Sell backlinks from your blog without wrecking its reputation

Read this before you set a price

Selling a link spends something you built slowly: your readers' trust. Curators who sell often learn this the hard way, after a few weeks of off-topic requests in the inbox.

A marketplace lets you set the terms first. On Slinkroll, publishers set a price, approve every placement and receive weekly payouts, and no one can force an order onto your site. The list stays yours.

Decide your limits on paper before you list anything.

Think about your readers in March, not only today. A list that carries ten paid links in a row looks different to a returning visitor than one that mixes three picks of yours with one clearly labelled placement.

It also helps to know the market. Browse the buyer shelf to see what similar sites charge, then compare your traffic and Domain Rating honestly. Round up nothing.

One more habit helps: keep a changelog. Date, buyer brief, decision, price. It takes a minute per order and it settles every later argument.

Who asks for a link, and what they usually want

Once a list has a price on it, requests arrive in a steady trickle. Most come from people with a real page and a real subject. Some do not. Knowing the difference before you answer saves time on both sides.

Buyers with a fitting page

A good request names the page it wants to sit on and explains why it belongs on your list. That is the easiest kind to say yes to, as long as the target matches your subject and the anchor reads naturally in context.

Look at the target page before you look at the offer. The price matters less than whether a reader would be served by the link.

Buyers who only want a number

Some requests skip the subject and ask only what a link costs. Answer with the rules, the price and the approval step, and leave it there. A buyer who will not engage with your subject is likely to produce a link that reads like an advert.

Ask one question back, such as what the page is about, and see whether the reply has any substance.

Requests that should stop you

A target in a language your readers do not use, a page that promotes something you would never mention yourself, or a brief that asks you to hide the link are all reasons to decline. Say no without a long explanation, and keep the refusal on your list.

A decline costs one short message. An order you regret costs the trust of readers who may never say so.

Asking for a short brief before you approve

Ask for a brief in a few lines: what the page should say about the target, the keyword the buyer has in mind, and whether they want to supply their own text or accept the automatic version. Short briefs are easy to check against your rules, and vague ones are a warning in themselves.

Nothing about this step needs to feel formal. A single question back, answered in plain words, usually tells you whether the order is worth approving.

Setting a price without guessing

Price is the part publishers worry about most, and it is also the easiest part to change later. Start with a range, then let real orders tell you where the number belongs.

Start from comparable rows

Prices in the marketplace run from $1 up to about $500, and they follow donor authority, traffic and niche. Find rows with a similar Domain Rating, traffic and subject to yours, then set your first price near the middle of what those rows show.

Do not copy the highest row you see. A top domain with a long history is a different product from a list you have kept for a few years.

Price by fit, not by hope

Say your list covers one tight subject and reaches a loyal readership. A narrow, relevant placement may justify a higher price than a broad one that no reader cares about. The number follows the fit, so think about the fit first.

A higher price on a poor fit usually produces a quiet refusal from you later, which wastes everyone's time.

When to move the price

Change the price only after a few real orders, or after a clear shift in what you see. Write each change down with the date and the reason, so you can judge later whether it worked.

Lowering a price to win one order tends to set a pattern you then have to keep.

Affiliate and ad rules on the same page

Many publishers run affiliate links or display ads next to a paid placement. Each of those brings its own rules, and a reader experiences all of them as one page.

Read the programme rules first

Affiliate programmes and ad networks set their own terms about where links may sit, how they are labelled and what content they cover. Read those terms before you add a paid placement to a page that already carries them.

Those rules belong to the programme that wrote them, so check the current text rather than an old summary.

Keep paid placements apart from affiliate picks

A reader who sees a product recommendation and a paid link in one paragraph will not know which is which. Give each its own section, label it plainly and keep the wording distinct.

A simple test helps: if a link earns you money, a reader should be able to tell that without asking.

How a network might notice

A common question is how a network would ever know. In practice it sees what anyone can see, which is the page, its links and the way the content reads. Build the page so nothing is hidden, and you will not need to guess what anyone can find.

A page that is honest about its links is also the page that stays easy to defend when a buyer or a programme asks about it.

Keeping the books for weekly payouts

Payouts arrive weekly, and a small ledger is the cheapest way to keep your own records straight. You do not need special software to start.

Match each payout to its orders

Once a week, open your account and compare the payout with the placements that went live in the same period. A sheet with the date, the order reference and the amount is enough. If a figure looks wrong, you will spot it while it is still small.

Keep a column for the status shown in your account, so a pending row never gets counted as paid.

Record each approval as a decision

Every placement you approve is a decision about your readers. Note the date, the target, the price and the reason you said yes. Those notes double as an editorial record, which is handy the day someone asks why a link is on the list.

Write the refusals down too. A list of no answers shows the rules you actually follow, which is often more useful than the rules you meant to follow.

Check the account, not your memory

If a payout does not match what you expect, the account is the place to check the detail. Do not rely on memory or on a forwarded screenshot. Keep the account reference in your sheet so the question is quick to settle.

The testing routine explains how to confirm a placement is live before you count it as earned.