I guess you are correct, Colgate does not personally buy links...but then, I'm willing to bet that Colgate also does not run TV commercials ~ as they hire someone to do it for them.
Let's not get stupid about this now, people. It's really quite simple: 1. Advertising is fine. Google does it. Colgate does it. We all do it. 2. Buying links / pixels / word clouds in the hopes of gaining undeserved PageRank is also fine - as long as you don't think you're actully getting any PageRank boost out of doing so. Google isn't stopping you from doing whatever you want to do with links. All they are doing is what they have been doing very openly for some time now - viz., doing their best to prevent artifical linking from skewing their search results. The only thing that's new in the post by Matt Cutts that began this thread is the notice that they are trying to improve the filters and that they will accept and investigate reports from other webmasters about bought-and-sold links. Why is that so difficult for people to understand? Seriously.
LOL Minstrel, you are moron of the year on DP. You don't get it do you? Everyone here understands what you are saying, but people want to get what they can. please, go back to your dayjob
Bit harsh... I think people are DRASTICALLY over-reacting to the paid links nonsense. Minstrel is trying to bring it back to being a reasonable discussion, but being drowned out by noise about "GOOGLE BANS PAID LINKS.. OMG WTF OMG OMG OMG". I rarely find Minstrel to be a moron.
I'd avise you to do the same, but... oh, wait... you don't have one, do you? They fired you from your last real job at sitetutor.com for spending all your time on forums and not doing what they were paying you to do. By the way, need I remind you you were supposed to stop using the name sitetutor on forums? But you were too lazy to even take care of that, weren't you? Thank you, nddb.
Did you mean everyone get back to work aka begging/selling for 1$ paid links Dude try to learn how to reply someone in a public forum, if you are replying in a wrong way to a intelligent person indirectly you are making people laugh on you and you are proving your character Did you every reply to the point in any thread?
There is Nothing wrong in link buying for Gaining SE Rankings., Those who say, Dont buy links in public, Will surely be buying links., Noone will link to a content using a SE Friendly Anchor text., When You Buy Links, Just make sure that You are not placed under the headings "Ads", "Links", "Sponsors", etc., If you are buying links from blogs, Try to buy link on the header or under the site's category ., Most bloggers wont sell though, but you can get almost anything at the right price
Big Companies buy link on Directories. Phillips and Vodaphone had bought links pointed to their products on my directory. the payment for phillips made by email was on the philips' domain. http://dir.rankalert.net/Shopping/Consumer_Electronics/ If this doesnt prove that companies buy links then I dont know what does.. They have bought these links long ago.. I remember this because it amazed me too.
Of course. As long as you realize that when discovered they'll be worthless for that purpose, knock yourself out. See above. Incorrect. I don't buy links in public or in private. Never have. Incorrect. I've already stated that. I have numerous links not paid for and not requested that have anchor text related to the page content. And just make sure you understand that won't protect you from having those links exposed. Yes you can. And you can sell almost anything at the right price. That's what P.T. Barnum meant when he said, "There's one born every minute." It doesn't prove anything of the kind. See discussion above.
So others don't waste their time, what type of proof would you happen to need? And if personal accounts are not valid, would you once again, kindly provide me with the proof I so kindly asked of you several times? And do not say you have, as the only proof you offered was you own personal account, and clearly you do not find personal experience valid, therefor the poof you've given me is now moot. In fact, I'm almost willing to bet no one here can offer proof. I tried over the definitions of terms you were using. I gave links to Digital Point, Marriam-Webster, and the blog entry from Matt Cutts this very thread was based on, and you brushed them all off. Now people are giving personal experience as proof. In order to prove something to you, does it need to happen to you? If that is the case it will NEVER happen, unless of course you start buying links...
Can you please send me a private message , with one of the sites you have done SEO for, Which is a commercial (Started for Profit) Portal which faces heavy market competition for which you got Good Natural SE friendly Anchor text which was not bought by you., I dont care about sites, that earns pennies per day or sites which are run not for profit, or another me too sites started by individuals .,
Unbelievable Soon to be 600 posts of ppl going "Google sucks" and Minstrel and me and a few (very few) others saying "Ads are fine where ever they are bought, but don't expect Google to consider them while ranking" and then ppl going "but I paid for the link Google should count it". Get it, just because you paid for the link does not mean it is worthy of altering the SERPs Doesn't matter who buys the link Colgate, you or the president of the united states, in a perfect world advertising does not alter SERPs, NEVER. It might bring you visitors (if it's good advertising), who later might link to you for free, resulting in better positions in the SERPs. But that means you have to have a good website. Ppl go on and on about why bother with paid links, do something about the MFAs thats in front of my MFA (or in rare cases loved-and-well-kept-site) in the SERPs instead. The thing is that MFAs are often in front of your site because of paid and other crap links.
What are you saying... we should take a thread about paid links off topic to discuss FMA sites? That would be thread hijacking and could result in an infraction!
I think you mean MFA sites... But in any case, I'm going to say this just one last time: It is NOT the case that your questions haven't been answered. The problem is that you are stubbornly refusing to accept the answers. If you still want to believe that the world is flat because that fits better with your particular einstellung, go ahead. No amount of persuasion is going to change your mind, obviously, and I'm not going to waste any more effort in the attempt.
It's CLEAR you can not offer anything but your own opinion, while demanding something more substantial from every other member here. When they proved the world was round they offered up something other then opinion. I've backed up my claims, now it's your turn. Call me stubborn all you want, but I've given my proof...all you've given was opinion. You tell me that you'll not waste the effort, but I've asked at least 5 times and you've wasted your time replying to each one...would it be so hard to shut me up by offering up something more substantial then a "because I'm Minstrel, and what I say is the truth!". Wouldn't it have been easier to shut me up the first time by offering up something more then your own speculation? Are you going to waste more time replying to me without answering the question...or are you actually going to do what you've been asking others for? Where is your proof?
Q, you cannot possibly be that obtuse. It is not "my proof". These are not "my" actions. These are not "my" definitions. I've explained that repeatedly. I've shown you where to find more information. I've shown you where to do your own research, since you obviously don't believe mine. Believe what you wish. I will waste no more time on you. See www.google-watch.org and www.google-watch-watch.org - I'm confident you will find all your answers there. For everyone else, here is the reason Q stubbornly refuses to accept reality:
The points you made in 'above' discussion are not only useless, but your sole assumptions. The CEO of Colgate, Philips or Vodaphone aint gonna write to you to buy a link on your site. Of course they have employees or they outsource the job, but it doesnt make it less relevant. The Linked site is THEIR site, and THEY are responsible for it not the third party. They (the Company) certainly know the trend of link buying thats why they outsource it and spend their money on it, and ofcourse they are not doing it to advertise their services. I dont think my directory page sends them visitors. Its for the only purpose of gaining backlinks. you said that it makes no sense to you that such big companies buy a PR0 links, in that case I say it proves your lack of sense. A single PR0 (or even PR5) link wont change anything but thousands of those links on different sites will definitely change many things, including PR and SERP. So to everyone, except you, it proves that even bigger companies are involved in buying links to improve their SERP and PR.