WTF

[Gurtie]

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2011/01/paid-links-penalty/

[Brad]

To me it is a sign Google has completely lost control of the situation.  After the Searchking vs. Google lawsuit (which was about paid links to influence PR) Google pretty much ruled most webmasters by using fear on the issue.  Problem is you can only rule by fear so long.

So what's up with Bruce?

[ASPD]

hahahahh!

Good news is there is a Safe Way to Use Purchased Links...

[Drastic]

Fear.

That is all.

[thesaintv12]

I still think it is funny that I'm 'not allowed' to buy a link, yet I can pay the G via adwords to place me right at the top of the listings. 

[Gurtie]

There's a comment on Sphinn about this which sums it up nicely

A good example is when Google sent out free Nexus cell phones to people or when they send out free Google refrigerators. Any link acquired from that is a paid link.  If Nike sends out shoes to a bunch of bloggers they are going to get some links and they are paid for.  Google is not against paid links they are just against stupid people buying links.

Just a really wierd post in both the strength of sentiment and the originator I thought - I wonder if he got caught and this was his fee for reinclusion on something? 

[PaulH]

Crank up the paid link dial and budgets simply get moved to buying links for competitors.  Cheaper and easier to do too.

[Drastic]

Or just sacrifice a high pr site or two, paste the sign on it to buy links.

Link your competitors in the paid links area, clearly outlined on your buy links page.

Assuming they do bring penalty of course.

[edo]

The worst case scenario with all this is clearly getting a Google manual review but how often do they ACTUALLY happen?

[rcjordan]

>how often do they ACTUALLY happen?

That depends on how much you bitch about them in forums.