Is it Worth Selling Text Links?

On my mortgage site, I frequently get people offering to buy text links. If I had sold these text links I could have made quite a lot of money, and I have to say it is rather tempting.

The problem is that Google say that webmasters shouldn’t do it.

You can understand why Google are against buying text links.

• Links are an important factor in determining page rank and search engine positions. Therefore selling links will distort search engine results. It will benefit sites who can afford to pay for text links and not those who deserve to be higher.
• If getting search engine results requires webmasters to buy links, it will cause a bidding war, where the people willing to pay the most will get the best search results.

Because Google say don’t do it, I am reluctant to ignore their advice. Why?

• Google are the biggest traffic providers
• Google are the biggest source of income and most reliable advertiser.
• There is a kind of duty to listen to Google, because a Google penalty would be bad for both me and the other site trying to buy a link.
• I also appreciate the fact that Google is trying to avoid manipulation of search results.

Is It Possible To avoid Detection with Selling Text Links?

If you are going to sell text links, then it is important that they are relevant to the website. Also it is probably better to go for individual posts, rather than site wide links. If the site is relevant google may have difficult in distinguishing between a real link and a paid link. But, Is it worth the hassle? Google may be able to work out which sites are paying for links. In the long run, I think sites who sell text links will suffer some kind of penalty from Google.