MediaWhiz has launched a new ad network called InLinks that aims to sell advertisers text links within the content of bloggers’ posts… without being detected as paid-for links by Google.

InLinks will look and behave exactly like words with embedded links. They will not look like - or carry any indication - of being paid for and, since they will not have nofollow tags, they will pass on Google PageRank (the main objective).

Basically, an advertiser will be able to choose the keywords it wants to target and then buy text links for those keywords. Such links will then appear whenever the given keyword appears in the content of the blogs participating in the program. Bloggers will be paid a flat rate per month per text link sold.

Sound good so far?

Think again. Paid links are against Google’s quality guidelines and the search engine will penalize blogs caught selling such links. Not disclosing paid-for links is also a rather dubious practice for bloggers to engage in. In some jurisdictions, such as here in Australia, it may well be illegal.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger advises bloggers to proceed with caution. He recommends against participating in InLinks if you have a highly ranking blog, or if you are concerned about disclosure and transparency with your readers. He suggests that InLinks it could be something to look into if you don’t care about having your blog indexed by Google or aren’t concerned about being transparent with readers. For his part, he doesn’t sell text ads.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch concurs:

“The reality is that accepting money to link to/promote/market for a product without disclosing that fact is a very high-risk behavior, in my opinion.”

Meanwhile, Google’s Matt Cutts has emailed TechCrunch to reiterate that selling links to pass PageRank violates Google’s quality guidelines and that bloggers who fail to disclose that they have been paid to engage in word-of-mouth marketing also potentially violate laws in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

It will be interesting to see if and how InLinks works… and who participates. Not that anyone is supposed to know!

FYI, here at Kikabink News, we do not sell text links. We openly promote affiliate products, our own products, and sell advertising.

Source: Darren Rowse, “InLinks - TextLinkAds 2.0 Advertising,” ProBlogger, November 20, 2008, Michael Arrington, “Insidious New SEO Ad Product Will Be Hard For Google To Detect (Updated With Google Response)”, TechCrunch, November 19, 2008

Here’s a quick quiz. Which would you choose?

1. A restaurant in a popular tourist area… or a restaurant in a busy restaurant precinct frequented by locals?
2. A second-hand car from a new dealership that’s opened up in a large city… or a third-generation dealership in a small, country town?

Chances are, you chose the busy restaurant frequented by locals, and the third-generation dealership in the small, country town.

Why? Because the restaurant and the car dealership both depend on repeat business from locals. Which means they can’t afford to sacrifice the quality of what they offer or dupe their customers.

A restaurant in a tourist area can, to some extent, afford to charge higher prices for lower quality food because it doesn’t rely on anyone coming back a second time. It knows there’ll be an ongoing stream of tourists to keep it in business.

The local restaurant, on the other hand, relies on repeat business and must continue to impress its clientele or it won’t get people coming back.

The new car dealership in the big city is more likely to get away with its sales staff using hard-sell tactics and selling a few lemons. This is because it doesn’t view each customer as a repeat customer and because, being a large city, the sales people don’t face a high risk of meeting someone in the street who they’ve ripped off.

The small town dealership, however, will only stay in business if it maintains a good reputation in the local community. Moreover, the sales people are likely to often come across their customers in the street. Not fun if you’ve dudded someone.

Now, I am NOT saying that all restaurants in tourist areas or all big city car dealerships are no good. I am just saying that businesses that are solely reliant on repeat business from locals have a higher incentive to meet higher standards.

What does this have to with Internet marketing?

Well the Internet is increasingly becoming a LOCAL community. The emergence of highly interactive social networking sites, review sites and blogs, combined with forums, the search engines and the other features of the Internet has transformed the Net from an environment in which marketers could largely stay hidden and isolated - and could get away with ‘hit and run marketing’ into one in which:

1. People are able to reach a LOT of other people with relative ease, which means that customers are able to talk about YOU to numerous others via forums, blogs, Twitter and other means.
2. People are using the Internet to seek informed advice. The popularity of sites which allow reviews by customers, experts, peers and even affiliates is a testament to people’s desire to get advice before they buy. This means your product is increasingly likely to be reviewed, even if just within a thread on a forum.
3. The search engines and search tools provided by other sites are making it easier than ever and increasingly likely that people will find out about you and your products and services.
4. Once you’ve made an impression online… that impression has a good chance of lingering… and lingering… and lingering…

Whether this really does signal the end of hit and run marketing… I don’t know. After all, the original snake oil salesmen travelled from small town to small town, and we all know how easy it is for con-artists to hit the Internet under one guise, then disappear and reappear under another guise.

But I do believe that marketers who, while not aiming to do anything unlawful, have been willing to compromise on quality and service because of their confidence in an endless stream of new customers, need to think again.

Those new customers now have the ability to EASILY read reviews and discussions about the marketer’s products, and to personally speak with old customers. And such marketers are also more likely to meet their customers on the ‘virtual’ street of the Internet.

Therefore, more than ever, they must raise their standards if they are to survive and thrive in the global AND local environment that is the Internet.