Website selling links

Hello ODP editors,

There is a website listed in the ODP wanting to sell a link from their site to mine, is that legal, is there anything you guys could do about this.

I was very upset that someone that is listed would ask me to pay him money to add a link to my site, this site shows certain products but if you dig a little deeper you will find all the different links they are selling. They even faxed over a price list to pay per keyword.

Is this a ODP quality issue or not.

Thanks, Ricardo

I don't think it's an issue, there are many sites on the web that charge for having a link - some of those happen be listed in ODP. A prime example is Yahoo's directory http://www.yahoo.com/

A lot of paid directories are listed in http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/

Now if the request for a payment is not for a link, but to get your site listed in ODP, that woud be a clear violation of guidelines.

It is only an issue for us if this person is telling you he can get your site listed in DMOZ if you pay him.
Link exchange between websites is a very normal practice. Asking money for such a link is done by many sites and there is nothing illegal about that. It is upto you to decide if this of any benifit to you and if you want to pay.

Is it a legal issue? No, the SERP perp business is full of such things. For that matter, so is the paper-based publishing industry, and ads even appear on TV and radio (or at least, so I hear.)

Is it an ethical issue? I wouldn't care to touch that business, but then I don't know any kind of marketing business I could figure out how to touch anyway.

Is it an ODP quality issue? Depends on where the site is. If it is in pay-for-listing directories, then that's appropriate. If it is pretending to be a widget sales site, but is actually an advertising link farm, then it IS an ODP quality issue.

PM me and I'll look at it, or see if I can get someone else to.