One of the most heated topics in Internet Marketing is paid links. Bringing it up when you first meet someone in the industry is like talking about abortion and the death penalty on a first date. It starts heated discussions, and sometimes feelings and egos get hurt. Google has guidelines that they sometimes enforce, and sometimes don't. It seems so unfair when you see a site that is clearly violating those guidelines, but Google does ...

Funny, I started this post in Seattle and with the blog move, never got back to it. Now Rand has gone and done so much better, but I still have somethings to say about all this. I recently asked Matt Cutts about topics he thought I might research for my Master's thesis. I thought paid linking and he said it was going to be sooo 2007. I disagreed because I had seen so many people still doing it. When we got to Seattle, what I said was backed ...

When do you fix problems with your product? Traditional business says only when required or when the cost of NOT fixing it out weighs the cost of fixing it. When did we stop being decent human beings? I read that in my Managerial Accounting text book just a week ago and it baffled me. Then today, I see yet another story about American Airlines. Only this time it's not wiring, it's landing gear issues. In the story, they mention that AA will only ...

I've changed jobs, and now working for a company who knows the value of search engine marketing. They are moving from having an agency to bringing SEM in house. As I review what has been done in the past few months, I see a new term ... a new term to me. Rented LinkSo I've been doing some research there. All I can come up with is that a rented link is just a paid link in the short term. Remember the beginning of paid links? You bought it for a ...

So Microsoft didn't buy Facebook, but they made the relationship stronger. Things should get really interesting now. With a good chunk of the SEM world mad at Google for the paid link thing, MSN making moves to improve their search AND tell people about it, and their already dominance on all PCs initially, this could make an interest shift in the search world. Not one I am particularly happy about (I'm for Ask, the real undergog), but this does ...

Barry notes today that a number of sites have been wrist slapped by Google for selling paid links. Good for Google. I hate to say it, but Barry is right, Google gave plenty of warning. Google can do what it wants, what it thinks is best for the end user, not the advertiser. If you want to do well in Google, you have to do what they say. It's as simple as that. If you want to buy links, go for it. It just won't help anymore. ...

Search Engine Watch just posted a rant about paid linking. One of many since SES San Jose (I'm still mad that I didn't go. Matt told me to, I should have.)After everyone in the SEM world harking on Google for their initiative to go after paid linkers, I really hope they don't drop it. Paid linking is the source for many bad sites being ranked just because they have money. This whole thing is like file sharing. When it's a random person (or site ...

I am sure I will talk about this issue a lot. So this is just number one. I didn't get to attend SES San Jose, and I still regret it. But one of the things brought up there was the paid link debate. Since then a number of SEMs have gotten in on the debate, and the consensus from what I've seen is that seasoned SEMs don't care for Google's stance. Matt Cutts has said that Google will not count link love from a paid source. You won't be banned, ...