A link does not mean I endorse the linked site, or any other site for that matter. In particular, do not presume my link means the other end is genuine. I don’t know, indeed I’m clueless. When I created the link, I found the other site’s interesting, that’s all. A link from arts & ego to another site validates neither.
I have never accepted payment for a link, beyond, in the early days, that of a link back. I value arts & ego’s editorial independence, and have never received an offer that clearly intended to preserve it. This is probably because, so far as I can tell, the number of genuine visitors to arts & ego can be counted on the back of one finger.
Despite occasional requests, I won’t generally embed third party content. I certainly won’t embed adverts; I dislike propaganda and corruption, and I would want to control layout, colour, background, behaviour, etc., which I suspect would be completely unacceptable to the advert owner (exception: a text link might be considered). Having said that, I have occasionally added a link to an external website at their request, because I consider it relevant to this site’s content at the point of embedding (for example, linking to advice on preventing identity theft on a page about identity theft).
I will only embed valid HTTPS links. If something only works with HTTP, but not HTTPS, then I will generally reference the corresponding internet archive page.
To request a link, make contact (see the arts & ego contact page), and give reasons.