Q: Should I Sell Links?

Shhh!

Selling links is a dangerous game these days. They are certainly one of the best ways to monetize a site with PR, but you risk that PR if you sell links. You see, it seems that Google will impose penalties on sites that they deem to be selling links for the purpose of PR instead of traffic.

So, what is the poor webmaster to do?

Obviously, how and why we sell advertising is a business decision that should be up to us, but just as obviously we cannot ignore Google's viewpoint as they are the site the currently determines PR.

My advice, go ahead and sell links. However, don't do it publicly! There are all kinds of link brokerages on the net -- though it is beyond the scope of this post for me to review them all for you.

Just do a search on Google and I'm sure you'll find them...

Q: Should I Use Adsense or Adbrite?

This is a no brainer.

In general, because Adbrite lets you default to another advertiser, such as Adsense, if they can't beat the eCPM you specify, you should use them. During setup you specify how much you need to make to show their ads while defining your default advertising by copying your Adsense code.

As your blog or site grows in reputation, and traffic, you'll find that every now and then someone will choose to advertise on your site using Adbrite.

However, if you start to raise your income via other advertisers, be sure to remember to update your minimal acceptable CPM on Adbrite.

Q: Should I Buy Links?

This is a question that gets a different answer every time it is asked.

To make a long story short, yes, but read on to see the ins and outs of this situation.

Yes, Google can penalize a site for selling links. This means that the selling site might lose PR and that the links may not pass PR to you. Obviously, if you are purchasing links for the purpose of acquiring PR, then this is something that will concern you.

However, don't forget, links were originally sold for traffic. Buying a link, a banner, a button or whatever is simply advertising. It is a great way to get targeted traffic to your site for whatever purpose you want them there.

Importantly, no, Google does not generally penalize a site for actions that somebody else could do to your site. If you think about it, if buying links caused a penalty to the buyer, then people would buy links for their competitors in order to have them be penalized.

The competitive nature of the net ads a lot of things to think about when determine how and why penalties might be applied.

Q: What Keywords Should I Use?

This is a question often posed by an Adsense beginner hoping to reap large profits from their online efforts.

This is not the right way to think about making money online.

If you want to make money online you have to provide value to somebody. Popular sites, those with traffic, are the ones that have something unique or interesting to offer to the public. It is a matter of putting together a compelling experience so that people will want to see it, talk about it, or share it with other people.