For those that sell links or sponsored lists

[onlinebetdotcom]

For the people that sell links on their affiliate sites, is it worth it and what should I look out for?

Also if anybody sells sponsorships to casinos and sportsbooks I am wondering who does this and how this is done.

Trying to see which ways to drive revenue when starting off just building a site and no affiliate commissions earned yet.

[dannyx]

If you want to sell links from your site it's not a bad thing. SEO gains have external follow links to high quality content. It's important to link to good resources with related content. Don't link from sports to casinos, etc.

However, a link from a new site is worth practically nothing. So it's not worth selling for €1. Of course, if you are developing the site then it is worth waiting until it gains authority.

We don't know how it will be in the future because it seems that week by week the links are less important, they will probably eventually lose their validity as a ranking factor altogether. This is an opinion only.

[PaulEchere]

I have actually made my first money off my affiliate site by selling links, then used that to buy links myself.

Imo, if you have a relatively new website with 0 affiliate commission income and somebody is interested in buying a link from you - go for it.
Then use that money to publish your content on the best possible websites at the best possible conditions (within that budget of course).
If you invest time in finding good relevant place to publish your content - the time invested will potentially decrease the price you would have otherwise paid.

[onlinebetdotcom]

Thank you for the tips.

I do have interest from people wanting to buy links and was thinking it would be very good to use to hire another content writer.

I have actually made my first money off my affiliate site by selling links, then used that to buy links myself.

Imo, if you have a relatively new website with 0 affiliate commission income and somebody is interested in buying a link from you - go for it.
Then use that money to publish your content on the best possible websites at the best possible conditions (within that budget of course).
If you invest time in finding good relevant place to publish your content - the time invested will potentially decrease the price you would have otherwise paid.

[chaumi]

Some suggestions...

First off - look at the wording/makeup of the approach. It's almost certainly worth binning a very poorly worded mail without further thought, unless you think it might be just a language issue.

Who's it from? Most will be gmail, so you have nothing to go on (though that doesn't necessarily mean they're bad).

But some will be from an agency ( mary@bestseoforcasinosites.com). So you go see if bestseoforcasinosites.com exists. Then whois it - what was the creation date? 2 weeks ago, probably rubbish. 3 years ago, possibly OK.

Have they addressed you by name? If they have, it means they did some research and there's a better chance they're OK to work with. But most often you won't be addressed by name, it normally just doesn't work that way.

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If you decide to respond to a cold mail asking if you'll take posts, insertions, etc...

First response is always - 'Hi xyz (almost certainly that won't be their real name), you'll need to tell me the homepage URL of the site looking for a link before I can commit'

If they respond and don't answer/ignore the question, you'll know they're very likely brokers.
If they don't answer at all, they either didn't see the mail (quite likely because they sent 10,000 out and you were just one of them), or they're more clued up brokers and know why you asked it.

Why are you asking?...

1. to make sure (as far as you can) that you're not just going on a brokers list that'll get hawked/spammed all over the internet (and to gambling webmasters inboxes). If you don't know why this is probably a bad idea, shout and I'll explain)
2. to get more understanding of who you're working with
3. to know that if you go ahead, you can make a judgment in advance that the site/page you'll be linking to is worthwhile
4. because it may give you an idea of what price you can be quoting (again, if that needs explanation, shout)

If it's a broker you're conversing with, and they're working on behalf of a specific operator or affiliate), they should respond with the URL. It'll very rarely be an operator you're working with direct, most will be using agencies and the approach will have come from the agency.

Next step - if the offer is based on them writing you a post/article, is to ask for published examples....

You want to see how they're using anchor text (example - any article they published that contains anchors like 'best pokies Australia ie obviously manipulated keyword terms - I personally would either run a mile from or say up front 'I will not publish anchor text that's garbage, and seriously you people should know better + the site you're promoting has zero chance'.

You also want to see the likely overall content quality, because if it's crap when it gets to you, you might have to spend 2-3 hours editing, in which case you might have charged double or even treble right from the outset.

Equally, you want to know what quality AI you're getting...or if the writer just tends to write like it's AI. Can be hard to judge, but equally can be easy to spot.

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There are lots of nuances around all of this, and I don't have time to go into minute detail. Feel free to pm and I can give you better detail. But at high level, it should help. Plus you'll learn from experience.

Basically, you need to have a strong-enough site to make this pay. And, what it does pay, has to be a figure that you're comfortable with when balancing the risks against the returns.

[onlinebetdotcom]

Very good tips.

I talked to some friends that sold links on other sites and they said once you start linking to a few bigger affiliate sites that you get discovered by other link builders and buyers.

[baldidiot]

I talked to some friends that sold links on other sites and they said once you start linking to a few bigger affiliate sites that you get discovered by other link builders and buyers.

This is true - competitor research is very common, so if you link to a bunch of ranking sites then buyers will probably find you.

[wonderpunter]

I never sell links ever, I could probably charge quite a lot but I prefer to keep the site clean to avoid any pontial problems, last thing i want is my site being added to a link sellers list that ends up in googles email inbox

[chaumi]

I talked to some friends that sold links on other sites and they said once you start linking to a few bigger affiliate sites that you get discovered by other link builders and buyers.

Yes, that will happen. Because the ones that don't have a link on your site see that their competitor does, and they believe they have to get one to remain competitive. It can create a kind of snowball. But that's only likely to happen if the linking site has built some value.