Wordpress TextAds - A New Way to take Advantage of Link Buyer Ignorance
Posted on May 19, 2007
Filed Under Selling Links, Buying Links
Wordpress TextAds is a new plug-in that allows Wordpress bloggers to easily sell sponsored links on their website. Good news? Far from it…
Unfortunately this plug-in gives unscrupulous link sellers yet another way to scam link buyers. Come on fellow WordPress bloggers, are you really that money hungry that you would sell worthless links to your advertisers? Wait… don’t answer that.
Take a look at the example below of what will be showing up on blogs that use this plug in:
This plug-in leaves a nasty footprint that screams PAID LINKS. Sure it’s convenient, but is it worth the risk of being labeled a text link seller? If you’re a link buyer, do you really want to be on a site that is announcing to the world that you paid for your text link?
Don’t take my word for it. The author even explains how to make his plug-in provide worthless text links.
There is no short cut to selling or buying quality text links. If you want links that work you need to buy links in the content of great websites related to your site that don’t openly advertise they sell links.
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Comments
One Response to “Wordpress TextAds - A New Way to take Advantage of Link Buyer Ignorance”
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Hi,
I’m the developer of WP Text Ads.
Please allow me to make a defence to some of the things you said in your article.
1) “Come on fellow WordPress bloggers, are you really that money hungry that you would sell worthless links to your advertisers?”
WP Text Ads users can reject ads they deem as unsuitable for their sites. It is one of the advantages of using WP Text Ads, as users have all the control. In my blog article that you linked to, I encouraged bloggers to sell links to sites that are relevant to theirs.
2) “Take a look at the example below of what will be showing up on blogs that use this plug in:”
If you read the documentation carefully, you would know that the text can be changed to reflect anything the user wants. However, I also suggested that it is ethical to point out that links are paid for.
3) “This plug-in leaves a nasty footprint that screams PAID LINKS. Sure it’s convenient, but is it worth the risk of being labeled a text link seller? If you’re a link buyer, do you really want to be on a site that is announcing to the world that you paid for your text link?”
This is exactly my point in 2). Bloggers SHOULD tell their readers which links are paid for and which are not. Bloggers should also use the rel=”nofollow” attribute in these links.
4) “If you want links that work you need to buy links in the content of great websites related to your site that don’t openly advertise they sell links.”
I am in agreement of the first part of this statement. But I’m not sure many would agree with you on the second part.
Thank you for writing about WP Text Ads. I appreciate your time. It’s clear to me that we have opposing views on what ethical link buying is all about. You ought to read Matt Cutt’s article on paid links. Your opinion of hiding the status of paid links is something he frowns upon too.
Thanks