Since I last wrote about my experience with Text Link Ads, I have been very satisfied with the results. The chart on the left shows my earnings since I joined the program in February 2006. As you can see, the earnings were rising over the months and they are leveling off now. I want to make a note that this is for a collection of about 30 sites with some earning more than others (and some not at all). It really depends on the niche your site is in.

My total earnings are slightly over $9,000.

The key to getting accepted to TLA is to have at least a Google Pagerank of 4. The higher your Pagerank, the more you will be likely to make. Most of my income from TLA is through being a publisher although I get an occasional referral which pays $25 once they get accepted.

I like TLA a lot because it’s a set-it-and-forget-it type of revenue stream. Once you get a site accepted, it takes all of 5 minutes to add the code to your site. This is pure passive income as you don’t have to do anything else to attract advertisers because TLA does it all for you.

Here are a few tips on being successful with TLA:

1. Browse through the site categories and try to select a category that has little competition. This will ensure that your site will be noticed by advertisers. Otherwise, if you have a less popular site in a hot category, your site may be listed on page 5 or 6 and it will be unlikely that you will get a lot of advertisers.

2. If you place the links somewhere above the fold on your site, it will be more attractive to the advertiser.

3. Make sure that you install the code properly so that the text links are showing up. Otherwise you won’t get paid.

4. Want to grow your earnings faster? Buy sites that have at least PR4. The way you can profit with this is to estimate whether you will be able to sell enough links to cover the cost of the purchase. Suppose you buy a site for $300. Assuming that you make $50 per month with TLA, this is equal to $600 per year which gives you an ROI of 100% over the course of the year. Not bad, eh? How can you tell if a site will be able to attract link buyers? Sometimes you just have to go with your gut.

All in all, TLA has been a very consistent income earner for me and it requires practically no maintenance.

Technorati Tags: Text Link Ads, TLA

Popularity: 15% [?]