Comments on: Selling Text Links

By: Bumeral

Bumeral — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:02:25 +0000

Last month I saw that google started to penalize all sites which try to sell links.You can by ads but only if are they with “nonfollow” link.

By: CypherHackz.Net

CypherHackz.Net — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:26:00 +0000

Text Links Ads: Alternative to Google’s AdSense…

After few days my site been approved by Text Link Ads, I have earned about $10.00 from it by selling one text link ad on my site. If you noticed, there is a link on my sidebar under “Text Link Ads”. The ad will be there until the end of thi…

By: Marty Weil

Marty Weil — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:30:06 +0000

This is very helpful information, but I have a slightly different take on the topic. Instead of reacting to an email requesting the purchase of a text link on your blog, what if you want to approach prospective advertisers about buying links. What are the best strategies for proactively soliciting text ads from sponsors?

By: LotionBarBunny

LotionBarBunny — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:16:41 +0000

I’ve had text links for sale on my blog for a few months and no one has yet to advertise with me. Even at 7 cents a day! I am surprised. I use AdBrite and have advertised on other blogs with okay results….just click throughs–no sales. :(

Since I have no ranking with google, how can I make my blog more attractive for someone to advertise on?

By: Inside Online Advertising

Inside Online Advertising — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:16:00 +0000

Selling Text Links On Your Site

OK, I’ll admit it, I’ve thought of selling text links on my sites. I haven’t followed through though. Usually those wanting to buy text links on your site are looking for a Page Rank (PR) push of their site so…

By: Successful Blog — The Great Neighborhood Link Post

Successful Blog — The Great Neighborhood Link Post — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:30:41 +0000

[...] Darren has been talking about receiving offers to carry links for payment on your blog and what you should consider before you do. While I was there I found two more links from his article on Hate Links. [...]

By: M Freitas

M Freitas — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 09:12:56 +0000

I always discard these kind of unsolicited emails thinking that what these people are looking for is actually some PR – and this is not something I can give for a few bucks – I give it freely to sites I like, through my articles.

By: gary

gary — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 02:34:53 +0000

Is there a web resource that lists a range of fees collected for ads placed on web sites, i.e. a banner ad vs. a small 80×120 graphic, vs. text ads? I’ve got zero ads on my site, but if I can find sponsers, I’d like to be able to give them a rate table grounded in reality instead of just saying, “what’s your budget?” – Maybe I should ask this on your newbie questions thread?

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 02:17:03 +0000

Paul – Adsense don’t allow ads of two types:

1. That are contextual – (these are not usually)
2. That mimic AdSense ads. I think this is the key one – you need to make these ads look different to AdSense ads – this is a bit of a challenge I guess – the main thing though is probably not to run these ads into Adsense ads and make them all look the same. When in doubt I’d contact AdSense though.

By: Bill Ferris

Bill Ferris — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 01:47:50 +0000

Selling text links is pretty common practice (and has been) for sports blogs with the vast majority of advertisers being ticket brokers. I’ve found them to be pretty lucrative and one of my best revenue streams. A couple other things to consider when negotiating:

1. Be pretty specific about placement. Where on the page will they be displayed? Will it be on every page, or just the main page? Also, you could sell the first spot (assuming that you’d have several in the sidebar) at a premium for the added exposure.

2. In the agreement I’ve started reserving the right to suspend the arrangement if I get reports from my readers about problems – where I agree to refund to the advertiser a pro-rated portion of the the fee. I haven’t had a problem yet, but I don’t want to be advocating services that are garbage to my readers.

3. Think about how much space you want to devote to these links, and use that when negotiating. On one of my sites I’ve capped the number of ads from any given industry at 5. Because space is at a premium, I get to charge a little bit more. Now I don’t get nearly as much as if I’d accepted all ads, but I get a little extra while controlling clutter and providing more value to each advertiser.

As for penalizing the sites, my understanding (and this was from Matt Cutts) is that if Google figures out you’re selling links, the site itself doesn’t get punished in terms of SERPs or PR. However, it prevents that site from giving PR to other sites.

By: Kates

Kates — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 01:03:12 +0000

Text Links are good for sites that do not have enough traffic volume to convert to adsense clicks. Filling up your text links inventory gives a steady source of income even if you have less traffic. You don’t even have to optimize your site for SERPs. All you have to do is to Protect that PageRank.

By: Arun Kumar

Arun Kumar — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:35:52 +0000

I doubt it.. Since they are not contextual ads, that wouldn’t be violating Goggle’s TOS. The links under “Money Making Tools and Resources” are the type of direct links to other websites Darren is talking about here.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:35:18 +0000

Darren you mentioned that people may want to buy advertising for ads that were out of context with someone’s blog.

I think that bloggers may see more and more of that in the future because recent research has shown that contextual ads are often missed by readers because they are in tune with the theme of the site or blog.

On the other hand advertising that is out of context with the theme of the site is more likely to be noticed and more likely to be clicked on by people who are visiting the site.

One of the most clicked on ads on any of my sites is an ad for an electronics firm here in Australia and the ad appears on a hobby site that has nothing to do with electronics.

If anyone is interested in the research they can find mention of it Advertising Out of Context

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 23:45:41 +0000

Hey Darren,

Would text Link ads go against Adsense TOS?

By: jim

jim — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 22:29:00 +0000

Darren – These are very good questions that you bring up and anyone who runs a blog and reads here should, at the very least, open up a dialogue with the site just to see where it could go. I only recently started selling footer text link ads on my own and found that the hardest thing was pricing and understanding the agreements I was entering in to, you get a better feel for them as you talk with other sites more. And don’t sell yourself short. :)

By: Aaress

Aaress — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 21:55:10 +0000

Thanks Darren for the helpful tips – I’m looking forward to reading your post on Text Link Ads as I was considering using them on one of my sites, http://tennisgear.onthebaseline.com