I did a search and didn't see anything on this.

I've been using the Digital Point Co Op for a couple weeks now.

www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/

Basically it works so that you put some auto-generated links on your pages, and are given weight based on the number of pages you have indexed in Google. And then your ads (with your chosen anchor text) are spread around the web on other members of the forums' sites.

It free, so I figured I'd play around with it.

It has helped me some, but I don't have near enough weight to make much difference. I do have enough weight to get my sites indexed real quick, though.

The question I have is whether a system like this is a good long-term strategy? It seems like people with forums could get lots of weight and translate that into big benefits for their other sites?

It seems like a win-win, but I wonder what the downsides could be?

[ Message was edited by: bmaples 02/11/2005 09:23 pm ]


[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 05/24/2005 01:56 pm ]

Are you just hoping people will click on your affiliate link?

I'd gladly take any weight bonus I might get through referrals (and don't see anything wrong with that.) This is a non-commercial venture, and the only way anyone makes any money out of it is by using it as a tool for search engine positioning.

But my question really centers around the benefits and potential hazards of such a program. In other words, is it worth the time to build forums and/or other large sites to get weight in a system like this to use to benefit other sites.

Is there a danger of getting penalized, and what would increase or decrease those dangers?

I'm not trying to presell the co op...I'm trying to understand whether or not it's worth investing time with for SEO efforts of an online store.

Here is an example of how it works...I have no relationship to these sites, I can just see that they're members:

scripts.world-directory.net/dir/1/4.php
women.ehealthyyou.com/forums/index.php

If you go to these sites and look at the bottom, you can see that they have 5 or so discreet "link partners" at the bottom of each page that are automatically generated.

As a result of putting ad network code onto their pages, they get weight in the network, and they get backlinks using their chosen anchor text from big pool of other sites.

[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 05/24/2005 01:57 pm ]

I've found a place called ((url removed)) they have addressed most of the issues that co-op does not seem willing to do. It gives you perm links and conforms to categories and languages so the links you get are more relevant. I've had a good experience with both programs but I think link-vault will become a much better network with time.

[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 05/24/2005 01:59 pm ]


[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 05/25/2005 01:50 pm ]

A reminder that posts with links will be edited; since 2005-05-18 everyone sees a "do not post links" message right above the "post" button.

We've added the co-op ad network to one of our sites and it has dramatically increased backlinks. Particularly in Yahoo!. We're watching to see if this seems to help our rankings. The site we chose to do this with ranks fairly well in Yahoo! and MSN but not in Google so we didn't think it was a big risk in terms of losing our spots in Google. If this does seem to work, we'll try the LinkVault on another site that is doing pretty well in Y and MSN but not Google. We're going to give it a month or so.