I have a friend who is a programmer and had previously worked for a search engine support staff team. But i can't mention what SE company it was. Just that he told me that buying unrelated links can not have any detrimental effects on PR. Apparently the programs which adjudicate PR, are complex but not complex enough whether to decipher if the links are unrelated. He seems to think its all mumbo jumbo trash talk that unrelated links can have a devastating effect on PR. Since the guy has rarely lied to me in the past i must go with him. So how do you think?
from what i see so far, i'd have to agree with your friend. i get links from lots of unrelated sites and they all boost my serps/pr.
No its not Sam, whos Sam though lol? i can't really mention his name on the internet, because im not sure i should even have said what he told me because he was probably obliged not to say anything. So if i mention his name it might not be in his best interest. But i take him on his word and see a few of you agree which is good.
From my experience i can say that them more links... the better. It dosent matter if the links are from unrelated sites... maybe i have a literature blog and i link to a auto-moto website that i like. Its nothing bad
I don't know anybody who says that unrelated links are bad for PR. They are not going to be your best help to get your site up in the serps (which is after all what matters), but they do count towards pagerank.
A link is a link, and it is a good link if it comes from a high PR page/site. A link from a related high PR page can be extremely beneficial in driving traffic or users to your site also, but thats it. High PR links are bought to improve PR only, whether they are bought from related pages or not. You'll see many people here selling links on PR 5 / 6 and 7 pages, but they don't necessarily look for themed or related links.
I don't think anyone has ever claimed that unrelated links hurt PR. Rather than unrelated links don't help as much in rankings. The two are very different. A link from the BBC financial pages is going to help a mortgage site a lot more than a link to the same page from viagra.spam.com/directory/page123456789.html
I don't think so. If it was true many would try to get a link of their competitor on unrelated websites.