And thank you … I try to stay as level headed as possible. Sky isn’t falling last time I checked.

I get a kick out of all the search companies advising people that this will kill them, even though their link profile is littered with rented links.

Google appears to have adopted a mixed strategy when it comes to punishing paid links. I think that’s what frustrates so many. Sometimes you report your competitors for paid links and Google apparently does nothing. Other times, paid link reporting works. For link sellers, it’s the same. You can sometimes get away with a lot. Other times you get punished. People might scream that it’s all unfair, but it makes perfect sense from Google’s standpoint. With a mixed strategy, you aren’t consistent. You punish enough offenders to strike fear into the industry. Google doesn’t have to be consistent and enforce every offense. That would cost them a lot of money. Selective enforcement is the best strategy for them.