Text Link Ads - Best Blogs Asia
A post of Text Link Ads and why I won’t be using them in the future.
Text Link Ads is the premier targeted traffic and link popularity ad firm. Specialising in placing static html links on high quality, high traffic web properties. Here’s a post on why I won’t use them.
Using Text Link Ads
Last month I integrated Text Link Ads on Best Blogs Asia, inspired to do so by Darren Rowse of Problogger Fame, he’s even promoting it on the TLA Publisher Sign Up Page.
After signing up, I found it was easy to integrate their publishing code on my Wordpress blog via a custom plugin, which can be easily activated in the WP plugin’s section and then left alone.
Text Link Ads Problems
The problem with it being so simple is that it’s confusing for the publisher to know what’s going on. I didn’t realise the Text Link Ads plugin was activated until I received an email confirming I’d sold an advert.
I must say the ease of use is great and selling ads is automatic. You can post a new article, it’ll get checked by TLA then any related keyword phrases will be sold to advertisers. Adverts are sold on key phrases, per post. So the more posts you have and more lengthy articles, the greater chance you have of selling an advert.
The problem I found is that I had no control over which ads to display, knowing their frequency and expiry dates. Also another problem feature is that I couldn’t set the price!
Why I won’t recommend Text Link Ads
The main problem is I that felt I lost control of my site. Keyword phrases were being highlighted all over my site, with advertisers being able to purchase different keywords at one price.
Price is another thing, not being able to set a minimum price is outrageous! I’ve now displayed 10+ adverts on my site, over a 1 month period and only gained $20+ dollars!
Finally, the adverts show up as backlinks to advertisers. I thought they’d at least be “noFollow” links, so ontop of all these issues – I’m also losing “link juice”.
For this blog, I’m using Direct Ad Sales as a stable form of income.
Problogger using TLA or not?
I’m confused by Probloggers TLA posts , he writes on his blog that he doesn’t use Text Link Ads, even goes as far to suggest that Google may ban your site for using them…so why endorse them in the first place?
The point is that they’re a sponsor of his site, so it’s an advertising feature…but credibility will be lost be promoting something that has the potential of harming your ranking/site position. I’d personally never promote something I didn’t have faith in and not do it for the money either ;(.
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2 Replies:
Well I must be lucky to be refused by TLA this time !
How come you were refused? I didn’t 100% not recommend them, for a (small) quick buck..they’re great.