Text Link Ads are many bloggers’ second best friend after Google Adsense. Although there are other methods that can potentially make more money from blogging, the beauty of Text Link Ads and Google Adsense that beyond the initial setup, nothing more needs to be done to generate revenue. If you haven’t signed up yet with TLA then I’d advice doing so as it only takes 5 mins to add the code.
However, with a bit of effort the amount made from Text Link Ads can be increased. By taking a few simple steps I’ve managed to increase my monthly earnings from Text Link Ads from $319 from the maximum 10 links sold 3 months ago, to an expected $800 this month with a few spare links available.
Consider The Price Of Your Links
Like many goods that have a finite supply, prices are set based on supply and demand. If your links are in high demand, then you should consider raising your prices as there is a good chance that you could sell each individual link for more. If your text links aren’t in demand then you should consider lowering your prices.
Don’t be afraid to keep lowering and raising your prices until you are confident you have found the right price for your blog. For instance, I have experimented with various prices for my Text Link Ads starting with the $40 suggested by TLA, all the way up to my current price of $200 per link.
Remove Old Advertisers
Once an advertiser has purchased a link for a given price, then the renewal price will remain the same unless you tell TLA to change it. So in order to get advertisers to pay higher rates, you have to cancel their campaigns. Although, this might not seem fair at first, if your site is now receiving more traffic than when the advertiser first purchased the link, or it now has a higher Page Rank, then it is only fair that the advertiser pays the new ‘market rate’.
If you want to try out this strategy then email TLA and ask them to not renew the campaign(s) at the end of their current deal. Hopefully, the advertiser will still renew at the new price. If not, then all is not lost as you’ve freed up a slot that will hopefully be filled by a new advertiser who will pay the new price.
Add More Links
Many sites sell site-wide links on their blogs as these are the most attractive to advertisers. But what about if you have a directory, forum or another site on your domain? Many advertisers just want a link from a site with a certain PR so adding your forum or directory as additional inventory could be a good idea. I’ve manged to do this successfully with my forum which now has a PR of 5 thanks to the main site having a PR of 6, and I’ve managed to sell 8 links.
I’m in the process of adding a TLA’s code to my Directory as well, as I think its new PR of 5 will be attractive to advertisers. If you haven’t created a Directory yet, I’d advise looking into adding one as they are great for link bait. I have about 400 links in my directory and about 10% have gone for reciprocal links – not bad for a $25 investment. What has been even better though is that the Google Adsense units are doing very well, generating a CPM of $8 which is very good for an automated site.
I hope that you have found this post useful. If you have any other tips, then please leave them in a comment below.
