When your blog becomes established, there are multiple streams to generate income including Google Adsense and alternative CPC programs, direct advertising and many others. Perhaps you’ve been contacted by some marketing agents who want to place an advert on one of your blog posts for their clients and wondering how you should go about it. Selling links on your blog post is a cool way to make money off your blog but there are certain misconceptions about this. Some bloggers believe it’s a bad practice and you’ll probably get penalized by Google but wait a minute, are you gonna tell Google you sold links on your posts?
However there are certain things you should know before you go about selling links on your blog anyhow and to anybody, it may cost you a lot more than you were paid. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it (I do it like all the time) but there are certain precautions to take.
How much should you charge for links sold on your posts?
It’s all about the money, right? Yeah, that’s right and when it comes to how much you should charge, you may probably get confused. What you should charge depends on a lot of factors:
i. Alexa Rank: a lot of advertisers put so much importance on this because the better your Alexa rank, the higher your blog’s market value. Some advertisers believe Alexa ranking can be used as a direct measure of your traffic and they hope to get a good CTR and more visits to their sites from your traffic.
ii. Google Page Rank: While some advertisers are after your traffic, others are looking for nothing but some link juice. The higher your page rank, the more desperate they are to have their link appear on your website.
iii. Advertisers Budget: No matter how good looking your site is in terms of ranking, a marketing agent can’t spend beyond his / her client’s budget. You should put this into consideration when negotiating the amount to be paid.
iv. Your initial price: Even if the advertiser plans to spend $300 on advertising on your blog, once you sell yourself cheap and ask for $100, you lose $200 without knowing it. It’s also the same if the advertiser plans to spend $100 and you ask for $500, you’re definitely going to scare the advertiser away.
The amount you should charge varies and you must be considerate and reasonable when negotiating. I’ve sold a link for the price of $300 per year on a post and I’ve also sold for $180 on another post. Like I mentioned, taking the four points above into consideration and the example of how much I charge on a post should give you a clue on how you should respond.
Is it safe to sell links on your blog posts?
It is safe but a lot depends on you and if you’re the greedy and careless type, you’ll probably regret it. Before you sell links on your website, you must first be sure that the site you’re linking to is legal. If you run Google Adsense on your blog, there are certain categories of sites you must not link to else, your Adsense account will be endangered. Such sites include but are not limited to the following:
- Gambling sites
- Porn sites
- Ammunition websites
- BB guns or related contents
- Sites with racism, violence or related contents
Even if you’re not running Google Adsense, you should steer clear off selling links to sites that fall into this category because you’re sending your readers directly to them and your readers hold you responsible for whatever information appears on your blog. They may lose trust in you and your reputation may be damaged. I reject offers, even juicy ones. I always inspect the site I’m linking to before accepting the offer. Imagine rejecting a $400 offer! Well, that’s how it goes and you’ve got to be very very careful.
You should also put Google into consideration. Linking to blacklisted sites and websites with illegal contents speaks ill about your blog in Google’s shrewd eye.It will kill your page rank and may even have it completely taken away from you. In order to do it right, you must be moderate, smart and considerate. Also, be sure of whom you’re linking to.
Do you have a different opinion on this matter? I really want to hear it.
