Experience with buying text link ads

[jtward]

Has anyone tried any of the commercial text link ad companies? I have had good success with SERPS in the COOP, but the COOP doesn't really seem to help with backlinks.

I am considering purchasing some text links from "Text Link Ads" on pr7 and pr6 websites. It is pricey, though. I thought I would hear what your experiences were like. Anyone?

Jonathan

http://medforums.net

[exam]

Be patient, I think the co-op will provide you many IBLs What is your weight?

[jtward]

I have a weight ~ 3500 consolidated. I have placed 10 ads, split up between 3 sites I am promoting.

[nevetS]

I bought a few links from linkadage a while back. Gave a boost to PR and helped me in the Serps, but I don't think it would have helped much if my keywords were more competitive. It has to make financial sense, and keeping that kind of inbound linkage up for a year is expensive. I may or may not do it again, but my thinking is more along the lines of a strategy involving paying for high PR links to a Master site, and providing links to my new sites from the Master. The thing is - to get up to a PR 8 or PR7 takes a lot of links, and a lot of money without some sort of real external inbound linking strategy. Then you start thinking about the question of whether or not the High PR is worth the money, considering many of the top ranked pages are PR 5 and below.

When I paid for the links, I bumped a site to PR 6, and was able to maintain a PR 4-5 three or four months later once the inbound links started naturally coming in.

[exam]

I have a weight ~ 3500 consolidated. I have placed 10 ads, split up between 3 sites I am promoting.
That's a pretty low weight compared to others here (except me :)) So you'll have to be really patient.

[Michael]

...Then you start thinking about the question of whether or not the High PR is worth the money, considering many of the top ranked pages are PR 5 and below... Buying text link ads for PR alone (at the market rate) is not normally worth the money imo but it can be if the links are site-wide and the linking site has a high deep link ratio (http://www.text-link-ads.co.uk/deep-link-ratio.shtml). The additional traffic and the PR can then make it an attractive proposition.

- Michael