we found that the PR is not so much a fake but the domains are dropped domains with PR

the PR will remain on the domain until google does an update, which could be 30 – 60 days

so yes they are fake PR as they are not real PR, but you can easy get these from drop domain sites

the real victum is the customer who pays –

it works like this

you have an online shop, and need say 1000 1 way links to get a page 1 position in google

so you hire some seo consultant who would chrage around 2000 – 3000 usd/gbp/euro for this service

they buy say 10 droped domains with pr for 10usd each and load a wordpress blog + a dozon or so posts

send out 10,000 emails just like the one you got

the likes of me reply – and give a 1 way link to the online shop site in return for a 1 way link from the blog site with fake PR 5

after a week or so the fake PR is now PR0 – but that is still ok ( for me ) – as a link still have some worth so long as the blog site is indexed in google

but what happens after 12 months when the blog domain needs to be renewed !! – do you think these seo consultants will pay out another 10 usd – no

so after 12 months the blog site is dropped again along with my 1 way inbound links

i do automated checks – and i will pick up that the domain has gone and drop the 1 way outbound link to the online shop site as my inbound link has gone

so the owner of the online shop looses all or most of the the 1 way inbound links he paid 2 or 3,000 usd for after 12 months

does he learn that he has been ripped off, and build his own link exchanges – or does he find another seo consultant and fork out another 2 or 3,000 to have the exercised repeated

when it omes to link building the point is this -

dont use link systems – in the end you will cry
dont use link exchnage sites – not enough active members

dont use seo consultants – you will get ripped

answer – build your own back links with real web sites
own your in bound links, as in the end – the real value to your site is the inbound links, as after you have built the site, and done your onsite seo, all that is left is back links, and this takes time

regards

Install SearchStatus plugin for Firefox. It’ll show pagerank and Alexa (and other stuff if you want to). Just Google for it…

You can get the links like you “ordered” – 100 PR3+ links – but they will be on a page with 50 other links on a crappy site. I’ve tried that before and got no benefits from them.

Maybe you’ll have more luck. In any case, the freelancer will send you a report after the job done and you can check the sites to see if they have fake pagerank.

You can add the requirement into the project text (links must not be on fake pagerank pages) so that you win a dispute later if this happens.

Instead, I am planning to ask for 50 sites related to my keywords with resources page of PR2+ so that I can check the PRs out for myself. Do you think I am being too cautious?

All the best – and thanks for all your help again, Mike (from Barcelona conference)

There’s always going to be people who think it’s OK to screw everyone else. Let’s hope the karma kicks their ass for them! (Can I say ass?)

The thing that gets me is that if they put the energy and motivation into a real business then they’d make so much more.

Go figure.

Sherman