During the recent blogging boom, many people created blogs as a way to get their own web presence and to see what all the blogging hype was about. After awhile, as your writing skills get better and you start to build a loyal fan base of readers and subscribers, you begin to realize that you could be making some money (or at least offsetting blogging costs) while doing what you’ve already been doing. Once you’ve decided to start making money online with your blog(s), there are several options you can go with. One of my favorite ways to make money online is with Text Link Ads.

Why would I want to sign up with Text Link Ads? Text Link Ads serves as a go between for publishers and advertisers by offering a convenient location from them to come together and find each other. This allows many smaller publishers to get their sites found when they otherwise wouldn’t.

How do I sign up? Simply go and register for your free account on their website. They will then ask you a few questions and generate a Wordpress plugin to place on your website.

How do I set up Text Link Ads on my website? Once you’ve got your plugin, you will then need to go through the normal process of uploading and activating the plugin, then place the following code where you want your text link sales to appear in your sidebar:

<?php if(function_exists('tla_ads')) { tla_ads(); } ?>

Once that’s done, everything else is handled by Text Link Ads. When someone purchases a link, it will be placed automatically in your sidebar where you designated the links should go.

How do I get more text link sales? The best tip I can offer is to have good content on your website, but there are a few other things you can do. First of all, advertisers will want to see the location of where there link will be. You’ll want to place a header on that section of the sidebar where the links will go so they can see where there link would be. Try to stay away from using wording like “My Sponsors” or something similar because people will be less likely to click on it. Some SEO experts also feel that using the word sponsor can cause problems with Google, as they don’t like the idea of advertisers purchasing links. I’ve chosen to use the term “Featured Sites” for mine. You’ll also want to make sure it is placed “above the fold” and in a spot where it will get clicks. I’ve also noticed a correlation between my Alexa ranking and text link sales, so I would also recommend working on increasing your Alexa Ranking.

How do I make money with Text Link Ads? There are three ways to make money with Text Link Ads. The most common way is through the sale of up to 8 text link advertisements. The second way is through the sale of individual post links. These will automatically be available once the plugin is installed and will allow you to make some additional money once you’ve sold out your text links. The third way is through referring people to Text Link Ads. The website will allow you to generate a button for your site to place wherever you would like. When people sign up through that button and install the plugin for at least a week, you will receive a payment.

When do I get paid? Text Link Ads will do payouts on the first of each month, and they give you the option of receiving your full payment via Paypal (without Paypal fees), which is extremely fast and convenient.

That should just about cover everything you need to know about Text Link Ads. Sounds good? Give it a try for free.

If you’re an advertiser and would like to give Text Link Ads a try, you can currently get $100.00 in free links.

Sign Up for Text Link Ads