I agree. I've even told people that I thought they were stupid for advertising that they sell links on their site or that it was very obvious that they did. It's just waving the flag at Google, so it shouldn't come as a suprise if they got tagged.

but the truth of the matter is… the whole thing with Google lowering the PageRank for sites that sell links in my opinion it's a good thing… and my reasoning for thinking it's a good thing is that a site shouldn't be based off of the fact that it's a PR6 or even a PR2 when it comes to selling link space / links it should be rank on the quality of the content. Because pretty anyone could easily buy a PR5 domain off of ebay and strap it down with content just to sell a spot on that page because its' a PR6.

I'm working my way up to be a digital dork

http://forum.abestweb.com/showpost.php?p=486322&p…

"If i'm not online I'm playing xBox Live with my friends."

Blog full of game cheats, and personal XBOX scoring milestones. Doesn't get much nerdy. Get out of the house and get some fresh air or stop playing so many games and then you too might be able to make some money.

And while we are at it, lso see this one and this one. Of course does Google give a damn about CJ links which pass nada, nichts, nitschwo, nothing. I would be so sure about those.

If it would be a no brainer for Google, they would not avoid answering the question and answer it, especially after being asked directly more than once (so the argument that they did not see the it is out of the question).

I approached Matt at SES San Jose in August and guess what, he did not answer my question about affiliate links that pass link juice and if they are considered paid or not.

He just smiled at me. So is that a yes or a no? I dunno and I guess that "it depends". The definition of "it depends" is unfortunately not clear. Matt is not a "big fan" of affiliates

Vlad, the link at CPN will not bring you very much. More than nothing? Probably, but by far not as much as a single text link on a one PR5 page on a trusted domain.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-page…

Not affiliate links. I understand that some merchants are setup that way (getting SE benefit via affiliate links) but you're still getting paid for actual conversions. So what I quoted you as saying is wrong. You're not getting paid for merely putting up a link to a merchant. Merchants aren't paying you a set amount to put up links. Read that whole page to get a better understanding of what Google is talking about. We've actually had discussions about merchants and networks and straight links, probably not a good idea because it's merchants using the affiliate program to game Google:

http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=92873&…

I disagree. I have naked affiliate links were my merchants are getting SEO benefits. Yes I do get paid only if a sale is produced, but I do get paid and the merchant is getting SEO benefits at the same time.