I was contacted by two "topsites". Basically, they want me to provide them with a sitewide link in exchange for being on their list of topsites. From a marketing perspective, I think it's both good and bad to be there. First, if offers good exposure. On the flip side, it's moving my traffic to sites that probably don't have that much. My site is well established and has very good rankings. I'm also worried about PR leakage. Thoughts no TopSites? Good, bad?
I would go ahead and try it out and see what happens. How does the topsites work? Do they go by click votes or mere impressions?
I have a top sites page on 2 of my sites. I prefer them to link exchanges because, it prevents people from taking my link down. If they join my top sites and later take my link down, well their link will go down on the top sites and eventually not be on my site at all. After a certain period of time and no clicks from his/her site, his link is taken down. So, it also encourages people to put my banner/link in a good spot.
As long as the topsites in question arent filled with crappy spammy low-quality websites, and they are well established with decent pr and traffic then I see no reason why not.
All but one have no PR and probably no traffic. I'm sure it'll build over time, but I'd probably be the biggest site in there. That's why I'm struggling with it. If I put a sitewide link, my PR leaks and I probably drive more traffic there than I receive.
A 'Topsite' page is the highest referrer to one of my more popular sites. It sends through quite a significant amount of targetted, relevant traffic but that's probably only because I rank consistently in their top 5 referrers. If I was listed below the fold I doubt I'd get a fraction of the traffic from them I see now. Irrespective of the traffic however, this particular topsite is tacked on to a fantastic website that I have no hesitation in sending my visitors on to. You seem worried about the quality of the sites you'd be linking to, so my only advice is to think hard about cheapening the quality of your site by linking to sites that you yourself have reservations about. If you really want to get listed on a topsite you can always seek out topsites more relevant to your niche with simple search queries (topsite + keyword). And with regard to PR leakage with something like that, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Phlegm...