Borderline Blind Links....
 

Looking for opinions from the community on this one. I tend to be tougher on blind links than most, and I'm trying to decide if I'm weaving too far right on this.

Lately, it seems like I'm seeing more and more sites with big ass links that have a paysite name for the anchor text and nothing else.

Example: "Backdoor Boys" when the paysite is backdoorboys.com

Example: "Her First Lesbian Sex" for herfirstlesbiansex.com


I'm trying to decide if I'm going to start calling these blind links. Every time I see one (which is daily at this point) my gut tells me it's blind, but the rules-lawyer in me wants to let it slide.

While I know that "Her First Lesbian Sex" is a paysite, Joe Surfer probably doesn't. A good portion of LL traffic comes from surfers using search engines to find porn and they probably don't know it either, and the essence of the "blindness" of a link is what the average surfer would think.

Usually these links are NOT surrounded or immediately adjacent to banners or other sales text, and more and more I'm feeling like this is how some webmasters are trying to rules-lawyer blind links onto their sites.

Opinions?

IMO I think thats ok if its a stand alone text link for example that says "Her First Lesbian Sex" and thats the name of the site I think its ok.

Now its not as efficient as it could be from a sales perspective, but I dont really feel its blind because its saying the exact name of the paysite.

Your right that joe surfer doesnt necissarily know that its a paysite but with no popups its pretty easy to just click back.

Just my opinion.. if some one makes a good point Im open to changing it.

My thing on this is, if it's not an attempt at being deceptive, why not put the ".com" in the text? With the ever-emerging new paysites with more and more unusual names, I'm wondering if it's going to get worse.

If I click on a link that says "Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs" (nod to Wierd Al), I wouldn't be expecting a paysite.

Like I said, I'm on the fence and looking forward to the discussion :)

But if you look click a link for "Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs" becasue thats what your looking for and thats what the paysite is providing you have found what your looking for.

Now if it said "Free Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs" and there is nothing free or its a paysite or something that was deceptive then I think it would make it blind.

I know I use this type of text becasue I dont really want to give the surfer the domain name of the site and adding a .com to it would really make it to easy to just type in that domain I think.

But this is just all thoughts from my very limited experience and just discussing

I don't think it's blind link. It doesn't promise the surfer anything or make them think it is anything other than a link. If they're curious, they click the link.
I think it's a good thing for the freesite builder in terms of search engines.....keywords, relevance, matching phrase as on the actual pay site.
Just my $0.02

Don't think I've seen any quite as blatant as what you describe Max. But since the discussions here, I am seeing more people using the site name in links |thumb

Usually when I do see just the site name, either there's a banner sort of close by or it's far enough into the site to know the name of the site being promoted. Tough call, but at this point...if they're using the site name...don't think I could call it blind.

The one's that are boggling my little mind are the one's with a bunch of text describing sexual acts...sometimes even the paysite name...then a BIG link a few rows down that says "VISIT"... |dizzy| Yea...that's enticing! lol

Or, I've been getting more people submitting sites with ALL the text linked. Damn, that's ugly!

Or or or...

Sorry mini reviewers rant came over me there :D

I think it's really in how it's used & the test around it. I know I market the name of the site a bit in my text & then link it to the paysite.

"Her First Lesbian Sex" is a good example of something that could be throw into a paragrapoh of text & easily linked to the paysite:

...Jane had be a bit curious for awhle & Mary thought it'd be a good idea to take pics of Her First Lesbian Sex....

Using the other one, I'd allow something like:

"...Gary likes to take it up the ass. Would you like to see more Backdoor Boys?....

It's just as bad as a lesbian thumb linked to a lesbian paysite tour. Yes, the surfer was looking for lesbian pics and the paysite does provide lesbian pics and who knows it could be the best lesbian site on the net period.

But the surfer expected the thumb to go to a picture, not a tour.

"First First Bi Fuck" by itself tells me it's a link that takes me some place - maybe a paysite, maybe a page in the free site.

It doesn't promise anything, so it's not deceptive, but a surfer still has no idea where he's going to end up, especially if it's a link with a mile long query string attached that goes through a redirecting domain, like "http://www.redirect.com/?webid=2492525&c=342&tour=2b..."

Why train bookmarking surfers to be cautious with links and force them to backup from tours? I can only see links like this lowering overall clickthrus generated by a LL.

EDIT: Also, I think people are only hurting themselves in the SERPS if the links with sponsor names embedded go directly to the paysite domain (without using the nofollow tag). That paysite will eventually come up #1 on Google for "Her First Lesbian Fuck" and your free site will stay buried on the 20th page.

hmm...another good thread

first, MrYum I have to agree with you - those huge blocks of linked text are awful if they are highlighted on mouseover in any way :(

I usually put the paysite name without the .com but I put it all together like: HerFirstLesbianSex - I dunno, makes it seem more like a paysite link to me. The concern about typing it directly in is why I don't put the .com but I guess an industrious surfer would figure it out anyway.

As I refine my style & see more posts about this on the board, I am getting tougher too. Surfers know you are going to try & sell them something, blind links just makes it look sneaky to them imho.

Ponygirl

I use something like this in the title "two hotties experimenting with girl girl sex - exclusively at HerFirstLesbianSex.com". Because it describes the site/gallery and informs where more/better of this can be found.

Of course I like to give the models names so the surfer can identify with them easier and therefore may be more inclined to join ;)

;) lol what about new rule like this - Before any link to paysite you must write "Warning paysite"

just kidding, but looks to me funny how many LL people see a blind link in almost every text, so why dont tell to surfer in each text link this and maybe add price and recurring info....than there will be everything 100% blind free...of course this will low signups but who cares...

;)

Nope, it's entirely different.

Thumb => Pay site = completely blind.

Site Name => Pay Site = Not blind in the least.

I don't see those links as blind at all, no different than for example a recip that says 'Link List name' 'lesbian porn' - takes you exactly to where the anchor text says.

Hi Halfdeck, long time no see, hope things are good :)

I can't agree with you on 'But the surfer expected the thumb to go to a picture, not a tour' in the sense that it's the same as the text being blind - if a surfer clicked on a text link that said 'her first lesbian sex' he'd expect to go where he can see first lesbian sex, and that's exactly where he'd end up.

I also agree with msanchez - too easy to remind the surfer to type in, or if no spaces are used, to simply copy & paste with the .com attached.

Being that I have become known as somewhat of a blind link nazi, I should probably toss my 1 and a half cents into the barrel. All text is blind. Discuss amongst yourselves.








:D
Done? The blindness of a text link is subjective, so we have to come to some level of understanding of what is reasonable. If a surfer has never heard of HerFirstMammothCock and there is no supporting text conveying that it is a paysite, then it is blind - sort of. But is it unreasonably blind? No, not really. When I put a link to Whoring Wives just below my free site Enter links, it only says "Whoring Wives". Is that blind? Yes, but it's not unreasonably blind. They know where they're going and it's their choice to click it. A name is not deceptive. A site title is not blind, as long as it's used as a title. It must be capitalized. I would perceive this to be blind:
"Watch this hot chick get her first mammoth cock"
But this is not blind:
"Watch this hot chick get scrogged at Her First Mammoth Cock"

I'll probably have more to say, but I have to get going at the moment.

Discuss.

Oh yea! Those huge blocks that turn to a sharply contrasting color on hover are downright painful!

Excellent points UW |thumb

Capitalizing the first letter in each word of the paysite name goes a long way toward making it clear that it IS in fact a site name.

Well it gets more confusing.. |dizzy|
I do my text with the name of the site on the first line-then text-then click here or whatever. I usually don't use .com but started as of my last site with the .com. I don't really think it looks as good though but I'll do it that way from now on.

I've been guilty of that. |loony|

I like this thread, now and I am anxious to see the subjective definitions for "unreasonably blind". I think that's my new favorite phrase. |thumb

-Preacher

I don't think that way is a problem - as long as I can look at the link & figure out from surrounding text or a banner that it is going to a paysite, then it's not blind. The big issue is stuff like "CLICK HERE for more lesbo pics" - surfer may think he's going to another gallery or something & ends up at a paysite. I don't think your links are blind :)

I'm not going to add the .com - it just doesn't balance right most of the time.

and the large blocks of text - I know contrast is good to catch the surfer's eye, but 2 or 3 lines is more effective than 10 imo :D I wouldn't decline a site for changing style on a mouseover (even if it blinded me lol) unless there were more than 3 or 4 lines.

Preacher - I like these discussions too :)
I think the problem is that it is subjective - one reviewer may decline what others accept, or even what they would accept if they were in a better mood :D

I have seen an increase in using the .com & paysite names in the last couple of days submissions, tho - it seems people are paying attention to these threads ;)

Ponygirl

First of all I would have to say that I am guilty of blind linking myself.

However I will plead guilty by ignorance. And I am putting sponsor name in text now after all this came out, but dot com at the end...come on.

Not trying to cause major conflict, but can the LL owners that posted to all these threads look at there own LL pages, be it the home page, enter, whatever, and say that they follow these rules on all their sales text (on their LL pages, not the free sites they build)?

Just a question for thought.

Yep, I think I can safely say that :D

I just don't think there's any reason to try and trick a surfer - it's the same in this industry as in any other. Tell them what it is so they can decide if they want it.

I don't think the .com is an issue, I've already said I won't usually use it. I don't even think you necessarily need the paysite name in the link. As long as the surrounding text or images are enough to say that they will be leaving the freesite & going somewhere else, to me it's not blind.

I don't think LLs are too hard on this for the most part, really.

Ponygirl

Agreed on the whole .com thing...I never use that myself. Makes for an ugly'ish link...and is unnecessary imo. Capitalizing the first letter in each word of the paysite title does help a bunch though.

Yep TJ, don't think you'll find any blind links on my site. Like Ponygirl, I think the days of tricking the surfer into signing up are either over entirely...or on their way to extinction. Much like the internet has matured a bit...so has our customer base. I think they're sick and tired of being jerked around with consoles, blind links, toolbars..etc.. I honestly believe that providing the customer with what he or she is looking for will provide the sales :)

Also, completely agree with Ponygirl on the contrasting color links. That's fine when confined to a few lines. But when half the freakin page jumps from one color to another...and it's ALL linked...ouch |dizzy|

Great discussion so far :)

I'd like to wrangle it back in the direction of the original question, though, and re-reading my initial post I wasn't exactly crystal clear on it....

I'm not talking about "Find more lesbo pics at Her First Lesbian Sex" or links like that...I'm 100% cool with that. What I've been seeing a ton of lately is links that are nothing but the paysite name without .com or anything, and are all alone in the middle of a page with inches and inches of blank space around them....no adjacent banners or sales text, no "click here for This Paysite", only the name of the site.

In addition, it seems many of them are linked to a php page on the same site that redirects to the sponsor tour, so the browser bar doesn't show the paysite name either.

I love these discussions :)

Blind as hell!

I'd have to agree - if there's no .com or supporting text and the bar doesn't show final destination - it's blind.