Buying Signature Links

People buy and sell links all the time, that is certainly nothing new. About the only thing that changes is the cost of the links being bought and sold. On Digital Point the going rate for signature links is about $1 for 100 posts. However, that price is rapidly dropping due to an over saturated market, so the buyer should pay close attention to what it is he or she is buying.

There are two main types of people that sell links, the first group is post whores that do nothing but up their post count to up the cost of their links. These members post little in the way of quality content so do little to better the forum they are posting on and actually do little in the way of helping the link seller. I mean, look at it this way, how many sig links have you clicked through? Was the post you checked the sig out worth reading? I'll guess yes, and that's why you clicked. Now think back, how many times have you clicked through a sig link that was attached to a post like "PM sent", "thanks" or other meaningless drivel? No, these are not the members you should be giving your money over too.

The other type of poster that sells their sig link is just your average member with a spare link slot open so they are looking to make a few bucks. These are the members that are generally worth looking into. Their posts are generally of a higher quality and they are sure to generate more traffic to your site then the attention seeker I mentioned above. When buying from these members there are a few things you should look for before passing over your penny per post.

• Member Rank : The sig of a moderator is generally worth more then the average member as people are more inclined to "trust" a link given by a member with some type of rank.
• Post Quality : Simply click into the members profile and then click on "posts made by <user>" and it will give a post history complete with summery of their posts. If the first page worth of summaries have nothing cropped, chances are the member is a post whore. Look for actual content.
  
• Reputation : While it is overall worth nothing on most forums, it can be a good indicator of the quality of the member. If someone has a thousand posts and only one green pip the post quality may not be up to par.
• iTrader : This is not something on every forum, but if they have it or the equivalent, then anything in the positive is generally good. Keep in mind though, not all members make a lot of deals so high numbers are not always a sign of a better person, only a sign that the person posts more in the buy/sell areas. Read through the comments.
  
• Threads Started : The higher the link is on the page, the more the link is potentially worth. A member that starts more threads has YOUR link at the top of more pages.
  
• Post Locations : One of the things you want to look for is relevance. If a member only posts in the YAHOO forums, then your Google related link may not be a wise investment.
  

There are likely other things you should keep in mind, but the above list should be more then adequate for the link buyer to determine if the link seller is worth making a deal with. In all cases know what you are buying and if you do, there is a better chance of buying something of worth.