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3 Ways to Make MORE Money with Text Link Ads



You’ve probably heard of Text Link Ads (TLA). It’s one of many programs to make money online. But do you know how to truly leverage TLA to make the most money possible? This article will give you 3 easy tips.

Sell post level ads in WordPress

The main TLA unit is limited. It displays on your entire site and maxes out at 10 links. Post level ads are different.

These links allow advertisers to target a specific post within your WordPress blog. This gives you more inventory to sell. It also gives you different inventory, better targeted to more advertisers.

TLA - post level

A great example is an ad bought recently here at Legal Andrew. I have a post about using Google Base to search for real estate. As you can see, there is now a post level ad for a real estate site.

Without post level ads, my blog would never have sold an ad like this. Overall, Legal Andrew is not in a real estate niche. But that particular post fits the niche well. That’s why the ad sold!

Install a translation plugin

As you can see in the sidebar, I provide automated translations of Legal Andrew, courtesy of Global Translator. This provides increased usability for the blog and gets some search traffic for keywords in other languages. But the point of this article is a newer ad in my TLA unit:

TLA - spanish

I get a fair amount of traffic for legal topics in Spanish, so this ad is pretty well targeted. I might have sold it without the translator plugin, but I doubt it. At the very least, translation options don’t hurt.

Pass out your affiliate link

Every TLA publisher gets a handy little affiliate link. If publishers or advertisers sign up through the link, the original publisher earns a commission. Do you promote this?

An easy way to do it is via a small link or banner on your blog. It seems natural to put that near your TLA unit (like my link in the sidebar – “Put your link here”).

But another option might have eluded you. Increasingly, people are asking me for tips on optimizing or monetizing their blogs. I’m flattered and glad to help out. While I do paid consulting, I’m also happy to answer a few questions and give my thoughts for free. But I do use my affiliate links when recommending an advertiser, most notably TLA.

I haven’t encountered anyone who was offended by this. Of course, nobody has sign up through my link yet either. 🙂 But more links floating around means there’s a better chance that someone will.

One caveat here – do this tactfully. It’s probably best to include a note if you’re putting an affiliate link in an email or IM. The bottom line is not to mislead people.

Go make money!

Hopefully at least one of these ideas will be new to you. If not, maybe you can forward this post to somebody else who needs a primer on TLA ideas. For now, go make yourself some money!

If you have any TLA tips or tricks, let’s share them in the comments. And if you think this post sucked, I’d love to hear that too.

[tags]text link ads, make money online, advertising, affiliate[/tags]

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Comments

13 Responses to “3 Ways to Make MORE Money with Text Link Ads”

  1. mstoddart
    May 22nd, 2007

    Think about giving LinkWorth a shot, too! 70% payouts with tons of ad products to choose from…

  2. Andrew Flusche
    May 22nd, 2007

    Hi Matt,

    Thanks for the suggestion. I didn’t know about this company before, but I’ll keep it in mind for the future. Right now I’ve got my hands full with the current advertisers, but it’s always good to know about other options.

    Take care,
    Andrew

  3. Brett McKay
    May 22nd, 2007

    Great tips, Andrew. Unfortunately, the Text Link Ads Plugin started acting up on me again this morning, so I won’t be able to put them to use. Boo.

  4. mstoddart
    May 22nd, 2007

    Anytime, sir. We’ve got tons of attorneys that advertise with us so if you ever feel like writing sponsored blog posts or anything like that for some extra cash, just let me know and I’ll get you squared away.

  5. Ponn Sabra
    May 22nd, 2007

    Great tips!

    I’m glad I’m thinking along your lines.

    A colleague just recently informed me of the post level plugin, she got them on past posts she didn’t even realize.

    And, I often (always) share my affiliate links with colleagues, that some come right out and ask me for them 😉

    And, the best CTR from one affiliate marketer to another, are for link directories, like Link Connector. 🙂

  6. Ron W.
    May 22nd, 2007

    Hi Andrew…

    Matt (mstoddart) told me to check out your site and I had to leave a comment. This is probably one of the coolest blog designs I’ve ever seen. Very unique and creative.

    Ron

  7. Webaction
    May 22nd, 2007

    Hello Andrew,

    very useful informations about global translations, great stuff. I have few ideas myself, come and take a look,
    give support and join if you like, I’ll be honored.

    Regards.

  8. Andrew Flusche
    May 22nd, 2007

    Brett,

    I’m sorry to hear that the TLA plugin pooped out on you. Hopefully their support guys will get a move on things and fix it.

    Good luck,
    Andrew

  9. Andrew Flusche
    May 22nd, 2007

    Ron,

    Thank you very much for the compliment. I’m glad people like the blog layout. It’s definitely much better than my old, boring theme. 🙂

    Take care,
    Andrew

  10. Andrew Flusche
    May 22nd, 2007

    Hi Webaction,

    It looks like you’ve got a great blog going there. Keep up the hard work. I’ll definitely be following along.

    Andrew

  11. Andrew Flusche
    May 22nd, 2007

    Hi Ponn,

    Sorry – your comment got caught in the moderation queue. Thanks for your thoughts. I’ll give Link Connector a look as well.

    Take care,
    Andrew

  12. franc
    May 23rd, 2007

    quite innovative desings

    thanks
    take care
    http://www.sumitkar.org