Number 1 for soy candles

[Erik]

For more than a week my site is at #1 in Google for Soy Candles! That sounds fantastic but the problem is ... I don't sell soy candles on my site. It brings about 50 to 100 extra visitors and a few dollars more income.

Other soy candle website owners are now contacting me and ask me to put banners on my site. But I am affraid that SE's don't like affiliate links and that I will eventually loose my positions (I also rank high on other terms). What do you think? How can I make the most of the present situation?

[Connie]

Not something I would do.

You said "for more than a week". Google is in the midst of an update. Phase 3 of the update is apparently just starting so you may not have that good ranking in another week or two.

[Erik]

Another site owner contacted me. What would be the risk if I placed a small 120x240 banner (with simple link, no affiliate stuff) on one page? The only risk I can think of is that other soy candle websites will remove my site from their link pages. Please advice me, I don't have any experience with this.

[Quadrille]

In principle, there's nothing wrong with placing advertisements for another site - specially a 'connected' site.

The only worries are if it is a 'bad neighborhood site', or a direct competitor.

And they are offering a fair price.

Personally, I always make clear on my site what is an ad - best not to encourage recomendations which are paid for - it undermines your reputation.

But go for it :)

[Danny]

You could also add rel="nofollow" to the link.
This prevents you from being penalized in case the linked-to site belongs to a bad neighbourhood.

And congratulations with the great rankings ! :)

[maninderwalia]

Congrats for top rankings.
My personal experience says banners generally don't work and take up lot of space on your web page but they don't really harm your rankings.
If you are getting good traffic then perhaps you should try putting Google or Yahoo Advertising.

Mani

[Arnabme]

Hi Mani,

May be he was expecting to exchange banner and build in traffic through them. In some categories fails to impress but in others it does.

[Dave Hawley]

I would focus on what you should rank well for, not the other-way-round.

[mattl]

Wouldn't sweat the banner ads so long as you're not hurting your user experience. Most people have developed banner-blindedness anyway. If both you and the advertiser think it's worth it, give it a test. There are tons of high-ranking sites that sell ad space. Servers aren't free, you know.