Every so often you see a thread in a webmaster forum where someone is selling .edu links. Rumors fly around saying that .edu links are worth more than a regular .com or .net link because it has more authority. Universities have thousands and thousands of inbound links. If you can get your link on a .edu page then your search engine rankings and page rank will go up. Right?

To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure. I’ve read people say it’s true, and I’ve heard people say there is no difference from a .gov, .edu, or .info. So why is it when someone is selling .edu links, there is always a ton of interest? This guy Tyler was trying to sell .edu pages. You can view his thread and 168 replies here. Another guy on Digitalpoint named Tom, recently put up a .edu link sales thread here and sparked 3 pages worth of replies.

Obviously there is a market out there for .edu links.

Lucky for me, I am an alumni to the University of Florida and still have access to my student account. I would say that 90% of universities offer their students free web space. It’s limited of course, but nonetheless you get free space. That is free space on a .edu domain. If you’re in college, check the student section on your school’s site and I bet you will find that you can build web pages too.

Last night I created the Gator General Directory. I haven’t really done much to it yet. But when I get time I plan on selling pages like Tyler (mentioned above) did. I don’t have any of the details yet such as length, number of links allowed, or price.

It will be laid out like this .edu/lithman/your-page.html

Depeding on how much interest I get from this, I might do sub folders:

.edu/lithman/sports/your-sports-page.html

This will be a purely SEO thing. I wouldn’t expect any traffic to come from these pages. I’ll keep you guys posted, once I get my page set up and start looking for buyers. If you have any tips on how I can make this project better / more profitable please comment and let me know.