Please be respectful here. I am aware that many of you already know what I am about to say, but there are also many people that have been doing this for a year or less like myself, that might benefit and learn from the mistake that I made. I have nothing to gain in sharing this, since the damage is already done for me. And I'm not saying that it is bad to sell hardlinks either, but it can get you in trouble if you don't know what you are doing. I have a network of solo girl adult blog sites. This is a niche that works for me being someone with a full-time job and making websites to make a supplemental income with limited time. The results were good too... I was able to rank my sites very well on Google and some of them were awarded PR1. So, at the end of February, I decided to do what a lot of people do, but I believe I went too far, and I was not careful enough. I sold 11 main page links on each site below and they sold like hot cakes and I made some nice extra revenue that month. I'm not saying that selling hardlinks are bad, but maybe I would have been better not to have many of the same links on each site, add 11 new links in a short time span, and maybe I should have been selective about what sites can advertise. Sure, I had my worries before I decided to sell the hardlinks and I asked for advice from a couple people that I trust and they said 'why the heck not' but in the end they aren't the ones that care about the potential consequences, so I doubt there was much thought into those responses. Now these are the websites and where they placed in Google's search results before 2/22/2012. Next to that number, I show you the CURRENT place in search results and you can clearly observe their significant drop: PR1 sites: a___e___.net - #2 overall pre-sale, #4 after sale = Drop d___b___.net - #2 overall pre-sale, #4 after sale = Drop e___n___.net - #1 overall pre-sale, Unknown after sale = Big Drop j___b___.org - #11 overall pre-sale, Unknown after sale = Big Drop j___b___.com - #1 overall pre-sale, #1 after sale = No change m___l___.com - #2 overall pre-sale, #2 after sale = No change p___p___.net – Unknown pre-sale, Page 3 after sale = Increase r___s___.net - #2 overall pre-sale, Unknown after sale = Big Drop s___r___.org - #1 overall pre-sale, Page 4 after sale = Big Drop s___c___.org - #11 overall pre-sale, #18 after sale = Drop t___n___.org - #10 overall pre-sale, #2 after sale = Increase PR0 sites: a___m___.net - #9 overall pre-sale, #13 after sale = Drop a___a___.net - #3 overall pre-sale, #4 after sale = Drop c___p___.net – Unknown pre-sale, Page 3 after sale = Increase c___c___.net - #1 overall pre-sale, #10 after sale = Drop e___m___.net - #1 overall pre-sale, #3 after sale = Drop k___a___.com - #1 overall pre-sale, Page 6 after sale = Big Drop s___c___.org - #3 overall pre-sale, Page 4 after sale = Big Drop s___j___.biz - Unknown pre-sale (was very new), #10 after sale = Increase s___v___.org – Unknown pre-sale, Unknown after sale = No change s___p___.org - #2 overall pre-sale, #8 after sale = Drop w___w___.com - #5 overall pre-sale, Page 3 after sale = Big Drop Now here is a bit of irony... there was also a "bonus" PR2 site in the mix. This bonus site has a very popular direct match keyword and after the sale, that shot up out of nowhere and took the #1 spot on Google. This direct match gets me a nice 600 unique visitors daily in organic traffic alone, so it is my saving grace, in a sense. But as far as almost everything else, consider this: - I had 13 sites that were #1, #2, or #3 and now I have just 4. - My previous top 3 performers are still indexed in Google, but beyond Page 10+ Think my sales went down? You bet they did. I certainly will not be adding many links for a while... and now the question in my mind is whether this penalty is permanent or temporary? If it is permanent, that would mean that 1 foolish mistake has cost me months of hard work and a pretty good amount of $. And that is why I'm sharing this... maybe towards the benefit of some newbies out there, if anyone at all.
please explain these questions for me my friend, so you are saying do not sell links on your blog? what are hard links? is it just the home page or you can't sell links in any page of your site? what if you had a directory plugin attached to your blog?
No, I will respond to that with something I said in the OP: "And I'm not saying that it is bad to sell hardlinks either, but it can get you in trouble if you don't know what you are doing. " And I also mentioned they were main page only, not sitewide... and I still got dinged. I took out some of the other links present after I noticed the penalty, but it seems it didn't matter anymore. After reading up on penalties from selling links, I can tell that I'm not the first one that had to regret similar actions. Selling links is part of our business, and I am not saying don't do it, I am just saying that I wouldn't do it until you have done your homework because I know people with websites saturated with paid links and they are just fine. What I learned from my experience is this: - If you sell hard links, it's probably not a good idea to add all 10 links in a 1 week span... spread it out... sell a couple here... a couple there... etc. - If you do sell hard links, be mindful of the sites you are advertising and be a little selective of what you accept. I have read from multiple sources that the latest Google update is not allergic to sites with a variety of links on their sites, in fact, they reward it, but it helps if those sites are quality sites and of course related niche (I doubt that is news to anyone reading this) - Another thing that I am guessing screwed me over is the fact that each site in the network added the exact same links, with the exception of one buyer, who wisely elected to place 3 different links on each of my sites instead of the same 3 links 20+ times. I can't answer your question about the directory plugin though because that wasn't part of my experience. See, I am merely a newbie sharing my mistakes with the rest of you, so that maybe you it will prevent you from making a similar mistake one day.
I appreciate that you shared this with us, thank you. I wonder if any one else has any experiences that they can add on to this that appreciated. I see link directory sell links here all the time I wonder if they take some kind of punishment as well.. that's like saying link directories shouldn't exist.