Paid links from TV station websites seem to work at raising rankings. I see sites with paid links for competitive keywords (e.g. DUI Lawyers, CPAP, mecial supplies). Google seems to allow these paid links, even though it must be easy for them to find them.

I don't participate in any of these industries, but I am wondering how risky it would be do buy links from these properties. I know Google has discounted some paid links, but not all.

Not so much that Google is "allowing" but rather that the site is doing what it wants. These links should have the nofollow tag. Perhaps why the Orlando example only has a PR of 5.

I doubt that these links are helping any, and if they are, it won't be long before Google finds them automatically or somebody does a "report paid links" spam report at webmastertools.

>These links should have the nofollow tag.

I wonder how many of those links would continue to be rented if the site started a no-follow policy?

I guess more than Page Rank, a link from a trusted source such as a News channel or newspaper should bring in good amount of targeted traffic.

I wonder how many of those links would continue to be rented if the site started a no-follow policy?

Yeah, great point! Watching who drops out after that change might be a good way to catch folks trying to buy PR.

Many of these links are sold by the same networks that sell to all the college newspapers and such. They've been outed years ago and, like JohnW, I'd be very surprised if these have had any weight for quite a good while.

As for traffic? These links are usually so far below the fold the majority of visitors never see them.

Yeah good point JohnW & jimbeetle!

I would have to agree for the most part but there are always a few exceptions.;)

I have seen some success with similar tactics in the ticket industry. That said, not with just one text link on a page and under the guise of being a "Media Partner". (ie not a paid link and/or advertisement)

Astir, are you seeing your competition doing this and getting results?

<snip> is my favourite tv portal

I just got this email from WebPro News. They were talking about paid links and Cutts said:

Tools like rel=nofollow give site owners a method to decide whether to flow PageRank at a link-level of granularity.

What exactly does he mean?

well ya if they help you to increase your rank they are very benifiatl to you buddy...

I just got this email from WebPro News. They were talking about paid links and Cutts said:

Tools like rel=nofollow give site owners a method to decide whether to flow PageRank at a link-level of granularity.

What exactly does he mean?

nofollow tags included in link code stop links from passing PageRank.