I’ve just sold my first Post Level Ad, which is the new advertising service from Text Link Ads. It sold for the grand sum of $5, which meant I made $2.5. It was a for a pretty insignificant post, so I don’t mind.
I think that Text Link Ads are right to start selling Post Level Ads, which will allow advertisers to better target their link purchases, which will hopefully allow them to generate traffic, but I think that Text Link Ads need to improve the publisher support for this to really work effectively.
Below are some of the changes I would like to see made which I think will make the Post Level Ad service much better for publishers:
- Allow publishers to set prices – at the moment publishers have no control, which could result in highly trafficked posts going at too low a rate
- In the Approve/Deny system allow publishers to see the actual price that the advertiser has agreed to paid, which isn’t currently displayed to help them decide whether or not to accept the ad (this applies to TLA links as well)
- Make it easier for publishers to better manage which posts are available for links e.g.
- Group the posts by those that have been included and those that haven’t rather than in my case having to scroll through hundreds of links to find unticked posts
- Allow publishers to choose whether to include all posts automatically e.g. if you write a new post it’s not automatically included. At the moment you have to scroll though all the links to find the new post and manually add it. If you post everyday you’ll have to repeat this daily
- Paginate the number of posts to make it easier to manage
- Show the number of impressions that each post receives to help publishers and advertisers assess the value of links
Do you have any thoughts on the new Post Level Ad system so far? Are you selling them, or would you consider buying them in order to get targeted traffic?
