The Catch 22 of Text Link Ads

A couple of months ago I got an email from Text Link Ads that informed me they would no longer be selling new links on my site as Pagerank had gone.

This is ironic because if I hadn't sold text links I would still have a great pagerank.....

Nowadays I don't even bother trying to sell text links, however keep earning money of those that I have sold in the past. As they drop off however my monthly income from these sources slowly declines.

Are text links a thing of the past? Maybe with the increased popularity of search engines like "bing" Google will focus on providing great search results for sites that have great relevant content, and stop punishing sites for trying to make a few dollars (Which one could argue helps to encourage that great content...)

One thing that I am going to try to do more of, and it's something I have probably neglected in the past is to stop worrying so much about making money out of every article or site that I own, and just to focus on building sites that are useful to people. I think if your site is popular enough the money will come and find you.

As for Text Link Ads, they keep paying me each month, so I won't be too rude, but I do have one word for them after that email...

WHATEVER

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Make Money Fast With TNX Text Links

One of the companies in the text link arena is called TNX and the way they operate is certainly a little different to some of the more traditional Text Link Advert type providers. Given their rapid success in a short amount of time it is obvious that they have a program that is worth further investigation.

Not only can you sell text link ads on your site and make money, but by just joining up you can get free points which you can then use to spend on advertising for your own site.

Looking at the Alexa traffic graph for TNX over the last few months it is clear that they are enjoying tremendous popularity and fast becoming a favorite of both web publishers and advertisers.



How does it work?
TNX works on a points system, when you buy links you spend points and when you sell links you earn points. It really is as simple as that and although the rate changes currently you can buy 1000 points for between .68 - 1.4 depending on the quantity purchased.


Affiliate Program

One of the best things about the TNX affiliate program is that it is simple and none of the usual constraints that can sometimes make a referral program not only confusing....but painful. From the TNX.net site...

The rules are absolutely simple - no bans, no possible overcharges, no restrictions.

By referring partners to the program you can earn ongoing commissions (13.3%) for the future income of that publisher. Worth looking into.

I will certainly be trying this program on a few of my sites and will report back with updates in the future.

How I am Making Fast Money

It has now been almost ten months since I began what has become a very interesting Million Dollar Experiment on Exponential Growth.

New Site TextLinkBuzz.com!!
One of the affiliate and passive income areas that I have really started to realize the potential of in recent times is Text Links, in fact so excited am I about this that I have now started a niche blog on just this subject, so if you want to advertise the text links that you are selling you can do so for free in the forum area of my new site - text links - TextLinkBuzz.com. This blog will be regularly updated with the buzz thats happening around text links. Sorry to all you avid "sponsored posts" readers there will be NONE on that blog! And you can quote me on that!

For now however its a time to reflect on the various activities that have been earning revenue, this way if you have just started a blog or already have one you can maybe pick up some ideas, or offer me other ideas if you are earning good money from a particular program that I have not covered.

I have split the types of income earned into passive and active. Currently active is my biggest form however I am hoping that this will become less and less over time.

Passive Income

Google AdSense
A long time web publisher with the AdSense program I have AdSense running on just about every one of my sites. So far so good, some days are better than others but I get paid once every two months now from this program which is not bad considering the maintenance is minimal. It is really money for nothing although I am continually tweaking and monitoring different ad formats etc.

Text Link Ads
Text Link Adverts are something that I have only really been making money out of for the last couple of months. It really does take time working on your site to build it up to the stage where other websites are willing to pay for a link. I use two methods one advertising my own links and also through the company text link ads aff which handle the process for you.

Affiliate programs
I run a couple of affiliate programs, the best results for me so far are actually from the Text Link Ads aff affiliate program, these guys pay you $25 US for each signup from an advertiser or publisher that you get. Also I do a little with Amazon however the results so far from Amazon are not great.

Active Income

Although I would rather sit back and have passive income coming out my ears the fact is that its not at that point yet, so as I still have goals and targets that I need to achieve - the rest of my Online earnings is made up from what you could call "active income" - mainly sponsored posts and reviews from the following companies.

PayPerPost
I do a large number of PPP sponsored posts, mainly on one of my other blogs, as PPP are not that keen on Blogspot blogs - a lot of their advertisers prefer that you have you own domain name.

PayU2Blog
I probably earn a regular 35 - 30 US a week from these guys, quick easy posts that you can write all at once and then slip them out with your posts as you do them. (They give you a weeks worth of posts every week all at once)

Smorty
Have been using this company more and more lately, they email you when a new op comes up and if you reserve it you then have a couple of days to write it.

Loudlaunch
Using this company more and more as well since they gave me a payrise recently! Now getting normally ten dollars a post which is not bad compared to other companies.

Private reviews
Occassionally I will do a private review for a company or site if they approach me through my advertising page.

When writing them all down it becomes clear that there is quite a large number of different ways that I am making money online. Its becoming very exciting as just about everyday now money is getting deposited in my PayPal account from one company or another. I am really keen to keep it going and see how much can be made long term. Next month I am excited to say that because of the income I have earned but not yet been paid this month we should pass $600 US dollars. This month actual money received will be just over $300.

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Setting Up an Advertising Page for your Site

While watching a screen cast on Yaro's website it hit home to me that I really needed some kind of advertising page set up for not only this site but potentially all my websites if I want to sell text links and other forms of advertising direct.

The concept is quite simple, you produce a page with the "packages" that you would like to offer and then produce a link via your paypal account so that a potential advertiser can easily pay for the particular advertising option that they would like. In this Blogs case I am offering text links on my "new" left sidebar for $10 per month, anchor text of the advertisers choice and also offering Sponsored Reviews for $25.

Some people probably cant be bothered dealing with it themselves and would prefer to do it through a 3rd party and that's OK, however I would like to not only promote this Blog via 3rd party sites but also directly as I can see this being quite lucrative further down the track.

You can view my new advertising page here, I will also try and create a obvious link for it somewhere around the top of the main page. I would recommend that you set this up on your site if you are serious about monetizing it.

At the top I have placed some basic statistics about the site, then below I outline the key features of the packages on offer, this will get added to over time.

It will be pretty exciting getting my first link or Sponsored Review through this advertising page, I will be aiming to provide service that is second to none.

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Text Link Ads

After hearing about this from Tom, and also reading about it on problogger, it appears that text link ads are now available for blogger.com . I have just signed up and will post more information as it becomes available. Meanwhile you can join the program here..

Monetize Your Site :aff

----- update received a polite yet blunt rejection of my application from text link ads...

"We are sorry but the inventory you have suggested http://millionnzdollars.blogspot.com/ has been declined at this time. The main reasons inventory is declined is:

-The website does not have enough link popularity.

-The website does not have enough traffic.

-The website is currently selling text link ads.

*Please note that our algorithm that accepts or rejects inventory submissions can make mistakes and if you feel the above criteria does not accurately describe your website, please reply to this email asking for further review by our editorial staff."

OK well I am not sure what they mean when they say that I am currently selling text link ads, or why if I was it would be a problem, however guess that its not that easy to become a text link ads publisher.

Maybe I will try again in a couple of months when the sites popularity has increased.

If you found this site to be helpful or inspiring you are welcome to donate to Robs Experiment!