By the way – I am not libeling anyone here, I am talking about my experiences with Asus and their support contractors,  and my opinions as a result of  my experience.

I purchased an Asus Eeepc about 6 months ago for my wife to use at home, just for normal stuff, web, email etc – and in terms of the product itself, cannot fault it, brilliant. But then, the keyboard stopped working, so I thought – OK, no problem, very easy things to replace, I’ll just buy one and replace it myself – and guess what, I couldn’t find (in the UK) a replacement laptop for this netbook ANYWHERE!!

So, i opted to send it back for repair under warranty instead, since it’s only 6 months old.

First of all, trying to get it through the asus website was a complete nightmare, the website gave me 404 errors at various points, then when I finally got to the right page, it told me that the product was already registered – which it certainly wasn’t ! So then, when I finished completing the form, I got no reply, a few days later after multiple emails, Asus support finally emailed me to say that they required a proof of purchase – I sent this to them, they confirmed, and a few days later they collected the eeepc.

about 3 weeks later, I had heard nothing, so I phoned them & they informed me they were looking into it. After roughly 5 weeks, I got a quote from Asus support dept (which is a third party – SBE Ltd in Ashford, Kent), telling me that they had decided that the keyboard had been water damaged, and they want over £50 to repair it – which was broken down as £7.84 for the keyboard, and the rest “diagnosis, processing and delivery” .

So I phoned them, and told them I disagree with their findings, and I want them to send it back to me so I can get it looked at by an independent third party (which I’m informed by consumer direct, they have to do by selling regulations) they refused, and said I had two options – pay them the fifty something quid, or the netbook gets it…. seriously, there’s no middle ground, if  I do not pay them – they destroy the netbook.

I spoke to trading standards, they informed me that they’re breaking various trading rules by doing this – I spoke to them on the phone, both to SBE (who they sub contract their support to in the UK) and to Asus directly – and they both told me, that basically, they don’t care – this is their terms, if I don’t like it, then do whatever I want….

I asked them why the heck it was so expensive given that it was listed on the quote as only £7.84 for the part – and I was informed that what I was paying for, was for the consultancy work they had already done in diagnosing what the problem was – and delivery, since they’d made the decision that it wasn’t covered by warranty, then I had to pay for that. When I pointed out that they’re completely in the wrong by making a decision and not giving me the option to have a third party independently check it before paying them for this – they didn’t have much to say about that.

If they said to me “pay a tenner for delivery – and we’ll send it you back to get it independently checked” – then in my opinion that would have been fair – but instead, they’re saying that I have to pay them their consultancy rate for the diagnoses they’ve already done, before they will send it back to me, after which time I can do whatever the heck I want to with it, basically….

Consumer direct told me to tell my card company to do a chargeback – I spoke to my card company who informed me that because the purchase was more than 3 months ago – they can’t, so short of taking them to court, all I could do was pay them – but it doesn’t end there…

I paid them on the phone on the 12th of April, it’s now the 2nd of May – and guess what, still no eeepc…. I phoned them just now, and was told (after waiting on hold for about 5 mins) that they’re waiting for the keyboard to come in, and that it would probable be there in another week or so….

So – I am not saying that Asus or EeePC products are bad, in fact I’ve been very happy at the quality of the product itself – but would I EVER buy another Asus product  again? Absolutely not!!

Nothing to do with Google & the other search engines is really that simple in reality, but there’s no point in talking about things technically, there’s always a way to simlify the often complex facts – and the most simple way I can explain what I’m wanting to get across here, is to say “keep it looking natural.”

In a nutshell, Googles intentions are to allow the cream to rise, and the crap to fall – so that when searchers search Google for stuff, they find the best quality websites which are publishing the most relevent content in relation to their search – so that they continue to dominate the search market. They do this by having systems which are clever enough to be able to weed out artificial indicators.

A good analogy for this is the olympics, sports people are expected to compete within the legal guidelines, which means not cheating by taking performance enhancing drugs. We all understand why this is, they want the real quality & talent to win, and they don’t want to allow drugs to give people the edge and beat people who have more natural talent, ability, drive & focus.

So if we see page one Google ranking as winning in relation to the olympics analogy, Google want to ensure that the real quality wins – they want the best quality & most relevant content to reach the top, while discounting any cheating – they want to block any efforts to cheat. They can’t dope test websites… so the way they do this is with their clever algorithms.

Many search engine marketing resources teach the specifics of all of this, so if you’re really interested then the info is there to be found – personally I say, why waste time figuring out all of the specifics, just be aware that you need your marketing efforts to look as natural as possible, and not look like any kind of performance enhancement has been attempted.

If you have a brand new website, just indexed, and all of a sudden there are thousands of backlinks flying in to the website, all from similar kinds of websites (and by the same kinds of websites, I mean the same quality of website), does this look natural? OK you may say that it could be natural if a lot of offline marketing has been done for instance, or if there are other reasons for a great deal of interest – but Google (and the other search engines) are not daft, their systems can tell if a massive influx of backlinks are naturally gained or not. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of how Google know – they just do, they’re Google, they probably know what your favourite brand of butter is, what coffee you drink, your inside leg measurement you really think they’re not clever enough to know if you’ve just  paid for a ton of backlinks?

What does look natural, is a steady flow of various different kinds of backlinks from different kinds of websites. You can do a LOT more good with 10 backlinks gained over a period of a few months, than you might do from gaining several hundreds of backlinks in a week or two.  It’s a lot more to do with quality than quantity anyway, but if you get tonnes of backlinks fast, it just doesn’t look natural. Don’t get me wrong, if you develop the latest hit iphone app, and all of a sudden news websites & tech blogs are writing articles about it & you get hundreds or even thousands of backlinks – I am not saying that this isn’t going to be taken well by Google – but they will know due to the kinds of websites giving the links, the quality of these websites, that its legitimate – and the backlinks will count.

So what I would recommend is that you don’t go looking for massive backlink blasting packages, but instead you look at ways to achieve dripfeed backlinking. That is, you do the work in one chunk, but then the backlinks drip in over time, which looks natural

You can achieve dripfeed backlinking with article marketing, by submitting well written articles to networks where other webmasters will pick them up over time – and by continually working little & often on gaining backlinks from various sources, and of course publishing great content & having a good website & great features is a way to naturally gain backlinks over time (i.e people will link to your website because they feel it’s of value to their readers / visitors)  however one of the easiest way to achieve constant dripfed backlinks is with a content syndication network such as traffic kaboom.

Whatever you do, just remember you don’t want a huge blast of backlinks & then nothing – as this doesn’t look natural, dripfed backlinks from a range of different types of website is what you should be aiming to achieve.

Aweber is probably one of the very best investments I’ve ever made – whats’s more, it costs $1 for the first month! After this it’s $19 per month until your list grows – if you’re not making a fantastic profit on the cost of your subscription, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board!

The delivery rate is fantastic, it’s immensely easy to create lists, and to develop autoresponder series, the stats are brilliant, as is the ability to create segments from these stats… for instance, you can go into your stats, see who read the email, see who clicked it, and choose to send a follow up email to specific groups –  you could choose to send the same email again the next day but with a different subject header, to anyone who didn’t open the email. You can choose to send another email to anyone who opened the email but didn’t click – and you could choose to send a second email to anyone who did click. Very advanced.

Creating forms is very simple to do, and the form choice is great – and it’s very easy to customize the form, for instance you can even use the forms to create in depth quotation request forms, as I’ve done in the past.

I’ve tried other email marketing platforms, most of which have cost me a LOT more than Aweber, and I’ve never found one of them as good! The support is briliant, on the very rare chance that you’ll even need support – as it just works! They have got their sh!t together, so to speak, things just do what they’re supposed to, you click send – and it sends, you set up autoresponders and they go when they’re supposed to – it just works! I can’t even remember the last time I needed to contact support, it certainly wasn’t in 2012, in fact I don’t think I needed support from them at all in 2011 either.

The best premium wordpress themes

in my opinion:

The Ultimate Blogging Theme -  The theme by 16 yearold “kid blogger” Carl Ocab, who gained internet theme when he gained no1 ranking for “make money online” . OK, there is discussion on the warrior forum about the fact that actually this is the son of successful marketer Aron Ocab, and that it may have been a case of his father using his son’s name in order to cash in on the angle of “kid blogger” by doing some or all of the work…but who cares. The Theme is very clever, very easy to use, and has some great features.

Socrates - One of the most popular premium wordpress themes for people who want a fast solution for creating profitable websites and blogs. Very fast & simple to work with, very quick & easy to personalise with custom header or choose a stock header, layout choices are very simple, links & ads / adsense very simple to set up. It may not be as flexible and advances as some of the others, but when I want to build & populate a wordpress site quickly & I don’t have any spefic requirements which require more flexibility, then I go for Socrates.

Thesis - Arguably the most popular premium wordpress theme for more advanced users. Thesis isn’t just a theme, it’s a “framework” – if you just want to buy a theme & be up & running immediately, thesis probably isn’t for you, and if you consider yourself a newby technically speaking, then again it’s probably not for you. If you’re more of an advanced marketer, and you’re wanting to put some time in to set something up which then enables you to create your own custom websites / blogs exactly how you want them, then Thesis may be for you. Many developers use Thesis when creating websites for clients.

Authority Pro Theme - Very slick theme, packed with features! This isn’t the kind of theme for throwing up small niche sites – for this I usually go with socrates, but if you’re planning to build bigger sites, and you need more features, I’d have a look at this theme. I beleive that as with thesis, there are many developers who use this theme to create websites for clients. Again this is more than just a theme, probably somewhere in between flexsqueeze and Thesis.

Flexsqueeze - I love this theme, it takes more time to setup for each site than socrates does, but it’s great if you need a bit more flexibility. In fact, this blog that you’re reading right now is on flexsqueeze. Lots of options in flexsqueeze, but it’s all very simple at the same time, a beginner may need to spend a little time finding their feet – but not as much as with Authority pro or Thesis, it’s very straight forward, there are just quite a few options, once you’ve played around with it a bit it’s very straight forward.

Authority Pro Theme - Very slick theme, packed with features! This isn’t the kind of theme for throwing up small niche sites – for this I usually go with socrates, but if you’re planning to build bigger sites, and you need more features, I’d have a look at this theme. I beleive that as with thesis, there are many developers who use this theme to create websites for clients.

Market Theme – Ecommerce WordPress Theme - Brilliant eCommerce theme. If you’re wanting to create ecommerce / online shop sites with wordpress, check this out. Very simple to use.

Acme - Created by Dan Nickerson, co-creator of Socrates – This is a child theme of the twenty ten theme. If you like the twenty ten theme but you wish you could do more with it, then this may be a nice theme for you.

Film Maker Theme - This is a unique theme, aimed at people who want to create their own movies & sell them online – but actually it has multiple uses. Basically what this theme allows you to do is create a very cool looking movie tailor website, and link from your trailer to Amaxon, iTunes, Hulu & Netflix, so you can sell your movie. Great idea as a money maker, find niche video’s (could be movies, could be instructional) on Amazon, create your own site – wuth a textual review, and run the trailer along with your Amazon affiliates link…

Band WP Theme - Great theme for anyone wanting to create a bands website, with a very easy system for uploading tracks, one click twitter & facebook integration & LOTS more. I’m a musician, I’m not in a band at the moment but back when I was – we would have been thrilled to have a band website the likes of which this simple wordpress theme can allow you to create in less than an hour.

A note about the word free – if you’re looking towards the web as a way to develop an income, just remember the old saying, “you have to speculate to accumulate” – OK, if you really have absolutely no money, and it’s a complete necessity that you get everything you need free – then that’s unavoidable, but just beware that in most cases if you’re looking for free, you’re making a trade off, while it’s free in terms of the initial transaction not carrying with it a fee, it may not be free in real terms, when it comes to the value you may have got if you’d gone for a paid premium wordpress theme, or the extra time you may have to put in with free themes. So if you do have a few quid to invest – then if you invest in one of these themes, it really is an investment, not a cost.

Investing vs. spending – the key is RETURN.

Just keep in mind that there is a difference between investing money & spending money. Spending means putting money into something which brings no return, investing means putting in money into something for a return. Business is all about return on investment, (ROI) return on money invested, and return on time & effort invested. One of the key skills of successful business people, is knowing what to invest in, in order to bring about a return. What successful business people do NOT do, is waste precious time & effort trying to find things for free, instead they simply figure out what they’re best investing in, in order to get the best returns.

One of the issues I find with people who’re relatively new to online marketing, is they are looking at things back to front & upside down, they forget that they’re in business & what they need to do is invest wisely to bring about a return, and they often tend to waste hours & hours of precious time messing about with free stuff. Often times people waste money on stuff that they’re not going to get a return on (such as purchasing numerous eBooks & courses promising the latest silver bullet for web marketing success) , and then try to scrimp on the stuff that really does stand to bring them a return.

Google pagerank is actually called “toolbar pagerank” – and that’s all it is, it’s for “display purposes only” – it’s a snapshot of the actual pagerank which Google use to rank sites, it’s out of date (they update it 3-4 times per year usually) and it’s just an indication.

So why do people put so much stock in pagerank?

Simply because up until a few years ago – pagerank was one of  the major currencies of the internet. “linkjuice” was akin to the illegal booze trade of the early 20th century. OK it wasn’t “illegal” as such, but people were literally using Google pagerank as a currency, how much they could sell a backlink for depended on the pagerank, and this trade was responsible for pagerank being over valued. Google didn’t like this one bit, so they worked very hard to stamp it out, they have done so successfully, to the point that if you are buying backlinks, there’s more chance of it hindering than helping.

The fact is though, pagerank has never been anything but a token, out of date indication of how much linkjuice a site has – and even if the toolbar PR was anywhere near the true PR, there is a lot more to  it than this, for example the number of outbound links per page (the linkjuice is shared among all the dofollow links present on the page) .

Pagerank is important, in that it gives you an indication – of what a potential backlinking site has to offer and whether it’s worth putting in the effort to get the backlink, but that’s where it stops. What you should focus on more than anything, is the quality & quantity of unique content. For example – this site currently shows as a PR0, simply because I changed domains & re-directed & there’s not been a toolbar update since.

If you’re slightly confused about backlinks, what they are, the different kinds of backlinks, whether to buy them or build them, whether they even matter, and whether or not you should even be concerned about them – then this post may help.

What are they?

Backlinks are a hyperlink from one website to another. So if my website is mysite.com and your website is yoursite.com, and create a link on a page from my website to your website, then I’m giving you a backlink.

Nofollow Vs Dofollow

The Nofollow attribute means that search engine spiders ignore the link – Nofollow links are fine for passing visitors from one site to another (for example if you buy an advert on a website, to get visitors of that site to go to your website), but have no SEO benefit.

“DoFollow” is a term which describes links which haven’t had the nofollow attribute attached to them (or another method of achieving the same).

Both “NoFollow” and “DoFollow” links can pass visitors from the linking site to the linked to site, but only DoFollow backlinks have an impact on search engine optimisation, as they pass linkjuice.

What is linkjuice?

Linkjuice is a term used to describe the SEO benefit of a dofollow link from one site to another. The better quality & quantity of backlinks going to the site which is linking to your website, the more juice there is to pass to you.

What is pagerank, and how important is it when building backlinks?

Google toolbar pagrank  is the indication Google give of how much linkjuice a website has. It’s viewed via the Google toolbar, or you can also view with SEOquake plugin, and other plugins. It’s best used as a rough indication only, as it’s out of date (Google only update it usually three to four times a year) and it’s only a snapshot of the pagerank that Google use internally. Many people do not realise, or forget, that the pagerank we know about is just “toolbar pagerank” it’s a snapshot, it’s not Google’s actual pagerank.

A fairly good analogy for toolbar pagerank, is credit score. A company or individual’s credit score is a snapshot of their credit file, it’s not bang up to date, it’s not comprehensive, it’s meant to give a rough idea – a bank wouldn’t give you a mortgage based only on your credit score. So don’t get to focussed on pagerank. Those who often get concerned about pagerank are those who’re selling backlinks – and if you’re selling backlinks to pass linkjuice, then you’re breaking Goolge’s terms of service, and that never goes very well…(more on  buying backlinks shortly).

Are backlinks the only important “off the page” factor?

No, there’s also domain age / website age – but there’s not a great deal you can do about that, other than either buying an aged domain (or better still, a website within your niche which has a history of activity, i.e. there has been pages of unique content on it for a number of years)

Should you buy backlinks or build them?

Build them, don’t buy them! See my post “why paid backlinks are a waste of money”  and also “paid backlinks vs backlink building services” .

Here’s why buying backlinks is a bad idea – in brief (I won’t go into it in detail as I have done in the previous posts I’ve just mentioned) Google clearly state that if a website sells a link, it must be NoFollow – if it isn’t, then it’s against their T.O.S. They stop sites that are selling links & passing juice, from being able to pass linkjuice.  They even go further and state that a website’s search engine results may suffer as a result!  Yes there are some directories such as Yahoo, that Google do trust to pass linkjuice, and other directories that it’s believed Google trust (but there’s no 100% guarantee) – but most of the sites out there selling backlinks for SEO benefits, are selling snakeoil – i.e. selling stuff which they say will have an effect, which it usually will not have.

There is only one type of backlink buying/ trading that is possibly worth considering other than a listing in the Yahoo directory – and that is the old fashioned approach, of picking up the phone & speaking to people who own websites that are relevant to your niche  & have link juice to pass , building a relationship up with other webmasters, and seeing what can be done. It’s possibly not the best way in terms of quantity, but quantity can be overrated when it comes to back links anyway, quality is way more important.

Do I need lots and lots of backlinks as soon as possible?

No, not necessarily, in fact if you read my post on backlinking too quickly you’ll see an example of the fact that too much too quick is not a good thing. It needs to look natural, a spike in backlinking activity & then nothing, doesn’t look natural.

What about link wheels?

Be careful of anything which looks like a “linkfarm” (which is the term that describes a way of creating artificial backlinks, by pooling linkjuice & sharing amongst the included sites. It works in theory, but in practice – Google will sniff it out & plant their foot firmly in your ass…

So what backlinks do I need?

Natural looking backlinks, in terms of the quality and quantity and frequency - continuously & consistently. Links which would appear to have come naturally, due to natural activities & down to the quality of the website, and not via spammy processes.  There are lots of things you can do, article submitting, REAL blog commenting on high quality blogs which dofollow links in comments (when I say real, I mean not silly spammy “I love your post” comments, which are pointless & just get deleted). Social bookmarking, guest posts, social networking, and content & video syndication programs such as Traffic Kaboom.

Don’t try to make the crap rise…

Google use backlinks as part of their system of allowing the cream to rise & the crap to fall. If you make your website the cream (in terms of the quality of the website & the content and features) then it’s far more likely to rise, and you’ll find it generally easier. If you have a website which isn’t very good, with little unique content, with little value to offer the web, you’re going to be swimming up stream trying to get your website ranked highly on Google – where as focusing on building a quality website is like swimming downstream, you still need to apply yourself, but it’s much easier!

Many “guru’s” in the web marketing arena that create hit products regularly, specifically build products to sell, they tell people what they want to hear, they regurgitate old stuff & re-package it with most of the focus on the launch & the packaging – this isn’t what Kelly does!

Bring the fresh is for real – I’m a member, and it’s a program I would wholeheartedly recommend that anyone looking to improve their ability to make money online, looks into.

See the Bring the Fresh video below

By the way, it’s kaboom not caboom , I’ve noticed that a few people refer to it as traffic caboom, or even traffik caboom – not that it really matters…

Here’s how this discount thing works.

Click here to join traffic kaboom and then after 60 days –  forward me your clickbank order number (the order number you will receive by the clickbank network as soon as you order)  along with the URL of your website (your website address) and your most important search term(s), and I will do the following for you – free of charge:

1: Review your on-page SEO – and let you know if there are any areas which I feel you can improve

2: Review the search terms you’re focusing on - and let you know if I think you’re focusing on the wrong search terms, and if so – why.

3: I will blog about your website here – including a backlink to your website.

4: Send you a unique strategy for creating an income stream as an affiliate marketer - this is completely unique, it’s a system you cannot buy, anywhere – you will love it, it’s very simple, makes complete sense, and you’ll kick yourself that you didn’t come up with the strategy yourself.)

OR – if there is some specific SEO service you would like instead, just contact me & we’ll see what we can do.

So you’re receiving a discount by way of receiving something of value from me – not a cash discount (simply because this is against Clickbank’s terms) but something which is of value to you.

How can I offer you this discount if I don’t own traffic kaboom?

The reason I can offer this discount if you purchase via the link above (or you can purchase via this link right here) is that I’m a clickbank affiliate, I’ll earn a commission when you order via my link – which enables me to offer you this value. Some people offer products or other bonuses to readers or subscribers who order via their affiliate link, I’m offering the above services free of charge.

Why does this discount have to come after 60 days?

The reason it has to come after 60 days, is that this is the refund period – you can request a refund within 60 days, and if a refund is requested, I lose the affiliate commission, so if I put the time in to do the above but within the refund period, and then a refund is requested, I’m putting the time in to do this for nothing. I don’t like working for nothing!

So there you go, quite simple really – if you join traffic kaboom via my affiliate link, I’ll give you a discount via services to the value of the affiliate commission I receive.

Why don’t I offer a refund via a cash rebate after the 60 day refund period?

I would, that’s simple – but clickbank would kick my ass, as it’s against their terms. I’ve been a clickbank affiliate for years, I wouldn’t do anything that would risk losing my account.

So there you go, a very valid way for you to get a traffic kaboom discount

If you’re wondering what this is & whether it’s worth investing in;  Google (and other search engines, but Google is the best in terms of market share currently, by a long way) positions are the new hot property. You’ve heard the term “location location location” in property / real estate, well it’s the same with the internet – the top of Google for a given search term is the place to be, and no matter how fantastic a website is, unless it’s located towards the top of Google & the other search engines, it’s not going to earn you anywhere near the kind of return that it could do if it was.  Most people are aware of this, but what most aren’t aware of is how to get websites to the top of Google.

There are a number of things that you can do, you can hire an SEO company (from anywhere from a couple of hundred to a few thousand per month, depending on how competitive the search term(s), or you can do it yourself and save a lot of money but invest time & effort – if this is the route you’re taking, then one of the things you really should look into, is an article & video syndication – and you’re not going to get much better than traffic kaboom (in my humble opinion) than TK.  Click Here to find out more and / or purchase.

First of all:

WHY should you get an SEO job?

Simple – if you like SEO, then as long as you’re careful & you find the right company to work for, you’ll like your job a heck of a lot more than if you were doing something you didn’t like. For me personally, I enjoy SEO – I can spend a full long day doing it, and wonder where the time went – if the same is true for you, then an SEO job is a great decision. If in fact it bores the heck out of you & makes you feel tired, or gives you a headache, then think again!

How to get an SEO job?

See my recent Seo Cover Letter post, where I explain that although you need a great cover letter, there’s something else to it, that if you do, can make a huge difference!

One  thing is for sure, especially when it comes to client side SEO jobs (I explain the difference between agency side & client side in the Seo Cover Letter post) there are many jobs available, in a wide range of different industries, even more if you’re open to a more all-encompassing “web marketing manager” role, which usually include pay per click as well as SEO, and sometimes other discipline’s such as affiliate management,  display advertising, content creation, etc., If you’re an all round web marketing, then web marketing manager may be your perfect job!

Kev, Is it good to pay for backlinks? Some say yes, some say no – I’m confused. help. Thx. Matt

Hi Matt,

First of all, I’ve written about the paid backlinks issue in two previous  posts: Why paid backlinks are a waste of money, and paid backlinks vs, backlinking services , so you may want to read these for a bit more background info.

The first thing I need to do is make it clear what I’m talking about when I refer to “paid backlinks” or “buying backlinks” – I’m referring to paying a webmaster / website owner for a DoFollow backlink on their website. For instance you may get to a directory, which sells inclusion to the directory including a DoFollow link to your website, for $x per month / per year.

What I’m not referring to is paying someone to do backlinking for you, or paying for membership to syndication networks such as traffic kaboom - investing money wisely into gaining quality backlinks is a good idea – investing money by simply paying webmasters to give you a link on their website, is not such a good idea.

What I’m also not referring to, is buying links on websites in order to refer traffic – it’s a perfectly good idea to invest in an ad on a website which is relevant for your products or services, which links people to your site – but if the advertiser is acting in accordance with Google’s rules, they will NoFollow the backlink, in other words visitors can follow the links, but code is used to stop the search engine bots from following them.

So if you’re asking is it good to pay for backlinks, in terms of looking for directories and other sites with paid inclusion, to get your backlinks that way – then no, it’s not good – as it’s against Google’s terms of service, anything that is against Google’s TOS is not worth doing – not so much because it will have a negative impact (although Google say that paid links “can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results”) but mainly because it’s a waste of money. I’m far less concerned about the potential that paid backlinks may hinder ranking, than I am that paid links are money down the drain, as Google is clever, they can see which sites are blatantly selling DoFollow links, and when they do, these sites that are doing the linking, lose the ability to pass anything of value (link juice) to the sites they’re linking to. This is what Google say about buying or selling backlinks:

So there you go, from the horses mouth.

Just to be clear, we’re talking about buying a link from a website, we’re not talking about the act of gaining backlinking, by article submitting, social bookmarking, quality blog commenting on high PR quality blogs that allow comment links to be DoFollow, content & video sydication programs such as  traffic kaboom - or hiring the services of a professional SEO company or consultant to outsource all of this.

If you’re using an SEO consultant (like me) or seo company, just make sure you ask them what they’re doing & that you can be confident that they’re not doing stuff like buying backlinks, or other ineffective or black hat (against Google TOS) stuff. I have had experience of so called SEO experts just investing the money you pay them into buying backlinks – at one time I was so busy doing SEO for other people, that I decided to hire someone else to take care of my own SEO, I spent a thousand pounds (nearly $2k at the time as the pound was stronger then), and to my dismay a few months later I found that all the guy had done, was to spend probably a quarter of what I paid him (if that) on buying backlinks – and it was £1k completely wasted, not one iota of improvement, and if not for the fact that I’m an SEO guy myself, I would probably have never known, so if it’s easy for me – a professional web marketing consultant – to get stung, then it’s not difficult to see why large numbers of business people have had their fingers burned!

SO anyway, there you go, in short:

 Is it good to pay for backlinks?

Nope!