Search engines do not like paid links. They do not want webmasters paying for inbound links from other websites. Why? Because when done properly it enables webmasters to quickly and easily rank very high. Since there is a potential high reward, many webmasters are understandably attracted to paid links.

Before you get involved with paid links make sure you understand the landscape. The search engines are very vocal about selling links and buying links can result in search engine penalties. Google has made some very public examples of websites involved with paid links. They have mostly only gone after the sellers. Websites that have bought links are been targeted much less. There are some big brokers of paid links. They used to publicly list the URLs that were willing to sell links. Not surprisingly Google has targeted these brokers and gone after their inventory.

If you still want to do paid links and are willing to accept the risks for a chance of being rewarded with high rankings then follow this checklist:
#1 Always try and make it look natural
#2 Only buy links from related/relevant websites (remember make it look natural)
#3 Build up gradually (it is not natural for a site to get 1 million links overnight)
#4 Vary the anchor text (natural links would have variations)
#5 Prefer private deals over known link brokers
#6 Stretch your budget by only picking sites that can also deliver direct traffic
#7 Make sure the links can be followed by search engines (no tracking codes)
#8 Give it time, don't cancel link buys after just a month

This checklist is not a foolproof, guaranteed guide. It is simply meant to help you get into the right mindset for paid links. You want to minimize the chances of being flagged by the search engines and increase the chances of the paid links help drive direct traffic to your site and also help your search engine rankings. Some of my best paid links have been done on very weak sites (in the eyes of search engines) that have driven large amounts of high converting traffic. If you get enough of that traffic you won't even need traffic from Google anymore!

Wouldn't it be a better idea to avoid paid links and work on getting links in other ways rather than to risk the wrath of Google? With article marketing, blog commenting and social networks it's easy to get unpaid links these days. These can all help your ranking without risking a penalty.

That's got to be some of the worse advice I have ever seen posted here.

Don't pay for links people! Ever. Your own links are much more valuable. Always look within the web site to improve rankings. Links from outside sources will come, naturally, with having above standard content. That's what the search engine really rewards.

Take control of your web site promotion.

hi alwaysworking,

my purpose was to help explain paid links. i don't think paid links are always a good idea and there are definite risks involved. if you can get quality websites to link to you for free that is great and you should definitely go for it.

any link building strategy should include a variety of link building activities. you mention some good ideas like articles and social networks. i think it would be good to start with those free links.

part of a link strategy can be paid links if you pick the right link and do not look at paid links as a shortcut. i am just trying to help people make a more educated decision and realize that paid links are not always evil and not always a good idea.

Inbound links are critical for good search engine rankings. You should not think that they will magically appear just because your website has great content. If you do not promote your website and shout on the highest mountain top about how great your site is people will not know to link to you. Links do not just appear. You need to email, submit, call and do anything else to reasonably promote the site and encourage people to link to you.

Hello

I use this tool http://zqcheck.com for checking back link.

Included features:

1. Scan advertiser website for back link to Your url. Display status for each back link.
- unavailable - back link lost Your Url
- ok - back link contain Your Url
- broken - back link contain special characters etc.
- nofollow - back link contain nofollow tag

2. Display google PR
3. Check for faked PR
4. Display Alexa Rank

Thanks