Originally Posted by Peter (IMC)

Well, It used to be simple. You could make hundreds to thousands of dollars per page (!) by selling links. Don't look at me, as I have never rented a single link in my life. Not because I didn't want to, but because I don't have sites that are interesting enough to sell links in. I have seen in link broker sites that the prices went down. Even before Google started zeroing the ToolBar the heat on selling links was already up and prices went down.

You´re right everything is in hiding now. Most linkbroker sites don't show any information about the links they sell anymore. It's kind of funny. But I completely disagre with your "Fear as a tactic for reform" statement. It's the link seller's choice to be afraid. If he is afraid then he acknowledges he is doing something wrong... If he believes he is doing nothing wrong, then he won't be afraid.

It's not about the selling of links, it's about the selling of PR passing links, which basically means selling PR. If you place the links in non-indexable script or use a nofollow there is nothing to be afraid of.

Why people are so upset about it I don't get either. Google always has said they don't like selling links based on PR. They never did much against it because they couldn't. Now that they can, its all the sudden the big bad Google that's not being fair?