First off, this is a serious thread - I mean it this time - so please do not post off-hand statements you cannot back up.
There is a lot of FUD going around in the form of SEO's telling people not to buy links. I'd like to have a discussion not in the abstract, but based on real experience.
First off, the naysayers.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/linking/ward-buying-links.htm
Speaking with another SEO via email, he stated that link buying was bad business for pretty much the same reasons that Eric Ward stated.
Now, Eric Ward has been in this business a long time, and I would find it hard if not impossible to believe that he doesn't buy links for his clients.
At the end of the article he writes:
That sounds like an excuse to me. Intent? Does anybody think that Google can divine intent?
Most practicing SEO's would agree that 90% or more of SEO is about links and the anchor text of those links. To say, "do not buy links" is tantamount to saying "do not do SEO".
I have
criticized SEO several times in the past, and I stand by those criticisms. But my point is not that SEO is worthless, because it can be very profitable to have above-the-fold first page rankings for very specific keywords. When I
criticize SEO it is due to an over-estimation of SEO's benefits to the exclusion of valid
alternatives to SEO.
The fact is that most active and top ranking web sites are either buying link or have bought links sometime in the past. Websites simply do not rank without linkage.
The penalty that people seem to be deathly afraid of is a very rare one, reserved for those extremely dumb link buyers who over-do it.
To say do not buy links because of the possibility of a penalty is similar to saying do not leave home because of the possibility of being hit by a car. Relevant editorial link buying is and will remain a necessary part of SEO.