The opportunity to sell text links
We wanted to cover the area of selling text links in more
detail; the reason for this is because we’re not sure that
many forum or community owners realize the potential to make
money in this area. Firstly, allow us to explain what selling
a text link actually involves and why people are prepared to
pay for text links, we’ll then we’ll provide you with an example
of a popular community site making money selling text links.
What is the potential return?
Whenever we raise the subject of selling text links with clients,
the conversation invariably moves to how much people should
charge for a text link. This is actually quite a difficult
question to answer and really depends on a number of different
factors. Largely it depends on the buyer’s objective and criteria,
if they are interesting in buying a text link because you command
excessive traffic, much of which may be interested in your
buyer’s site, you tend to have a little bit more negotiating
power.
You will also find you’re in a position of strength if you
have a high Google
Page Rank (PR), especially if your forum is a PR five or
above. Many webmasters buy text links solely based upon a site’s
page rank. Whilst many experts argue about the benefits of
buying text links for page rank and SEO reasons, there is little
evidence to suggest that it is counter productive. Check out
our link building strategies for
other ideas.
Other factors that some buyers may take into consideration
are the age of the forum or community, its Alexa ranking and
whether the text link is site wide or just on the home page.
To answer the question about potential return, a sitewide PR4
site could be worth as much as $20 a month, while a site wide
PR7 site could fetch as much as $100 a month.
Selling a text link
Selling a text link on your site is simply offering other
webmasters the opportunity to have a back link shown in a prominent
position on your web site. In most cases, they will approach
you or respond to an advert; it is up to them to provide you
with the URL and anchor text details, in some examples it maybe
appropriate to allow space for a short description. Often a
text link trade is paid per month, although it is not always
the case, it largely depends on the value of the text links.
Why are people prepared to pay for a text link?
The two main reasons people are prepared to pay for a text
link are:
- SEO reasons and page ranking reasons
- The increase in traffic due to advertising on a busy authority
web site.
Both reasons have a positive impact on a web site, so people
are prepared to pay for text links as they see a good return
on their investment.
Example of a community site selling text links
One popular community site that has been selling text links
for sometime is the Linux
Forum. If you scroll down the page, you will see a sponsors
section, this area is reserved for their client’s who wish
to pay per month for a text link. Judging by some of the sites
on show, there is little doubt that they have purchased the
link for SEO and PR reasons, as it is unlikely a forum about
Linux will provide targeted traffic likely to buy some of the
services on offer. The point of the example is to show you
a successful forum that is regularly making money by selling
text links. It’s also interesting how they have laid out their
sponsors section.
What makes a good forum to sell text links on?
So you’ve now had the low down on what selling text links
is and how it can benefit your forum. Hopefully it has given
you some food for thought; one thing that is important we cover
is what makes a good forum to sell text links on. The best
way to answer that question is to put yourself in the shoes
of your potential text link buyer, what would you like to see
if you were the one doing the buying? What would you like to
see that would make you part with your cash? We’ve detailed
some of our thoughts on this topic below:
- A busy forum with regular contributions
- A clear niche and target market
- Measurable traffic (It’s important to provide evidence
to back up all traffic claims)
- Solid Google Page Rank
Selling text link summary
The way to view selling text links is to look at it as selling
advertising space. It is a simple transaction whereby you are
offering a piece of your web site real estate in return for
a monthly payment. It’s similar to a company paying you to
put a board up on your front lawn. If possible, try not to
get bogged down with page rank and SEO related conversations,
the single most important aspect should be the quality of your
site and the traffic.
Remember, if you’re thinking about how to make money from
your forum you must already have a successful community. It
is only possible to sell text links if you continue to have
a successful and busy forum, keep text link trading simple.
Limit the number of transactions a month, keep good records
and above all, do not compromise the quality of your site. |
