What are the factors to consider when buying links for advertising your site?

First off, let me tell you that Google does not like buying or selling links. So I don’t encourage anyone to indulge in text link sales. If at all you want to make money selling text links, use the “nofollow” tags, or else you could be penalized by Google.

Okay, having said that, let’s see what are the things that you should look for in a site which is selling you a link for advertisement purposes?

First, take a look, a deeper and closer look at the website that’s offering the link.

Is it an authentic site?

Authenticity of a website is the most important factor when considering it for link purchase. Though there are many metrics available to check for a site’s authenticity my best bet would be to ask your blogger friend.
Ask a friend, as to what he thinks about this guy, collect his opinion. Ask a few others if possible, and get a collective opinion. It’s the safest and the most comprehensive way to get an idea on a site’s authenticity.

Go for a site, only if it authentic, or is likely to be authentic in the near future. Never ever go for sites that claim the sun and moon. Most of the times, they appear fake. This is my experience.

What is their content?
Second, see what the content in a website is. This is really very important because, more than where your ad is placed or what the anchor text is, it’s the general content of the link donator that matters. If they don’t place a nofollow tag in your link, while the content in that website deals with porn or online gambling, you are screwed.

So make sure that the content in the site is relevant to your niche. Should the linker forget the nofollow tag, you are safe.

Is it focused on content or a service?

Next up, check whether the blog is focused on the content/information or a service. Despite differences, both categories can give you excellent traffic, but in a content rich site, your link is more likely to get buried in all the other information, but who ever clicks though it will be genuinely interested guys. While as in a service oriented site, you may get vague clicks from visitors who just clicked the link out of curiosity. So no hard and fast thumbrule here, but I prefer a content focused site.

Is it built just for the purpose of selling links? 
You might just run into trouble if you buy links from a site that is built solely for the purpose of selling links. So check whether the motive of the site is to sell links or not. You can easily make it out from where the content is placed on the website. If more importance is given to links and ads, then it’s likely that it’s a “made for selling links” site. Keep away is all I’ve to tell.

Does it have active user participation?

Next up, check whether there is regular visitors acitivity on the site. Like comments, MyBloglog clicks, and page views. Since your intent is only traffic and not google juice, it’s better to chose a site with good user participation and click rates. Advertising on a dormant site will not help you get the ROI. Will it?

Does it have regular content updates? when was it updated?
Also check whether the site is a regularly updated one or not. A regularly updated site means that there is steady traffic to the site. But a dormant one with a post/article three months earlier, means there is no traffic juice. So the one thing you might want to check is when was the last update/article posted on the website. 

Do they have a contact page? Do you know who it is?
Make sure that you know whom you are doing business with. After all you are paying him so you ought to know where in the world this gentleman is. Hunt for a about page on the site. If it’s not there, write a “I’m sorry, let’s part as good friends” email to the offerer.

Are there others who bought links from them earlier?
This is the litmus test. Simply check if there are other advertisers on the list. If there are, ensure that they are not the seller disguised in other forms but genuine advertisers. I believe you can go ahead safely if there is good company.

How many out going links are already present on the site?
This check should be done just to make sure that you are not getting linked from a link farm.The link might give you no traffic if there are numerous number of links in the farm. No user would be genuinely interested in your advertisement and is not likely to click on it to buy your service or product from a crowd. In such situations, when there are lot of links on a page, a better distinguish placement may get you the right attention, but keep away from buying links among a crowd.

Do they allow nofollow tags?

Very very important point this one. If your link is not placed with the no follow tag, you are going to get penalized by Google along with the link seller. Ensure that your link seller adds the nofollow tags to the link.

Do they have traffic?

Since you are buying a link spot on the publishers site for advertising your site/service, it is vital that you look for traffic on the site. Only a site with steady traffic can ensure ROI for you. Good content websites which are young with no or less traffic should not be chosen for advertising, because even if they manage to sell to you for discount rates, it doesn’t serve the purpose. You don’t have a target to bait. Do you?

Are there better competitors?
Check to see if there are your competitors advertised already. If more than one of your competitor have bought links from a site, it means that the site is having the potential clients/readers who might be interested in your product/service/site. Your competitors are hanging in there because they might have tasted success with the site already. So have your bite, share a spot.

Please keep in mind that none of the points explained above is focused on getting you a higher page rank or google juice but the link purchase/sales here are in the context of advertising only.