when sourcing links, how do you value the website?

[suffolkpoker]

i have been doing alot of link sourcing, i find it hard 2 valuing the websites. The key areas i have been trying to get is;

back links
age of domain & website
out going links
Also page rank plays a part but not as big a part as people make out.

Also with the back links to try and research the back links for weight and strength. I just wanted to get some more ideas and info. Cheers

[pokerextras]

I've obviously got little knowledge in this area, but the one thing i look for is a site belonging to somebody who sees it as a long term project that they're going to build and develop. What may start as pr 0 may end up as a content rich pr 4 within a year or so.

[suffolkpoker]

yea i agree with that on a new website, i personally dont think PR has got to much weight with links.

I have seen so many dodgy PR3 sites with a tonn of out going links on it, to compared to a PR0 with some decent back links and a tidy little website.

[kingcobra]

Here's the way I do it:

(1) They have a web site (the research)
(2) They will put up my link (the offer)
(3) I put up their link (the deal's done)

If you are doing a premium exchange where both are PR deals then you want to get and give similar PR. It's better if the sites are related in topic, in our case a poker site, but that's a bonus

If it's a new site and they have no PR and want PR back well come back when you grow up a bit Johnny It's tit for tat with almost everyone though, it's rare to see a deal where you get back more than you give but you see it once in a great while. Webbies are hung up on toolbar PR so that's the currency that's used, for better or worse.

Now with all this said people do speculate in terms of getting PR0 links but for the most part if you get put on a link page then the chances of ever getting much juice out of that are extremely slim. Those aren't the pages that ever get any really, except with huge sites like pokerlistings and such. You want to get on their home page and if you can give them a PR1 sub then they usually are pretty happy and the link could turn out to be a 2 or better some day. Again though this is speculating.

People get way too hung up about various criteria as a general rule and tend to be way too fussy for their own good. There is variation of quality among links but it's like money, you got your big bills and your smaller bills but they all spend