Value of a link ( 2 )

[Alan]

I have a blog post that ranks position 5 on a 4 word keyword that is of interest to a technology firm.

The only sites above mine are github, google and stackoverflow ( so sites that are unlikely to be overtaken )

The tech firm contacted me and asked if I would be interested publishing some thing from them, I responded asking for details.

They then 'insulted' my blog saying that its Alexa rank is 3.5M and its DA is 12. If it was better ( less than 1.5M and DA of 55) they would pay me $350, but as my site is worthless then only $100 - to 1) add a link to the ranking page that promotes their product and 2) to add a page and link to it offering product details ( I assume forever )


What would you do
1) ignore them as chancers
2) counter bid with a bigger number ( if so what )
3) take their offer and be grateful

The post gets 84 organic hits per month

 

[fisicx]

Ignore them.

I get these sort of offers almost daily.

 

[BusinessTradeCentre]

Counter bid with a higher offer. Its not always the value of the link in terms of DA/PA. That's 84 targeted visits per month. I would say, I have been offered $200 from another company recently.

 

[Clinton]

As somehow who has earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from text links, I do have some experience in this area.

I say that you shouldn't get so easily offended. It's not an "insult" to have a low Alexa/DA. They are simply pointing out facts.

DA is a dumb way to assess the value of the links, but a lot of companies buying links aren't very SEO smart anyway.

There are only two values for links - SEO and direct traffic. You have, frankly speaking and no "insult" intended, b*gger all traffic to that page. Talk 50K - 100K unique visitors (not the vague and ambiguous / bullsh*t "hits") and you have a page you can sell. 84 uniques and nobody who buys traffic would have the time and patience to talk with you.

$100? Bite his hand off.

 

[fisicx]

I did bite the hand of someone offering content and the result was junk. They posted once a week and it was recycled garbage. So I stopped.

 

[Alan]

I agree it is no traffic at all on that page, but that said for instance I have terms that get 5 to 7 hits per month that convert to affiliate revenue of approx $40 - so 5 hits = $480 p.a. to me.

 

[Clinton]

That's not how link buyers work out the value of a link.

In any case 5 "hits" - you continue to use the Bullsh*tters International terminology - doesn't translate to $480. You forgot one number - conversion rate. This is how it works: You get 10,000 people to a page and 1% or so click on your link. So 100 people arrive at the retailer's site. 1 person makes a purchase. You get $40 for 10,000 visitors, not for 84 visitors. At those numbers, and your current rate of traffic, it'll take 10 years to reach your first $40.

Some slick affiliate marketers fine tune the crap out of their landing pages and copy and can increase their conversion rates. You aren't in their league when it comes to affiliate marketing .... and as it isn't your main income you're not analysing the crap out of your logs, tweaking and testing and optimising and improving all the time. 0.5% to 1% CTR is generous; I've seen high quality pages get 0% year after year.

But I doubt I'll convince you that your page isn't really that valuable from a link buying perspective.

If you want to get more money, work on the DA. That's more easily manipulated than traffic and link buyers do pay more for a higher DA. Before DA it was PR. I used to own several PR8 sites, a dozen or so PR7 sites and 100+ PR6 sites. And it's amazing how much more people will pay for a link from a site with higher PR (which they are doing now for higher DA).

 

[Alan]

But I doubt I'll convince you that your page isn't really that valuable from a link buying perspective.

You don't need to convince me, from a link buyers perspective as offering £60 is the value a link buyer has placed on it. That said, they are not a pro SEO firm but the wantrepreneurs of the tech firm, I'm pretty certain a pro SEO firm would offer less.

In any case 5 "hits" - you continue to use the Bullsh*tters International terminology - doesn't translate to $480. You forgot one number - conversion rate.

Of course I understand your comment here - the actual conversion rate is pretty high ( well maybe not as high as it could be as I don't constantly analyse as the real money value is too low to waste time on ) - the conversion rate is 33% - but then it does rank p1 for 'discount code niche product' and 'promo code niche product' which I guess is deep into the buying funnel. Rather funnily one of the high converting pages says something as stupid as - "I don't think you can get a discount code, but I might be wrong, why not go and check if they have any offers on"

You are right from their perspective, my 88 visitors land on a page that gives away a free solution, that the tech company charges for - so damn near 100% of visitors will ignore the paid solution link. And I'm not going to polute my copy with a sales pitch.

But from my perspective - if I give them a page relating to discount / promo code ( which is what they are asking for too ) and it ranks number 1 ( and this is not a fluke - I ranked a niche product just the other day, as soon as published it was page 1 and within 2 weeks position one ) I will be send them high converting traffic.

So answering my question - no deal. ( unless they had an affliate programme - which they don't )

 

[Alan]

If you want to get more money, work on the DA. That's more easily manipulated than traffic and link buyers do pay more for a higher DA.

Buyers are foolish then.

 

[Clinton]

... it does rank p1 for 'discount code niche product' and 'promo code niche product' which I guess is deep into the buying funnel.

It's an indication that your page attracts cheapskates who've already decided what they're going to buy and are just looking for ways to get it at the lowest price.

Retailers targeting the cheapskate don't have a great margin to pay affiliates. Besides, in this case, they've already given the margin (or most of it) to the customer via a discount code.

 

[Alan]

Good for me though.

 

[justinaldridge]

If it's a competitive or valuable search term then the value of your link will be much more that $100. Getting a link from another site on page 1 for a given search term will hold a lot of value. If they can get links from 2 or 3 sites on page 1 then it will have a major impact on their rankings for that associated term.

If they are willing to pay 100 they will be willing to pay double that. If not then they don't understand the intricacies of SEO and are just too narrow minded in their focus on the worthless value of DA.