Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
Inspired by Michael Dinowitz' article on "Making Google Pay", I recently decided to follow his recipe and see if perhaps I too could make Google pay. I really had no expectations going into it, but I must say that I'm not overly impressed with the results. Over the course of about two months, Google has paid me a whopping [exact amount ommitted for fear of ticking off Google. Suffice it to say, it isn't much]. On top of that, the time it took me to dissect Michael's article, set myself up on Adsense, apply some of the more subtleties of Adsense (like adding Adsense-specific comments to portions of my site in order to help guide the types of ads that showed up), etc. was actually more than $9 worth of work. Yeah, it can be argued that "it's nine dollars more than you had!", true; and frankly all I have to do now that the work is done is just wait. However, in my frequent perusings I came across another company who also pays you to display a few relevant links on your site: Text-Link-Ads.com
Unlike Google's pay structure, where you are paid according to actual click-throughs, Text-Link-Ads pays you for hosting the ad itself. For instance, in the course of the first day after I registered with them, they sold an ad onto my site and promptly paid me $17. As I understand it, they are going to sell up to seven more ads at the same price, and I'll receive that same money every month. I know, in either case (Google or Text-Link-Ads) it isn't a boatload of money; but when it took me two months and a few hours of work to earn $9 from Google, and it took me one day and about fifteen minutes of work to earn $17 from Text-Link-Ads, to me it's a no-brainer: Text-Link-Ads rocks! Besides that, there's no rule against having both side by side, and in fact, visually you can't tell much of a difference between them.
If anybody else is interested in trying out Text-Link-Ads, here are the basic steps:
1. Register with Text-Link-Ads (http://www.text-link-ads.com). You'll receive a key.
2. Add a wee bit o' code to your site to retrieve your ad inventory (here's the code I wrote to do that, just to help you get started):
3. Give Text-Link-Ads a little time to sell ads on your site!
For the first twelve hours or so, your xml will only contain a test ad. After 12 hours that goes away and any ads sold will be present. Whenever Text-Link-Ads sells an ad on your site, you'll get an email informing you of that fact so you can make sure it's showing up properly.
That's it. I've only been using this service for a few days now, but if any other relevant info manifests itself I'll be sure to share it.
Doug out.
Unlike Google's pay structure, where you are paid according to actual click-throughs, Text-Link-Ads pays you for hosting the ad itself. For instance, in the course of the first day after I registered with them, they sold an ad onto my site and promptly paid me $17. As I understand it, they are going to sell up to seven more ads at the same price, and I'll receive that same money every month. I know, in either case (Google or Text-Link-Ads) it isn't a boatload of money; but when it took me two months and a few hours of work to earn $9 from Google, and it took me one day and about fifteen minutes of work to earn $17 from Text-Link-Ads, to me it's a no-brainer: Text-Link-Ads rocks! Besides that, there's no rule against having both side by side, and in fact, visually you can't tell much of a difference between them.
If anybody else is interested in trying out Text-Link-Ads, here are the basic steps:
1. Register with Text-Link-Ads (http://www.text-link-ads.com). You'll receive a key.
2. Add a wee bit o' code to your site to retrieve your ad inventory (here's the code I wrote to do that, just to help you get started):
<!--- Text Link Ads section --->
<cfset xPath = "//Link">
<cfhttp URL="http://www.text-link-ads.com/xml.php?inventory_key=[your key here]" DELIMITER="," RESOLVEURL="no" />
<cfif isXML(cfhttp.filecontent)>
<cfset linkads = xmlSearch(xmlparse(cfhttp.filecontent),xpath)>
<br>
<cfloop from="1" to="#arraylen(linkads)#" index="i">
<cfif linkads[i].Text.xmlText IS NOT "Test Link Ad">
<CFOUTPUT>#linkads[i].BeforeText.xmlText# <a href="#linkads[i].URL.xmlText#">#linkads[i].Text.xmlText#</a> #linkads[i].AfterText.xmlText#</CFOUTPUT><br />
<cfelse><!--- let's output the content into a comment so we can view it in the source, just to see what it was --->
<!-- <CFOUTPUT>#linkads[i].BeforeText.xmlText# <a href="#linkads[i].URL.xmlText#">#linkads[i].Text.xmlText#</a> #linkads[i].AfterText.xmlText#</CFOUTPUT> -->
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<br>
<hr width="75%">
<br>
<cfelse>
<!-- file content was not xml... -->
</cfif>
<cfset xPath = "//Link">
<cfhttp URL="http://www.text-link-ads.com/xml.php?inventory_key=[your key here]" DELIMITER="," RESOLVEURL="no" />
<cfif isXML(cfhttp.filecontent)>
<cfset linkads = xmlSearch(xmlparse(cfhttp.filecontent),xpath)>
<br>
<cfloop from="1" to="#arraylen(linkads)#" index="i">
<cfif linkads[i].Text.xmlText IS NOT "Test Link Ad">
<CFOUTPUT>#linkads[i].BeforeText.xmlText# <a href="#linkads[i].URL.xmlText#">#linkads[i].Text.xmlText#</a> #linkads[i].AfterText.xmlText#</CFOUTPUT><br />
<cfelse><!--- let's output the content into a comment so we can view it in the source, just to see what it was --->
<!-- <CFOUTPUT>#linkads[i].BeforeText.xmlText# <a href="#linkads[i].URL.xmlText#">#linkads[i].Text.xmlText#</a> #linkads[i].AfterText.xmlText#</CFOUTPUT> -->
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<br>
<hr width="75%">
<br>
<cfelse>
<!-- file content was not xml... -->
</cfif>
3. Give Text-Link-Ads a little time to sell ads on your site!
For the first twelve hours or so, your xml will only contain a test ad. After 12 hours that goes away and any ads sold will be present. Whenever Text-Link-Ads sells an ad on your site, you'll get an email informing you of that fact so you can make sure it's showing up properly.
That's it. I've only been using this service for a few days now, but if any other relevant info manifests itself I'll be sure to share it.
Doug out.
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Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
TLA does pay very well. FYI, I wrote a CFC and a BlogCFC pod to handle TLA ads in case you or others want to use it - http://www.remotesynthesis.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/5/2/TextLinkAds-for-ColdFusion-and-BlogCFC
Posted by Brian Rinaldi on August 2, 2007 at 1:03 PM
Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
Thanks for the info Brian! I knew somebody must have done this before. Being the rebel I am though, I don't use BlogCFC so unfortunately can't leverage the pod you referenced. Thanks again for sharing, though.
Posted by dougboude on August 2, 2007 at 1:06 PM
Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
What is the address where you can register to publish Text Link Ads. I went to www.text-link-ads.com and though they have a description of the program there is not a link to sign up as a publisher.
If you receive a reward for referrals I will happily include that in the sign up.
If you receive a reward for referrals I will happily include that in the sign up.
Posted by Michael Brennan-Whit on August 3, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
In case you didn't know, the Google Adsense Terms of Service states that you're not allowed to share with others the amount that you earn. Google enforces this rule, and they will remove your account. If you plan to continue using Adsense, I recommend changing your post to be a bit more vague about your lack of earnings.
In regards to TLA, I whole-heartedly agree. They're the best ad service I've encountered so far. I'm also pretty happy with Amazon Associates. I write many book reviews, and it's nice to get a small gift certificate and buy a DVD or something on Amazon every month.
In regards to TLA, I whole-heartedly agree. They're the best ad service I've encountered so far. I'm also pretty happy with Amazon Associates. I write many book reviews, and it's nice to get a small gift certificate and buy a DVD or something on Amazon every month.
Posted by Josh on August 3, 2007 at 6:37 PM
Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
In case you didn't know, the Google Adsense Terms of Service states that you're not allowed to share with others the amount that you earn. Google enforces this rule, and they will remove your account. If you plan to continue using Adsense, I recommend changing your post to be a bit more vague about your lack of earnings.
In regards to TLA, I whole-heartedly agree. They're the best ad service I've encountered so far. I'm also pretty happy with Amazon Associates. I write many book reviews, and it's nice to get a small gift certificate and buy a DVD or something on Amazon every month.
In regards to TLA, I whole-heartedly agree. They're the best ad service I've encountered so far. I'm also pretty happy with Amazon Associates. I write many book reviews, and it's nice to get a small gift certificate and buy a DVD or something on Amazon every month.
Posted by Josh on August 3, 2007 at 6:38 PM
Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
Here comes another ad for your TLA ads! :)
- former web programmer, now WAHM
- former web programmer, now WAHM
Posted by Angela on August 4, 2007 at 12:11 AM
Re: Text-Link-Ads: leaving Adsense in the dust
I was using Google Adsense for 7 month and during that time I hardly got 29$ and one day they canceled my account because of illegal clicks :) . that is the dummies excuse I could ever hear from Google.How can u have illegal clicks after a 7months of use and hardly made 29$. so I emailed them explanation that could be a mistake there was not any invalid clicks, no answer for 2 weeks, so I send another email again no answer for another few weeks. in total it took more than month to get answer saying your account is canceled permanently. I sent another email asking to pay me my money guess what?? never got answer! so GOOGLE ADSENSE SUCKS and never recommend to anyone.
I just signed up at Text Link Ads to give it at try. I heard from others too that they are way better than adsense.
I just signed up at Text Link Ads to give it at try. I heard from others too that they are way better than adsense.
Posted by ggggg on March 31, 2008 at 11:04 AM