The first-ever online marketplace for buying and selling links in articles and blog posts based on Google Authorship and Klout score has been launched. Buying and selling links based on Google’s PageRank has long been a controversial topic, as well as a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. AuthorLinks is a marketplace for buying and selling links based on a web site owner’s Google Authorship and overall Klout score.
The goal of AuthorLinks is to change how links in blog posts and in articles are sold. Rather than basing the price of a link on an outdated metric like Google PageRank and maybe even overall link data such as SEOMoz’s MozRank or Majestic SEO’s ACRank, with AuthorLinks, the emphasis is based on how popular an author or web site owner is socially. Social signals such as having verified Google Authorship, having followers on Google Plus, and having a good Klout score are going to be much more important in the future–and indicate that the site who will be linking to your web site is more trusted than others.
AuthorLinks is 2017 Link Building
While many are still caught up with acquiring links from web sites that have good Google PageRank and a history of quality backlinks to their web site, in the future, around 2017, I’m predicting that social signals and getting a “link” from a web site that has a lot of real human readers (thus clicks to your web site) is going to be more important then some link in a sidebar, footer, or blogroll link. AuthorLinks, which only concentrates on links from web sites whose owners are active socially, is 2017 linking at its finest.
AuthorLinks Pricing
Author Links is a marketplace for the buying and selling of contextual links that appear in content. These links appear in content on blogs and as articles on web sites. Pricing is based on the author’s current Authorship status, their current Klout influence, and the topic they write about. The more popular the author is, the higher the cost to get that author to write about your product or service. Authors get paid by Author Links to create and publicize great content.
Built Based on Demand
As someone who has been practicing search engine optimization since 1996, I have seen many different SEO fads, schemes, and scams come up over the years. There’s been everything from getting listed in useless directories, buying and selling of sidebar text links, guest blog posting, and even massive blog commenting and spamming that’s gotten way out of control. The bottom line is that we need to forget about search engien optimization and chasing the latest SEO fad or scheme to rank higher in the search results.
What we really need is a blogger or web site who is popular in your industry to write about your products or services and send real humans to your web site. Forget about Google PageRank or how many links a web site has–you need real eyeballs to hit your web site. People who follow that blogger and trust what he or she has to say. That’s where AuthorLinks comes in. AuthorLinks matches your need as a web site owner with bloggers or web site owners who are willing to write about your product or service for a fee. You can trust the fact that if you pay your products or services will get noticed. AuthorLinks works with bloggers and web site owners who are totally transparent (they have verified their Google Authorship) and they are active on social media (they have a certain Klout score).
I personally built AuthorLinks based on demand–the need for a marketplace where great content can be placed with a blogger or web site owner who is both transparent and who has a good following on the social media web sites. Sure, you can create great content. But if you do not have an appropriate place to put that content and you cannot get that content in front of real eyeballs who will interact with it and who will share it with others, then you’re out of luck.
Not Without Controversy
In the past few months, I’ve quietly launched AuthorLinks. Well, apparently not so quietly, after all. Turns out that AuthorLinks has already made the rounds on Twitter, on Google Plus, hit the homepage of Inbound.org, as well as being mentioned in a recent presentation at the SMX Conference. There has been a lot of confusion over exactly what AuthorLinks is and what it’s doing. One thing for sure is that AuthorLinks is NOT selling Google AuthorRank. It’s certainly NOT selling Google PageRank (we don’t even calculate or check Google PageRank for a site selling AuthorLinks), which is a violation Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. AuthorLinks strongly encourages authors to comply with all FTC guidelines for disclosure as well as any search engine guidelines for paid posts.
AuthorLinks is selling access to transparent authors who are active on social media web sites. If you’re interested in that, then take a look. If you’re a transparent author who is active socially then you may be interested in monetizing your web site further by being an approved AuthorLinks author.
Update: AuthorLinks has rebranded itself as AuthPost, and can now be found on http://www.authpost.com.
Update: Links have been removed from this post. November 15, 2014.
Authpost.com has been taken down when Google Authorship was removed.
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