I am thinking about selling text links and have some questions regarding the sale of text links and any potential google punishments. Overall, is it OK to sell text links with Google? If G spider locates text links on a site is it penalized? If my web site is about shoes for example, should I confine the text links to other sites about shoes or is it ok to allow text links to sites selling viagra and meds etc.? I have heard of sites being banned by google for selling PR but wouldn't a text link be considered the same as an ad banner? TIA for info.
Id never link to a viagra site unless you are a viagra site or want to be booted. You arent selling text links you are selling advertisements. If you put them in a good space on your site (ie not at the bottom of the page) and allow more than just a text links (ie a description afterwards), they will work just fine for everyone involved. There is nothing wrong with 1-selling ads on your site 2-using ads in the form of text links. I buy text links all the time; but if they are in a crappy spot on a site (bottom of the page, buried on the right of lev nav bars), then I won't buy any. As an advertiser, I need to get primary benefit of clicks from that site, and sometimes (not all the time mind you) they will help the serps as well. Pricing should be priced based up on your traffic, not PR.
I would also recommend that you accept sites of similar content. Advertisers buying the link would really want relevant content sites in my opinion
i would avoid sitewide links and stick with linking to sites that are related to yours (as was mentioned by others). i would also avoid any mention of PR on your 'advertising options' page. treat teh sale as selling ad space rather than selling PR which in turn will manipulate (cheat) Google's search results.