If you are selling detectable links, you should go to prison! The government should create a new law that says that internet vandalism is a crime. They should lock you up so and you should go through a Shawshank Redemption-esque 20 years of hard time.

You are taking part in corporate terrorism. What you are doing is like sneaking into Coca-Cola and urinating in a container of their soda. You are secretly tearing holes in the Victoria Secret panties (that sounds interesting). You are secretly replacing the “b” in Starbucks with an “f”.

What In The World Am I Talking About?
Let’s just imagine that you created an online GPS tool. It’s designed to track cell phones so that parents know in which field their kids have chose to “park” in. You spent a lot of money on your online tool, but you give it away for free. You make your money off ads that parents must go through before they know the actual location of the “sin”.

Now, let’s just imagine that Neo Nazi #1 decides that he is going to use Satcom 5 (the same technology used in Wayne’s World) to change the location of the dastardly deed. So Hitler’s grand child has succeeded in hijacking your free tool and now dad really doesn’t have much use your GPS tool. No one is paying for ads on your site. You are done!

The Google System Relies On Natural Votes
In case you aren’t up on the Google thing, they rely on votes to democratically decide who is the best site for a given keyword. They include a bunch of other complicated factors, but for the most part, the more votes and the more powerful the person casting the vote, the better your site ranks.

What If A Politician Cheated?
What if there was a situation in Florida about 8 years ago (hypothetically speaking) where there was debate as to who won an election. What if someone just happened to cheat to make sure they were the winner? It would be a bad thing, right?

What If There Was Another Election?
Let’s say there was an election for “car insurance” traffic. The winner gets a huge chunk of the traffic. Now, let’s just imagine that one of those sites “cheated” to make sure they got more votes. In other words, they used power or money to push their agenda in an effort to get sites that wouldn’t otherwise win to go ahead and cast their vote for Bush…..oh….I mean car insurance. (For what it’s worth, the biased documentaries claim that Bush kept democrats from voting…which didn’t fit my point here, so I just made up my own version).

Like It Or Not, You Are Richard Nixon
If you are attempting to hijack the Google rankings with methods that Google does not approve of, you are are a crook! It’s as simple as that. You are a Dick….Dick Nixon that is. If you have no problem with screwing over another individual (or group of individuals) in order to cater to your own agenda, great! I have no problem with that, either…..as long as I can justify it.

Conclusion
Okay, I’m being a little over the top here. I really don’t think people hijacking Google should be put in prison. However, it needs to be accepted that we are trying to trick Google. I can live with that if you can. In fact, I think Text Link Center is the best system for selling links that are completely undetectable by Google!

See 10 Ways To Justify Hijacking Google With Paid Links for help on justifying the manipulation of Google search engine rankings for your own agenda.

This video “All Links Are Not Created Equal” is part 1 of a 4 part series.

Also check out:

1. All Links Are Not Created Equal
2. Part 2: Atomic Bomb Text Links
3. Part 3: Grenade Text Links
4. Part 4: Dirt Clod Links

I’ve stumbled upon webmaster after webmaster who seems to think that a link is just a link. In other words, they are in a race to get the most points and each link is worth one point. This is why you see those ads on Digitalpoint Link Sales that say “Submission to 600 Directories $29.95”. The people going after these simply think they are getting 600 points for $30. This sure beats paying $40 for one point, doesn’t it?

The answer is: NO!

All Link Are Not Created Equal!

I’d be surprised if a person managed to get even a single bit of benefit from their site being submitted to 600 piece of crap directories. I’m fairly confident that these sites are not doing quality control and therefor they are simply trading PR for money. Of course, I’d guess that the PR passed from $30 in directories would sit in the “unbelievably low” category.

Of course, many of us are aware that 600 Directories for $30 is not a great idea. However, Google is much smarter than that. They know when a link is in the sidebar. They reduce it’s value incredibly. I’m talking about outbound links in the navigation (which typically appear sitewide). Google knows when you have a bunch of links in the footer. Google knows when you are seriously giving a vote for a page and when you simply adding a buddy to your blogroll.

Conclusion
As webmasters, we can not be using the tactics of 3 years ago, 2 years ago, or even last year if we want to rank today. Google is getting smarter. Trying to trick Google is going to be less effective tomorrow than it was today.

That’s why you need a secure text link system for buying and selling links that is ready to go into the next decade! Join Text Link Center.

This video “Text Link Type #1: Atomic Bomb Links” is part 2 of a 4 part series.

Also check out:

1. All Links Are Not Created Equal
2. Part 2: Atomic Bomb Text Links
3. Part 3: Grenade Text Links
4. Part 4: Dirt Clod Links

In this video will go into detail as to why the Atomic Bomb text link is an excellent way to increase your search engine rankings We show how how Atomic Bomb Text Links are completely undetectable by Google and provide a staggering benefit to your search engine rankings.

The Point
The point to this series on the types of text link is to illustrate that there are infinitely better methods to increase your search engine rankings by purchasing quality links. There is no need for you to continue to purchase dirt clod text links.

As we pointed out in our introductory video, All Links Are Not Created Equal, the quality of a text link goes far and beyond that of Page Rank. There are many other factors involved. So before you risk purchasing a text link, you may want to make sure you are not purchasing a Dirt Clod link and instead are purchasing a link that will actually improve your search engine rankings and traffic.

Questions
If you have any questions please feel to ask us on the Search Engine Traffic forum or comment below.

Next Video
The next video in the series is Grenade Text Links

This video “Text Link Type #2: Grenade Links” is part 3 of a 4 part series.

Also check out:

1. All Links Are Not Created Equal
2. Part 2: Atomic Bomb Text Links
3. Part 3: Grenade Text Links
4. Part 4: Dirt Clod Links

In this video will go into detail as to why the Grendade Text Link is an excellent way to increase your search engine rankings We show how how grenade links are completely undetectable by Google and provide excellent benefit to your search engine rankings.

The Point
The point to this series on the types of text link is to illustrate that there are infinitely better methods to increase your search engine rankings by purchasing quality links. There is no need for you to continue to purchase dirt clod text links.

As we pointed out in our introductory video, A Link Is Not A Link, the quality of a text link goes far and beyond that of Page Rank. There are many other factors involved. So before you risk purchasing a text link, you may want to make sure you are not purchasing a Dirt Clod link and instead are purchasing a link that will actually improve your search engine rankings and traffic.

Question
If you have any questions please feel to ask us on the Search Engine Traffic forum or comment below.

This video “Text Link Type #3: Dirt Clod Links” is part 4 of a 4 part series.

Also check out:

1. All Links Are Not Created Equal
2. Part 2: Atomic Bomb Text Links
3. Part 3: Grenade Text Links
4. Part 4: Dirt Clod Links

In this video will go into detail as to why the Dirt Clod text link is the worst text link you can imagine. We show how how the dirt clod links are completely detectable by Google and do not provide any benefit to your search engine rankings.

The Point
The point of this series on the types of text link is to illustrate that there are infinitely better methods to increase your search engine rankings by purchasing quality links. As we pointed out in our introductory video, A Link Is Not A Link, the quality of a text link goes far and beyond that of Page Rank. There are many other factors involved. So before you risk purchasing a text link, you may want to make sure you are not purchasing a Dirt Clod link and instead are purchasing a link that will actually improve your search engine rankings and traffic.

Questions
If you have any questions please feel to ask us on the Search Engine Traffic forum or comment below.

We are proud to announce that Text Link Center has appeared @ KillerStartups.com. If you are a fan of Text Link Center (or even if you hate our guts) please head over to Killer Startups and give us “killer”!

Thanks,
Brandon Drury

I’ve been amazed. I don’t know why I’ve been amazed, but I have. People can’t accept that Google can easily detect useless links and render the link juice from those links totally useless. It’s getting to the point now where Google is even dropping the PR of sites that are obviously selling text links. Ouch!

However, there are a few people (besides Luke and I) who are asking the same questions that Luke and I have.

• Why does no one care about secure text links?
• Why are people still happily buying Text Link Ads links when they are so easily detectable?
• Why is no one buying links for the long haul?
• Why is it so hard to get a link in the body?

Maybe you should be asking these same questions to…..and join Text Link Center while you are at it! Ha ha

Brandon Drury (me) and Luke Sample
We, of course, started Text Link Center because we hard no system that we felt happy buying and selling links from.

Albert Einstein
Albert runs many successful seo campaigns even though he is dead. That’s how smart he is!

Jeremy Luebke
Jeremy Luebke wrote the blog 7.5 Rules of Selling Links - How Not to Get Penalized which sounds like he may have the same ancestry that we have.

David Wallace
David Wallace wrote the blog Things That Bug Me Regarding Those Who Sell Links. It’s clear that David isn’t up exactly happy with the text link sellers out there either.

I have not purchased a paid link in 8 months.

Text Link Ads Wasn’t Working
I bought a PR 6 link from Text Link Ads. My site took things very slowly and naturally. I still plan on launching products with this site. (In my head I had made a “tentative” 5 year plan with full blown offline marketing plan, etc). After spending over $500 at Text Link Ads and allowing plenty of time to pass, for a search term that I would call “very uncompetitive”, I started to question the whole Text Link Ads business model.

Did I give Text Link Ads a fair enough chance? I think I did. A PR 6 pointing to a site that ranks for an uncompetitive keyword should show some results after 6 months. I should have saw some benefit for my money. I’m not the kind of guy who gets impatient about SEO.

I also have to say that I didn’t like the fact that $250 of my money went to Text Link Ads. This REALLY bothered me. I would have rather paid $300 to the real webmaster than pay HALF to Text Link Ads.

Digital Point Link Sales Worked Temporarily
I looked down at the few other links I had purchased on Digitalpoint Link Sales. I thought they were pretty good deals when compared to the Text Link Ads situation. Then I read a Matt Cutts blog about how a digital camera site is not exactly relevant to a photography site. I got mad and said “THAT’S A BUNCH OF CRAP”…..(I later changed my mind).

A few months passed and I noticed that my links purchased from Digitalpoint Link Sales disappeared. Why? Well, it turns out that, me being the idiot I am, I forgot to renew them. On top of that, the sellers must have just removed the links because I never got an email asking me to renew my links. YUCK!

Of course, buying a links is a long term bond. It’s almost like a marriage except for the boredom and divorce. A text link only starts to really kick in after it’s been on your site for a long time. I wish I had a few PR 6 links that had been pointing to my sites for 5 years!

When those sites dropped my links, I lost everything. I would have kept those links running for as long as I could afford to. The second I lost those links I pretty much lost my money on the whole deal. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of all the links I purchased. This was a HUGE flaw for me. Even though I was the buyer, I should have tracked them down and renewed them. I never made the time to do so.

Looking back, the Digital Point Link Sales text links were not nearly relevant enough. Not even close!!! The buying Entertainment link is not nearly good enough for a movie site. A movie site should be getting links from other movie sites.

When We Started To Look Into the Text Link Situation
Security - So, we got the idea that we wanted to throw together a crappy little free Text Link System. (This was back when there weren’t a ton of crappy little text links systems). We started to take a closer look into what was really going on. We started to see that Google was asking webmasters to report paid links. I was expecting Text Link Ads would be working day and night to solve this catastrophe that would be the end of their business. I expected them to come up with an “Emergency Patch”. It never came. Even though Text Link Ads was easily giving away the identity of it’s links for sale and Vigilante Heroes were out trying to rid the world of the filth that is wrecking Google’s ranking algorithm, Text Link Ads never bothered to think about security. Text Link Ads never made a single step to improve the security of their links.

Of course, it wasn’t much better at Digitalpoint Sales. The 2002 system over there is to PM the seller and ask for the domain. AHHHH! Aren’t you giving the link away to Google? AHHHH!!

So then we started to think about all kinds of theories and concepts. Luke and I asked ourselves “What does Google need? How do we gauge the worth of a text link (or vote)? When we put ourselves in the mindset of “If we had a zillion dollar search engine, what we would do?” and it was amazing how STUPID the current system for buying / selling links was at the time. It seamed ridiculous to buy a link on ANY site at that point through one of the big text link outlets. It was a sickening state for Text Links!

• Text Link Ads didn’t care if their links would work
• Digitalpoint guys didn’t care if their links worked
• Neither cared if their links were detectable by Google
• Matt Cutts called out sites that just link to random junk in the footer back in 2005 yet no one seamed to car
• Everyone just went on with their day as if they were too busy to notice just SICKENING the situation was for text links.

My “Epic” Journey To Write Text Link Center
(Play inspirational Disney music….NOW)
So, armed with little more than my trusty old AMD XP 2000 computer, Dreamweaver, a Google’s worth of tutorials, and a dream I set out on a quest.
(Stop inspirational Disney music….NOW)

My Goals For Text Link Center

1. I wanted a free system (We figured if we could solve the text link system for free,we could always monetize it with ads and products or sell it down the road). Your Ex-wife took half!! I definitely don’t want to be your ex-wife!!
2. I wanted my DREAM SYSTEM for buying and selling links. In other words, I wanted a system that I felt comfortable using.
3. I wanted a TOTAL commitment to security. TOTAL! I wanted links completely undetectable. The goal was to create a system that even Google employees couldn’t tell if a link was paid or not even when looking at the page.
4. I wanted management setup so a person could buy a link and not have to waste time thinking about when it expires. I understand that “buy links” is on your “to do” list along with 40 other things and you cram in the link buying at the last second.
5. I wanted a system where a seller didn’t’ have to think about when a link expired. When the link was about to expire, the seller gets a message to send a renewal invoice. That was simple enough.
6. I wanted to break down categories to very small niches. I don’t want to buy a “Auto” link for my Shelby Cobra site. I wanted to buy links from other Shelby sites! (We aren’t quite that deep in categories yet, but we are working on it!)

Conclusion
You should be demanding more for your text links. You, as the consumer, don’t have to buy junk! You can demand a better product / service for your money. If you are unhappy with the sickening state of text links, you may want to try Text Link Center.

Every day that I’ve been hard at work stalking the blogs and seo forums around the net, I run into multiple cases of people who say:

“Google is a bunch of hypocrites. They penalize sites that sell text links, but they sell text links themselves”.

While it is true that our pal Google may be selling text links for profit, they are doing it in a different manner. Let me explain.

How Google Makes Money
Google makes money primarily with Adwords. (To my limited knowledge on the subject, this is Google’s only revenue stream.). They make money with Adwords because people are using their search engine. It seams like a fair trade. They offer a free tool to use and they sell ads. (A very common practice online). Webmasters pay for each click they receive from the Adwords system with the intent of profiting from that click.

If Users Switched To Yahoo
For the sake of exaggeration, let’s just pretend half of Google’s users switched to Yahoo for a month. I’m not talking about webmaster / Adwords users. I’m talking about your mom searching for recipes or your little sister searching for Clay Aiken or whatever.

It’s reasonable to expect that Google’s profits would go down by 50% that month as well. The ONLY service that Google provides with their free tool is relevant search results. (At least that is the idea.) If I search for “surfboard toothpaste” and I don’t find it, I’ll find my “surfboard toothpaste” in some other manner.

Google’s View: Bribing To The Top of the Search Engines
The Google algorithm relies on “votes” to a site to determine where that site should rank. In other words, Google really doesn’t work all that differently from a site like Digg. Digg requires just a click, Google requires links from other sites. Paying for a link in Google is essentially a way of bribing your way to the top of the search engines. (Digg has aggressively gone after Pay-Per-Digg services since they render a site like Digg useless.) Some people debate the ethics of buying links, but I’d imagine that most people’s moral responsibility to Google is not as high as other moral obligations. I have the same obligation to Google as I do for Nike. Believe me, I’ve stepped in dog crap plenty of times with Nike shoes!!

Finally, How Is Text Link Ads Different Than Adwords?
Links on Google Adwords provide no direct SEO benefit. They pass absolutely no pagerank. The only purpose of Adwords is to drive traffic or brand a company.

A link on Text Link Ads offers a debatable low amount of traffic. (This depends greatly on the site selling the link and the genre of the link). Even if a Text Link Ads purchase does give you a little bit of traffic, that certainly isn’t the intent of the link. Text Link Ads customers are expecting to gain pagerank to their site to advance their search engine rankings (through what Google considers bribing). Of course, this is complicated by the fact that Google knows about each and every link given away.

Conclusion
Google has a vested interest in completely hammering anyone who is buying and selling links. They don’t want you messing with their money maker. So, anyone who messes with the Google system is fair game. Adwords does not mess with the Google ranking system, so Adwords is fine. However, purchased Text Links is a different story.

That’s right webmasters!! If you are buying detectable paid links, you are in trouble. If Text Link Center can detect your paid links from services such as Text Link Ads or Digitalpoint Link Sales just imagine how well Google or Yahoo are detecting paid links.

Try it out and let us know what you think!

If you have any questions, just ask us on the forum.

Check out the Paid Link Detector