The Gospel According To Rhys - Colwyn Bay North Wales Web blog About Sport Technology Web 2.0 Internet Life and Making Money Online

Text Link Ads is my biggest earner on this blog, it is now pulling me in around $100 a month (up $40 from last month), and I cannot reccommend enough this service, it’s easy, it’s unobtrusive (unlike say Adsense), it pays well for most of us bloggers who dream of making more than three pence on a blog, and it can be put on blogs and your readers would be completely none the wiser. It’s ace.

After signing up and being accepted into the directories (if you have a site which has been indexed by Google, you should be okay), you are instructed to add code depending on what blogging system you have, or if you have PHP.

Then what? You can sit there and wait for the money to roll in, or instead you can do a couple of things to help advertise your listing to other people.

1. Increase Your Alexa Ranking Easily Without Pissing People Like Jem Off

Unfortunately, Text Link Ads uses Alexa rankings. Alexa rankings are known to be wildly inaccurate and easy to manipulate. Fortunately, Text Link Ads uses Alexa rankings, which are easy to manipulate. As Jem says, simply download IE Toolbar or Searchstaus for Firefox and simply surf your sites. I have, and this is the increase of stats I have experienced.

Of course, you could put one of those vile widgets on your site, but it is ugly and doesn’t really do much. Search bar is fine.

When you are done, log into your Text Link Ads Account, and click Edit Listings, and click on Update to update your ranking.

2. Choose Your Categories Wisely

You sign up, you throw yourself into the “Blogs” Category. Big mistake, there are hundreds, probably thousands of blogs better optimised than you, and will appear above you. Ever wondered why 50% of the time when you add a site to the directory you get a listing back pretty sharpish? It’s because it’s from the “New Sites” Category. Being on the first page is pretty important, and pretty achievable. You can pick your category, so pick wisely. It may be your domain name, or the odd post about Pay Per Click Schemes, or Algerian Tree Mice, or whatever. Use your description to be more descriptive and target more people with keywords.

3. Advertise on Your Blog

You get a URL that leads directly to your listing. Here’s mine, for example. Use it on your blog. Preferably underneath your Text Link Ads, and bold and highlight it. It may not pick up many advertisers, but it does draw attention to them. You never know if you don’t try.

4. Take Advantage of as Many Things As You Can

Offer Sponsored and RSS Advertising, and try and put the ads on as many blogs as possible you own. Whilst this blog only earns $50 ish from advertising via Text Link Ads, my other sites push it upto $90. It’s not much, but every little helps.

5. Add a link to the Affiliate Scheme

The Affiliate scheme is excellent in that you can promote it with no listings, and offers quite a substansial amount of cash just for signing up, so put that link underneath your link ads too. Also you may want to link to the Starter Kit, to attract publishers which may add links to your blog. Why not offer incentives for people to join using your site too? Like, say, offer a pint for anybody who joins up via your links (think of how many pints you can buy with $25. You can spare one!).

Gah, it got a bit dry down towards the end with talk of “affiliates”. But you get the jist. Again, these may not be the best methods, but by goodness - they work for me.

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