21 Ways to Increase your Text Link Ads Commissions

Most of you would have already heard about Text Link Ads, a popular ad marketplace where publishers and advertisers can meet to sell or buy text links on websites or blogs. TLA’s affiliate program allows you earn US $25.00 for every publisher or advertiser that you refer to their website. In order to qualify for a payment, a publisher you refer must install an advertising script on their website for the minimum period of seven days.

Referred advertisers will be counted in your affiliate account within 24 hours whenever the new advertiser purchases a link. You’ll get paid on the 1st of every month, via check or either Paypal. Now let’s take a look at how you can make money online by participating in Text Link Ad’s affiliate program.

You might have noticed that a lot of blogs are running TLA’s graphic banners as a referral link. While passively displaying ads might send some visitors to TLA, the rate of conversion can be unpredictable, to say the least.

Improving your Ad Placement - Making your Readers Click.

Poor ad placement is one of the most common problems which can lead to poor conversion rates. Placing graphic banners or text links in strategic locations throughout your website can lead to more potential signups.

Getting any visitor to click through on an ad is the first step towards a successful affiliate conversion.

My suggestions on this topic are largely influenced by heat map studies that tracked user eye movement as well as Benway and Lane’s influential work on Banner Blindness.

Here are Benway and Lane’s design recommendations for websites:

One item separated visually from everything else on a web page may be completely ignored by web searchers, even by searchers who are deliberately searching for the information provided in that item.

Designers should be cautious about following guidelines stating that increasing the visual distinction between “important” items and other items is desirable; the visual distinctiveness may actually make important items seem unimportant.

Any item that is visually distinguished on a page should be duplicated within a collection of links or other content areas of the page. That way, if searchers ignore the large, salient item, they can still find what they need through basic navigation.

Conversion Obstacle - TLA’s affiliate requirements

Even after you’ve succeeded in getting visitors to click on your TLA ads, there are still some factors which can prevent you from earning any affiliate commission.

Two main obstacles lie in the way of successfully referring potential publishers: Firstly, websites need to have a certain level of link popularity or Page Rank before they can be accepted into the TLA network.

Secondly, publishers will need to place TLA’s advertising script on their website for the period of 7 days before they are counted as your referral.

All in all, this makes it rather difficult for just anyone to click through and sign up as a publisher. The blog or website submitted might not be approved or the approved publishers might not include the advertising script on their website.

Potential TLA advertisers - Easy Conversion Targets.

On the other hand, advertisers are much easier to convert because of two key reasons. TLA has a large and reputable catalog of link sellers, which makes it naturally attractive for link buyers. Secondly, TLA offers $100 in free links as a starter package for advertisers, which again naturally appeals to advertisers.

An example of the specific banner targeted at advertisers can be seen below:

21 Ways to Increase your Text Link Ads Affiliate Commissions

Now that we’ve examined our targets and limitations, let’s look at 21 methods you can use to boost your TLA affiliate earnings.

Six Ways to Improve your TLA Ad Placement

• Place TLA ads above the fold. Visitors to your site should not have to scroll down to see any ads.
• Include TLA banners or text links after each post as a call to action.
• Integrate TLA as a text link in your categories or links section. Research also suggests that highlighted links can improve click throughs.
• Revise and change ad placements and types often through ad rotator scripts. This depends on your referral performance.
• Invite your friends or fellow webmasters to critique your ad placement. Learn from their comments and make changes if necessary.
• Create TLA landing pages specifically for search engine visitors. Find out some of the related keywords that visitors use to land on your website. Configure your website so that a text message or banner ad shows up only for search engine visitors who visit your site through specific keywords.

  Wordpress users can use the More Money plugin for this purpose.

Four Tricks to Counter TLA Banner blindness.

• Use suggestive text links that invite exploration. E.G. “I made money selling links. Wanna know how?”
• Exclude TLA’s brand name. Some users are less likely to click on text links that are already familiar to them.
• Create your own banners or buttons. Fresh graphics and images will pique curiosity.
• Link TLA ads to a squeeze page on your website. Push the program with personal recommendations.

Seven Ways to Promote your TLA Affiliate link

• Buy forum signatures to promote your link. Write a persuasive one-liner and use forum members with a lot of posts.
• Use Adwords and send hits to your landing page. You can also choose to target popular and relevant websites. See what John Chow did to Darren Rowse.
• Buy blog posts from pay-to-post networks. Direct the blog posts to a squeeze page on your website or blog.
• Write personal emails to bloggers you know. Will work best on bloggers not familiar with TLA.
• Create a definitive web page that promotes TLA and your affiliate link. Promote it using blog traffic exchanges.
• Sponsor a popular E-zine. Allows you to include links to both your website and web page promoting TLA.
• Make special deals with other webmasters. Get them to promote your affiliate link in return for your promotion of their referral link for an unrelated affiliate program.

Four Ways to Guarantee Publisher and Advertiser Signups

These fool-proof methods are different from hit-or-miss advertising and guarantees that visitors will sign up through your affiliate link.

A vital element for successful implementation of these tactics depends on your understanding what publishers and advertisers want.

Advertisers want traffic, improved search engine positioning and higher Page Ranks. Publishers only want the money that comes from selling links. Understanding these factors allows you to come up with some irresistible offers for both parties.

• Start a contest. All visitors that sign up with your affiliate link will be entered into a draw to win a cash prize or whatever you want to offer.
• Offer cashbacks. Offer to give a percentage of what you earn to your referrals. This could be something like 50% of the affiliate commission ($12.50).
• Give out free links. Declare that you’ll set up a page and list the websites of all the publishers or advertisers who signed up under you. Remember to declare how much your link is worth. Very powerful tactic for popular blogs.
• Trade commissions. Broker private deals with your visitors by offering to sign up under their referral links for other affiliate programs in return for them signing up under your TLA link.

Some of these methods can be controversial and might not be something that you would want to try, although they can be pretty effective ways of converting visitors into referrals.

You’re very likely to earn more than what you spend or give away so these methods can be seen as cost-effective strategies to maximize your affiliate commissions.