Look how old this is! I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 12 years 8 months 1 day ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.
At SearchFest, one of the speakers (Rand Fishkin) said this in his morning session “…it’s not a paid link. It’s just a link that you get when you pay money.”
I’m paraphrasing here, but it drew a laugh from the crowd because it’s completely true. We all know that Google does not like “paid links”, but they do draw a definite distinction and just because money changes hands does not necessarily make it “bad”.
When someone makes a contribution or donation to a charity, and then gets listed on a donor page, and that can be a very good link.
I have coached a boys baseball team each summer for nearly 10 years, and have recently become the webmaster for the league that my kids play for.
Just like every other year, I am struggling to find a team sponsor(s) to help cover the costs, get some additional equipment, and tournaments are $400+ a pop!
Anyway, last night at I attended a league board meeting, and I suggested that we incentivize our sponsorships a little further – i.e. – Not only put sponsor logos on the physical banner signage at the park, but that we also list them on the website for a full year and give them a link too.
That suggestion went over well, so it’s now in “full swing” – heh 😉
Google says there is nothing wrong with this.
Remember, you’re not “buying a link”. You’re making a tax deductible donation to a 501(c)3, which helps kids in the community, and the fact that you happen to be acknowledged with a link is just a byproduct of your generous donation.
If you’d like to buy a link donate to a worthy cause, where you just happen to get a link too, then follow the link below to arrange your desired anchor text contribution.
The payment by check will be made to their 501(c)3
So…
Who wants to buy a link donate help a kids baseball league as a sponsor?
There are some amazing link research tools now available that can do a lot of work to find these types of links, and the process has been talked about for years.
There’s also a great post at SEER interactive about finding other opportunities like this and another Point Blank SEO with some great query combos that are sure to get your imagination going with ideas.
It’s only evil because you pointed out how ludicrous the distinction is, and then were so brash as to indicate that a key benefit would be getting a link, instead of just implying the fact that you’d get a link out of it.
So – is the minimum sponsorship $150? Are you sure you want sponsors? Wouldn’t you prefer the baseball season was shorter? Going to baseball games is a big commitment. 🙂
Yep, minimum sponsorship is 150. and yes it is completely ludicrous. And personally, I love baseball because it’s one of the few sports that you don’t have to be a mutant to excel 😉
Great post and spin on things! The Google hypocrazy has been no secret, nor has the fear campaign that they employ to combat paid links.
My opinion is that paid links will always work in the right situations, and managed the right way, as part of a bigger overall link building initiative. But whether we like it or not we will all need to conform and adapt if we want to continue to benefit from Google traffic. There’s no way around it, we are in THEIR world.
Conform – React – Adapt – Prosper… yep, that’s the CRAP!