Is it a bad idea to trade links with TGP's/MGP's?
 

I think I remember reading somewhere a while back that it wasn't good to mix TGP traffic with blog traffic. I noticed that most bloggers don't do it and I was just wondering what the reason was for this. Has anyone had any success trading links with TGP's on their blogs?

Yes I do. It is the niche what counts.

Hey there Element ... Long time no see...as far as I go I only link to sponsor hosted TGP's from a blog. I dont know the definitive answer to the question though.

Depends on what kind of trade you want to do. If you want to trade links, no problem. If you want to trade traffic, it's best to trade with skim free TGPs unless your blog skims as well. If your blog don't skim, trading with skimmed TGPs will bring you traffic but chances are that they won't bring you as much sales as a skim free TGP.

In my opinion link trades should not be evaluated by the type of site, ie link list, directory, tgp, mgp, blog, hub, etc. They should be evaluated by quality. The question to ask yourself is, "Is this the type of site I think my surfer (or I myself) would enjoy visiting"? If it is, then link to it, if not don't.

As an example, I no longer submit to very many blog directories because most of them accept anything including splogs which means a ton of duplicate content all over the place.

On the other hand, I'm more than happy to link to a splog if I feel that more has went into it than simply syndicating sponsors feeds.