and be sure to shop around for good deals.

If you want to buy links primarily to raise your Search Engine ranking then I recommend you purchase links from directories. Shop around for the best deals, but also be sure to buy links from the more prominent directories. In the case of directories, you aren’t really buying the links per say, you are spending money to get your site reviewed by an editor of the directory. If the editor believes that your site is acceptable they will include it.

I personally have never had a problem getting my sites listed in directories, but if you were to submit an evil web portal or spam site I would NOT expect it to get listed in many directories.

PS. If you want to learn more about Pay Per Click advertising then I highly recommend you download Aaron Wall’s free PPC ebook.

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The best deals for paid links are links that require a one time fee or a low annual fee. These links can often be obtained by:

1.Joining trade associations.
2.Sponsoring or supporting 501c organizations.
3.Sponsoring other websites.
4.Paid directory inclusion.

Trade Associations
Finding trade associations related to your business and joining them can help your business in many ways. Most trade associations have pages that list their members and include a link to their members websites. Getting involved in your community also helps you promote your site in other ways.

Sponsoring or Supporting Websites
Many 501c websites allow people to donate money to their organization to become a sponsor or supporter. On many of these sites you will get a link to your website. Sponsoring sites that will link back to your site for a small donation can be an excellent way to buy links that point to your website and in addition you are helping out the site you sponsor.

Paid Directory Inclusion
Many directories require payment to be included in their directory. Usually the payment is a one time editorial fee to determine if your site is appropriate for their directory. Directoriy links can be an excellent deal. Don’t just look for general directories, also look for industry specific directories. Many times industry specific directories will bring you more traffic, because people use them to find businesses in your area of expertise. At least I have found this to be the case for our sites. Also, some Search Engine’s (Google) might not look at a link from a directory as being nearly as important as a link from another site.

Links from Link Brokers
Text link brokers (sites that manage the buying and selling of text links) offer monthly payment programs, where you pay for a text link for one month on a particular related website. These programs will give you a variable degree of traffic. I can’t recommend one broker over another. However, I can say that some Search Engines (like Google) are trying to discount paid links for Search Engine ranking purposes.

My personal plan is to spend a very minimal amount of money on link building, mostly focused on a few related directory submissions. These days I prefer to spend my time and money on other methods of promotion. When you are first starting out and/or when you are running a strictly ecommerce site, spending money on links can help get you noticed.

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