Publishers who make their living from selling links on their sites had a warning shot delivered to them last month with the Google PageRank update and its anti-paid linking initiative. This targeting of high profile sites is meant to discourage sites with paid links and had led to some publishers scratching their heads as to how to continue earning revenue online.
Don’t fret just yet however, the paid link business is still rather lucrative and if you are selling relative link advertising which drives results and possibly conversions, your site should be fine. On the other hand, you do not want to have your business at the mercy of Google PageRank (although there are other search engines out there too), and publishers should look at the whole picture, especially providing products or services which generate sound revenue.