IMO there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ link… therefore, one might infer that all links are ‘good’… but there are varying degrees of ‘good’.

Unless there is obvious and overwhelming evidence that you are buying links, I’m not sure the SEs can really penalize your site directly. But they can go after those selling links, which indirectly hurts you as a buyer because you may now not get what you paid for… and may continue to pay for the links not knowing that you are being passed Zero link equity from them.

The best links IMO are from authoritative, high PR sites that are relevent to your site, from pages on that source site where they are targeting similar or same keywords as the page to which they are linking on your site, and having the link in the actual text of the source site’s page, and the link text for the hyperlink being the keywords you’re targeting on the page on your site to which they are linking.

But even a ‘click here’ link on another site to a page on your site can only help (pass 0 or more link equity), never hurt…

If you’re buying links, know where they are coming from… what types of sites they are coming from… get references. And make sure that the growth looks natural.

1. Don’t mention anything nice about the person’s site you are writing to. Keep the focus only on your site and how important your site is.

2. Mention repeatedly how important your low ranked, unknown site is and that the person you are writing to with an established, popular site “needs” to know about it. Don’t use phrases like “you may find it of interest to know about my site” or “we seem to share a common interest” – those words are too polite and might actually get a response. Be sure to use terms like “you need to”, especially when corresponding with a total stranger.

3. Address your email to “whom it may concern” even if the person’s name you are sending your link request/demand to is in the title of his or her site, on the home page and listed again on the contact page. Remember your site is the important one, so it doesn’t matter if you show an interest in the other person’s name or web site.

4. Don’t offer to link to the other person’s site even if it is on the same topic as your site. Just repeatedly mention how important your information is and how linking to your site will help spread the word about this important topic. Ignore the fact that the publisher you are writing to already is spreading the word on this important topic.

5. Don’t use words like please or thank you. If you use polite terms like that and the person you are writing to may actually respond to your email.

6. Repeatedly namedrop every important person you know related to the topic of your site. This shows how important you and your gray bar site with no links really must be. Make it seem like you are doing the link request recipient a favor by even taking time out of your busy schedule hobnobbing with important people to send him or her unsolicited spam email.

7. Don’t bother to proof read your email and be sure to include spelling and grammatical errors.