I was recently cleaning up my blogs (mainly to delete old ones). I noticed that one blog that I had lost interest in a few months ago was given a PR 5 in the last update. The blog in question only had ONE back link - from this site http://www.sixshootermedia.com/buttons/index.html Out of interest I checked all the other sites that had bought buttons and they all have very high PR. It just seems to be one of those things you occassionally come across that works. This site has ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING to do with me but for the sake of transparency here I will point out that I have told the webmaster I was going to make this post and he will give me a free button for every 5 bought (if any). If you quote "Mel" in the subject bar in the email you will be given the optional £5 upgrade FREE and it will also identify it as coming from here.
Hm, the one-inbound-link-gets-you-high-PR thing. Would have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Seems to me it exposes some weirdness in the way PR is calculated.
Hmm I got shot a bit for this suggestion so kept my head down. However we added 3 sites to this and on Mondays PR Update they all went from PR0 to PR4 with no other inbound links If you wish to see, they are the following titles on the site. All in the bottom two rows (though that may change by the time you look) sixtyplus mortgageadvice sunbeltbrokers Best £25 I ever spent - on links anyway. The site is now at www.buyabutton.net and the offer of a FREE upgrade if you put the word MEL in the subject box of the order email still stands. I assure you it is NOT my site nor does it have anything whatsoever to do with me (i.e. i do NOT know the guy) - its just one of those things that works. Given that some advertising agencies are now paying up to $50 a month for text links on PR3+ pages - this has to be a bargain as the cost is a ONE OFF FEE.