A few months ago I noticed a new widget appearing on blogs called LinkShowOff. I clicked the link and signed up. The premise is you buy a link on someone's blog displaying the widget. Up to 20 links are shown on the widget. As a new link is added the oldest link rolls off the widget. The blogger displaying the widget determines the price they want for displaying the link. In return LinkShowOff keeps a small commission. Essentially the widget is a limited blog roll except you pay for a link.
The widget is somewhat customizable but colours are limited. The number of characters for the link are limited as well so this is not the ideal solution for those with longer blog titles. Given the way the widget works $1 could buy you a long term bit of advertising especially if the widget is not very busy.
I initally had a LinkShowOff widget on each of my blogs although I did not sell any advertising on them. I also advertised one of my blogs on another blogger's LinkShowOff widget. The LinkShowOff widget raises a few concerns for me. First, I'm not sure whether Google will view this as being a link farm even though the links are nofollow and according to the site you will not be penalized for selling nofollow links. It's hard to say though and with LinkShowOff having a PR 0 it is definitely cause for using caution. I'm also not sure how Google views paid links but quite frankly you could have tons of paid links on a blog with no indication they are paid links. This widget makes it very clear they are paid links so whether Google views the links as advertising or paid links is anyone's guess. Second the widget sitting empty takes up valuable blog real estate that could be put to better use. Third, while the concept is good, running a paid link or links on your blog is easy enough without involving a third party to get part of the cut.
Garden Gnome
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