A Little Bird Told Me That Using Nofollow For All The Links You Sell Is Good

I then shot the bird, cooked it and ate it. This is one of Google's own little pet myths. From the mouth of good Matt Cutts, you're supposed to disclose to Google any and every link you sell. The kids in the Search Engine Optimization society then translate this from disclosure to disclaimer. Thus was born the use of nofollow text for links.

I'm not sure how that works out in their minds, but I'll let them go on and do it. I mean, why exactly would I want to make a disclaimer for a search engine? It's not like Google is a fourth grader fixing to follow a link to some adult content.
If I'm going to put a disclaimer on my outbound links, I'll put it in the content just above the link. You know, so people can see it. The only time I feel like I should make a disclaimer is if I think that one of my linked sites might offend people. Now, how often would you expect that to happen?

I mean, why would I sell a link to another site if I didn't want to be associated with them? I guess some people do, so I'll make a suggestion for them. You should have in your footer or somewhere near the link something that reads like: This link does not constitute an endorsement of the website that it leads to. It is provided only for reference purposes and do not in any way reflect the opinions or preferences of anyone associated with this website.

Back to the point, this whole use of nofollow doesn't even relate to link disclosure. It could theoretically be used as a tactic to cover up the fact that you're link selling. Although it does kind of strike me as saying something like HEY GOOGLE! Look at me not link selling. That's right, I'm not link selling. Really, I'm not.

Of course, that's pretty much what Google is saying to do. They're being sneaky by insinuating that using rel=nofollow is disclosure of paid links. All the same, there's something missing in this whole argument.

That is, how is Google to know that you're selling links (privately) UNLESS you tell them? Is it really any of their business anyway?

The thing of it is selling links is perfectly acceptable and legal. The only people who don't approve of it are Google. Thats right; its a clear cut expression of Google taking a despotic turn in their position in the Internet hierarchy. Its all about THEM wanting to control the way WE do things. Why would they do it? It's all about the almighty dollar to them.

Think about it. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with selling links. The visitors don't know any different about whether or not the link is sold. Nor would they care if it was. There is no evidence anywhere supporting any idea that they might or might not follow a link because it was paid for. It's just Google being fascist and making things harder for us so they can make more money.