I pointed out recently that the Trinity Mirror group was selling paid links in its footer without applying a nofollow. It's now stopped - the links now look like this: <a href="http://www.godirect.co.uk/life-insurance.php" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Life Insurance</a>

I shall claim the credit for this sudden change. I thank you (more examples of newspapers selling links here).

I've now spotted that the Christian Science Monitor is selling paid links in its footer without applying nofollow. Obviously, you don't have to do this (it's a Google guideline, not the law). Don't blame me if their rankings get affected ...

And you should see their relocation page - stuffed full of keyword-rich links to other sites:

Unfortunately, Delia Smith is still selling paid links though.

There's nothing illegal about being paid to add a link to your website - or paying someone to do this. However, Google doesn't like the practice - doing so can "can negatively impact [the selling] site's ranking in search results".

Alongside my other posts on newspapers' paid links, let's look at the ic network, one of Trinity Mirror's local news brands ...

At the very bottom of icCheshire pages in a set of links to other Trinity Mirror sites is one with the link text 'Remortgage'. This links to http://www.godirect.co.uk/remortgages.php. I can't find a connection between Go Direct and Trinity Mirror - they look like separate companies.

icCheshire home page - is one of these a paid link?

At the bottom of the icLiverpool page is the same box, but this one has a link with the keywords 'Life insurance' that links to http://www.godirect.co.uk/life-insurance.php.

icLiverpool - is the first link a paid one?

Of course, people are free to ignore Google's guidelines. However, they shouldn't complain if their ranking in search engine results drop ...

To avoid this fate, Google recommends using the nofollow tag, which Trinity Mirror isn't doing for these links.

It definitely doesn't recommend stuffing a keyword-rich link to a 3rd-party site in among links to other sites you own ... Or am I being overly suspiscious?