I can understand your points of view and I fully understand that you do not force bloggers into the services you offer. The issue I have is that if I see a blog that writes sponsored reviews using yourselves as a broker, I don’t know whether they have been forced into making positive comments or not. This casts doubt on the trustworthiness of the site and the blogger. If I can’t trust the blog then I won’t read it. I’m sure there are many other readers who feel the same (if they realised this was the case). I should probably point out at this point that I was inspired to write this post after reading a discussion on a forum regarding the trustworthiness of LinkWorth, so I’m not the only person asking the question.

I’m all for choice and I think competition between services such as yours is crucial in creating a fair and balanced market. This post was more of a “heads up” to my readers that some of the other blogs they read may very well be providing paid for content that reflects what the advertisers want written, and not what they actually feel. The more people asking the questions, keeping everyone honest, the better.

While I use TLA, it’s more out of necessity than anything else. I think saying “best of a bad bunch” would be too strong, but I only feel comfortable using and recommending them because they are the best I’ve come across so far. They have consistently been able to sell any slots I have on offer (not necessarily on this blog) better than anyone else. I wouldn’t call myself a fan, they take too large of a cut and navigating certain parts of the site is a pain. And speaking of usability, I haven’t updated the non-blog part of this site in years. In fact I took up a permanent role a few years ago so don’t need to tout for business. I’m not plying my trade as a Business Analyst specialising in web app usability for a multinational company who supply governments. Not exactly “living the dream” but at least it’s stable. I may revise my position on either of those points at any time.

To finish, I just wanted to comment on the comments left on my blog by “Scarlett”. I don’t have an issue with being contacted by people alerting me to new products and services, or old products/services that I may not know about. There’s a “Contact” link on the top right of the sidebar on the homepage for that very reason. I also don’t have an issue with people leaving comments on relevant posts pointing out products/services, which is what Scarlett originally did. However, if you search this blog for “linkworth” you will find comments on posts completely unrelated to monetisation. This does two things. Firstly it makes you look like you are spamming the site (all the text was very similar and fairly generic, a ladies name was used – fits the profile of a spam comment) and secondly it makes it look as if I don’t have spam under control on this blog. This hurts both of us, so you may want to revise your policy.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. As someone who sometimes on the “corporate” side of things, I do appreciate your position.

The real reason I wanted to comment here was to clarify something in regards to LinkPost. I understand your position completely; an advertiser does have a certain level of control when it comes to the paid blog posts, however, the Partner is ultimately the one to accept or decline a deal. So, they know BEFORE they accept a deal what the requirements are.

The reason we did this? Advertisers want control. They’re the ones paying for the ads….putting money into everyone else’s pocket. Why not give them what they want? As a blogger, there is nothing forcing you to sacrifice your integrity. We think it’s just a better way to service everyone. By providing options, choices, etc.

And as far as TLA goes, we love those guys. I’m not just saying that, either. We’re friends with Patrick and Jay and those kids…even manage to have a few beers with them at the conferences! They’ve definitely established themselves as a leader in this niche and you’re doing well for yourself being one of their publishers.

Thanks for your time and best of luck. Hopefully that fishy smell will go away soon!!

She’s new at what she’s doing and reading her comments I would say she’s been very polite. So please be polite with her. Feel free to tee off on me all you wish.

Of course, I would like to have a rebuttal to your comments. You mention the “positive” blog review and how horrible it is. What you didn’t mention is you have the ability to decline anyone that asks for a positive review. I completely agree with you that getting someone to give you a “from the heart” review is worth it’s weight in gold. Having 100 people say “YOU’RE AWESOME” …(here’s 10 bucks each) gets you no where in the end. I’d rather pay someone $20 to tell me “HEY, YOU’RE F’n UGLY MAN!” Then I can at least take my $80 and go buy a mask of Brad Pitt to roll around in.

LinkWorth has been around as long as your beloved TLA. PGavin is a cool cat and we have chatted many of times in our quest to overthrow Google. Of course, that conversation was 1 sided and Patrick just laughed at me. But we have been around as long as they have and they are definitely the cream of the crop, but we’re the 2nd biggest market of that type in our industry. Of course, Text Link Brokers (Jared) might have something to say about that, but we were all the originals and still provide the best inventory out there.

The fish smell you speak of, it’s my feet and I apologize for that. They were a little sweaty today and I had Tuna fish for lunch. I just covered them up with a blanket for the rest of my reply just for you.

In all honesty Simon, we simply provide as many ways for bloggers to make money as we can. We don’t force anything on anyone. So if you are against Billboard LinkAds (LinkBB) or against paid blog reviews (LinkPost), then don’t offer them on your blog. As simple as that.

What about the other 5 products that are modeled around simple linking? I see you’re not against it since you have our pals TLA up. We have almost 40k ads being shown monthly, which breaks down to a lot of advertising dollars, some which could be in your pocket. If you’re not interested, you’re not interested. Scarlett isn’t here “spamming” you, she’s trying to promote you because she likes your blog and if we can make you money, then we make money. Oh yeah, did she mention we pay 70% of of the sale to you instead of the 50% the other guys keep? Just a little tidbit that might be useful to you.

Now Simon, I apologize if you feel Scarlett has commented too much. I’ll have a chat with her tomorrow. She is a real person and she is really trying to get you to become part of our community.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is something I read on your “About this site” section. You mention that you mainly focus on “usability” and a couple other things. I then followed your site to the main section and I guess you already know none of the links work on your menu except to the blog? I was hoping to read more about your usability expertise and possible fees charged, along with maybe some examples to see. I am honestly looking to contract out a specialized person in the usability market. If you’re interested, maybe you can give me a shout at:

ron(((at))linkworth((dot)))com

We’re not forcing you to do anything you don’t agree with. Just so happens those same options make people a lot of money and that’s the whole point. But I would like to speak with you about the usability work you might be available for.

Thanks for taking the time to read my reply and I hope I made you feel better about LinkWorth and especially Scarlett. She’s a very nice girl just doing what we ask of her. And I promise to take the fishy smell away!

Regards,
Ron Wicker
LinkWorth.com