Earners Club

About 4 months ago, I launched a WordPress plugin called WP Text Ads. It’s goal is to let bloggers sell text link ads directly to advertisers, so they don’t have to pay commissions.

Benefits of WP Text Ads

1) Lower prices for advertisers.
People who have heard of WP Text Ads know that bloggers will earn more since they do not pay commissions. But few realize that advertisers benefit from that too. For example, if text link ads rates fall to $70 from $100, advertisers save $30, but bloggers do not lose out since they don’t pay 30-50% in commissions anymore. It’s a truly win-win solution.

2) Substantial traffic metrics
The WP Text Ads Marketplace provides plenty of traffic metrics for each site listed. It does not require any login or registration, and takes only 5 minutes to join. It is also free.

3) Active development and customer support
Believe me, when this is your livelihood, you work really hard to make your clients happy Enough said.

4) API
The WP Text Ads API allows any developer to write plugins to offer greater value proposition to advertisers. I have created 2 such plugins for free download.

5) It is free
Some have the idea that WP Text Ads costs $127. That is partially correct only. When you install it, it is free to use. If you sell so many text link ads that you need to remove the limitations on links, then you upgrade. Otherwise, the free version stays free forever, and it has all the features of the licensed one.

How WP Text Ads Could Do Better

1) Marketing
I’ve done a bad job marketing WP Text Ads. In fact, I wonder if it could get any worse.

2) Affiliate Program
Up to now, I’ve not released an affiliate program. I forgot that WP Text Ads exists to help bloggers increase their revenue, and an affiliate program will help them achieve that cause.

3) Better Interface
WP Text Ads appear as an Options page in WordPress. It’s currently too long and slightly unwieldly. I’ve added a quick links menu to help users navigate around, but that’s not an excuse.

4) No integration with PayPal
IPN is not used for PayPal payments. I’m a little nervous about integrating that because of security concerns. That’s something that needs studying, but clearly, advertisers and bloggers are not benefiting as a result.

As a one-man operation, I can’t do everything at the same time. Some of the problems will be rectified in the next version. I’d love to get feedback if you have comments. Please write to me at alexchoowk at wptextads dot com.

This is a guest post by Alex Choo. He is the developer of WP Text Ads, a free WordPress plugin that lets you sell text link ads directly to advertisers.

written by Alex Choo

To build quality backlinks, which is very crucial for SEO success, website owners usually do submission to directories, article submissions, posting in forums and many more techniques as mentioned by Andy Hogans and Aaron Wall’s 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website. In that great post, they have also mentioned about renting some high quality links directly from web sites. In reverse, this gives website owners (in this case, bloggers) an opportunity to make money from blogs by selling text links.

Direct Text Link Sales
You can directly sell text links in your blogs if you want a total control of your ads. Selling text links directly also cut off the middleman’s share and therefore you keep 100% of your sales, plus, you will have direct relationship with your advertisers. However, there are also some disadvantages with this type of selling text links. First, this is not an option for low traffic blogs or those that are new, thus only popular and high-traffic sites may used this method. Second disadvantage is that your potential advertisers are very limited - that is, only your visitors.

Bloggers usually put an “Advertise” page on their blog and put some details such as prices, traffic stats and other useful informtion that could catch attention to potential advertisers. Others also advertise that they are selling text links by posting on various webmaster forums such as DigitalPoint and SitePoint or placing it on classified ads sites. JohnChow has also a nice article on How To Make Direct Ad Sales.

For WordPress users, there are two plugins that could automate your direct selling of text links. These are OIOPublisher (free) and WP TextAds (free or $127/license - more review soon). You will also be able to get listed on the marketplace of these sites.

Text Links Brokers
If your blog is not so popular, you can use text link brokers which act as a middleman between you and a thousands of advertisers. This is a preferred method by most of the bloggers even if they received huge amount of traffic everyday. It’s because if they used these text links brokers, their blog will be listed in the marketplace of these sites thus it will be exposed to thousands of potential advertisers. Even if there will be a cut of your sales (you will not received 100% of your sales), the exposure it brings would outweigh the disadvantage. Listed below are some (there maybe new one that is unknown) of the popular text link brokers:

• Text-Link-Ads
  Sell relevant text link ads on your website. You can approve or deny the advertiser links that appear on your site. They pay you 50% of the sale price for each text link sold on your website. Additionally, earn $25.00 for new paid client or new publisher referred.
• LinkWorth
  Sell text links and other form of ads and make money. Earn up to 70% of ad revenue recurring monthly in most situations, suggested is 50/50 split. Earn more by referring advertisers to LinkWorth. You can earn $10.00 for each new advertiser signup and 5% of each recurring transaction amount for the life of the advertiser account.
• BackLinks
  Monetize your web site by selling text links to related web sites. Unlike most text link brokers, they DO NOT CHARGE any fees or commissions. You decide what to charge for your text links and you keep 100% the revenue. As usual, you have the control to choose what sites you would like to be advertised on your site. But, BackLinks only accepts sites with PR3.
• Adbrite
  Approve or reject any ads purchased for your sites. You also have the ability to sell direct ads with “Your Ad Here” links. Unfortunately, they have no option to pay your commissions via PayPal.
• Direct Link Ads
  You can earn 75% of the revenue of the link ads sold on your site. You may use your earnings to purchase links from other sites, or you may withdraw the funds at any time if your account balance is more than £50.
• LinkAdage
  Already teamed up with Text-Link-Ads.
• Buy-Sell Text Links
• Text  Link Brokers
• Live Customer

Empty/Looks-Underconstruction/Seems-Inactive/Beta Stage Text Links Brokers?

• Permanent Links
• LinkMonsters
• TextLinkAdvisor
• Text Link Ocean
• Buy Sell Trade Links

If you knew any other programs not listed above, please let us know by posting in the comments area. Additionally, you may share your experiences with us which among the programs above perform well with your blog.

Part 3 of monetizing your blog is coming soon next week. You can read Part 1: Making Money In Your Blog - Contextual Advertising here.

written by Ramil Alcibar

adgridwork is an advertising network that allow you (bloggers and website owners) to display your ads to thousands of highly targeted and related sites for FREE. In exchange for displaying your ads, you are required to also display ads on your site by putting a code snippet into your webpages.

Highlights and Benefits

• Free to join. You just simply display ads for free in return. You will not get paid, unlike Adsense, if the ads in your site are clicked.
• You can target where you want your ads are served by choosing the right category and by keywords.
• Improve your search engine rankings. Since your website(s) are displayed on network of sites, you are increasing your backlinks which is vital to increasing your rankings.
• Increase your traffic. As previously stated, your ads will be displayed to a network of sites thus there’s more visibility of your site.
• Free metrics and tracking tools for webmasters.

How It Works

1. Register at adgridwork, FREE.
2. Create an ad campaign by providing your site details, category and keywords. In this step, you must also choose what type of ad layout you will use to display ads on your site. You can also block sites that you consider as your competitor.
3. Copy and paste the code snippet in your site.
4. Your ad will now appear on related sites based on your category and keyword targeting.

adgridwork states that they are compatible with Adsense as stated on their blog. This means that you can have both Adsense and adgridwork ads on the same pages but I’m not really sure with it and I may not also using them at once. I highly recommend that you must contact Google first about this concern if you are planning to display Adsense and adgridwork ads together. Click here to register and learn more about adgridwork.

written by Ramil Alcibar

The most common method that bloggers used to make money online with their blog is by using Google Adsense. However, you must not rely only on one income source for your blog or website. You should add more revenue resources, which I break them into parts, in order to make more money that should be enough to pay your hosting, advertisements, your bills, your personal needs or for whatever purpose you like to achieve.

Contextual Advertising
For Part I, I will talk about making money with your blog through contextual advertising in which Adsense falls into this category. Contextual ads are advertisements dynamically displayed on your websites that are relevant to the contents in which the ads are served. For example, if the user is viewing a site about entertainment, your visitor might see ads for entertainment-related ads, such as Hollywood actors or movie previews and downloads. Almost all contextual advertising companies pays the website owner on a pay-per-click basis while others also offers CPM. Since the ads are more targeted and content-relevant, they are more likely to get clicked by your visitors, thus generating more revenue for you.

Contextual Ad Networks
Listed below contextual ad networks that offers you, bloggers and publishers, a chance to make money by delivering contextual ads to your blogs or websites.

• Google Adsense
• Kontera - Currently this is the only program that I used to monetize this blog.
• Kanoodle BrightAds
• Chitika
• Yahoo! Publisher Network
• Microsoft adCenter Content Ads
• Clicksor
• BidVertiser
• Adbrite
• IntelliTXT
• Amazon Context Links
• ContextWeb
• Adsonar
• Miva MC
• Clickbooth
• Targetpoint
• PremierAD

Ask.com has also called ASL Contextual Advertising but it seems that is not yet open to the general public. You may follow the discussion about this new program at this DigitalPoint Forums thread.

Please keep in mind that is is not possible to display all the ads from the different networks listed above. For example, you cannot served together Adsense and YPN on same page. Although, there are some that can be displayed at once such as Adsense and Chitika. Please read their policies and guidelines carefully or even ask their support representatives to make sure you will conform to thier terms of service. Additionally, please consider also your visitors’ experience with your blog/website - visiting a site with full of advertisements is a total pain in the eyes.

If you have found any other similar programs that are not listed here, please post it in your comments. Part II of monetizing your blog is all about Making Money by Selling Text Links and can be read here.

written by Ramil Alcibar

Again, on my previous post ” Monetizing Your Blog: Paid Reviews“, ReviewMe, PayPerPost, and SponsoredReviews are the big names mentioned that unite both bloggers and advertisers - helping bloggers earn money and advertisers to gain more exposure on their products and services plus a lot of benefits that the blogosphere are enjoying.

However, there are some want-to-be-advertisers (most likely bloggers also) that cannot afford to pay for the service. reviewback just get in and probably the best solution for those who cannot afford to pay bloggers at ReviewMe, PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews and other companies that offer similar service.

While traditional advertising and marketing is still affective, in today’s blogosphere the easiest and most effective way of promoting your content and website is by having fellow bloggers write about and link to your site. reviewback takes all of the work out of tracking down and negotiating with fellow bloggers. Instead, we provide a marketplace and trading ground where bloggers and copywriters alike can get in touch with one another and help each other increase their exposure. All you need to do is sign up, add your site into our directory, and begin swapping reviews with networked bloggers.

How It Works?

First, register at reviewback. Next, add your blog so that it will be listed in the marketplace. You can now have two options to get reviewed, either you request a trade reviews or just wait for others’s request. There is no limit to how many reviews you can receive as long as you are willing to review for others, they will also review for you. This is really a great idea - the more you get reviewed equals more link backs and more visitors.

written by Ramil Alcibar