Make Money Online with Your Blogroll
A new service just came online that will allow you to make money with your blogroll. Blogrolled.com is a similar service to Text Link Ads. However, they’re selling links in the blogroll to cloak the fact that they are paid links.
The blogroll is a place normally reserved for bloggers to link to other bloggers. Blogroll links are full follow links which mean they carry link juice and help with moving up in the search results. While Google has been cracking down on paid links, they’ve so far left the blogroll alone because the links on there are generally related to the blog topic and not paid. Blogrolled.com aims to take advantage of this fact to make money.
Advertisers will be able to search an inventory of publishing sites offering blogroll links. Once they found a blog(s) they like, they can purchase the link. Pricing is done on a flat monthly rate.
Blogrolled.com aims to be totally stealth in order to avoid the wrath of Google. Their system uses no scripts or codes of any of kind. When a sale is made, the publisher is notified by email. The publisher will then place the link into his blogroll the same way he enters any other blogroll links. Publishers are paid monthly by PayPal.
Paid blogroll links are not new. Advertisers and bloggers have been selling them privately for a quite awhile. However, Blogrolled.com is the first service to try to create a marketplace for it. It will be very interesting to see how Google responds to this.
- Posted in Make Money Online, The Net
- 77 comments what's your take?
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I doubt that this will prosper as this is just like selling links, you could just cut out the middle man and sell them yourself which is what most of us do and earn a pretty profit. I do it myself and so do a few bloggers that I know.
Reply to this commentBut thanks for the report
One can say the same thing about Text Link Ads, but they’re still around and bigger than ever.
Reply to this commentYep. The value of TLA and Blogrolled is that they bring all the options to the advertiser. Instead of searching around for blogs to advertise on, advertisers have all the info and blogs they can find on TLA and Blogrolled. They pay a premium, yes, but it’s worth their time.
Reply to this commentIn my opinion services like TLA and Blogrolled are specially good for smaller bloggers! Its difficult to find advertisers yourself when your traffic is too small to be taken seriously
Reply to this commentSneaky sneaky! I know plenty of people already do this, but this site could give them a place to find advertisers.
Reply to this commentA lot of people use the same practice to make money out of the blogroll links for a long time.
Reply to this commentFor sure google is gonna know about it and will bite them really bad, like the way they do to text link ads.
I would think Google could easily create an account too and find a nice database of sites saying “I SELL LINKS” all in one place. It would make it easier for them to find too..
Reply to this commentYeah I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Probably better to wait it out and see if the site is successful and then sign up after a few months or so.
Reply to this commentthe problem is who start first in a program more likely make some money out of it. Maybe if you wait to apply later it won’t work anymore. just a suggestion.
Reply to this commentYeah, but I don’t think that’ll be the case for something like this. It’ll probably be a TLA ripoff and your price is determined by your PR or your traffic.
Reply to this commentHey Tom, your blog is very informative, and articles are very useful. I like your attitudes toward others new bloggers. You give us a lot of insight and knowledge. BTW, I have not heard about this blogrolled yet. I will look into it and dig out more about it.
Reply to this commentWho’s Tom?
Reply to this commentIt’s his imaginary friend. Nothing wrong with that!
Reply to this commentI won’t be able to sleep tonight until you tell us who Tom is! Please advise.
Reply to this commentOne more thing Tom. When I use IE 7 to browse this page, I got an error saying “A runtime error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line 678 Error: Not implemented”. When I click NO to close this message box, my IE was closed automatically. So double check your script on this web page. I need to use FireFox to browse this.
Reply to this commentIt is a very innovative idea. Since there are no scripts and no code, it’ll look like you’re placing a normal link. It will work out very well I think.
Reply to this commentThis is very much similar to TLA & i think its even better then that…. I’ll definitely give it a try….Thnkx John!!
Reply to this commentI have had good luck with TLA. Just sold another post link today BTW. I would probably start selling links myself before bringing on another middle man. As it is TLA is taking 50%. I think John Chow was able to cut a deal with TLA on their commission though. Maybe I’ll try that too.
Reply to this commentOhh thanks… this would be great! I already submit my laptop blog…
Reply to this commentI don’t like the idea of losing 50% to the middle man, like I do with text link ads, even though I make a good amount off of them. Thats why whenever anyone asks me, I recommend oiopublisher. It’s the best way to do advertising on a blog, IMO.
Reply to this commentWhat I like about TLA is that I don’t have to spend my own time finding appropriate advertisers, they find me. I might be able to make more money by actively finding and approaching potential clients, but I don’ t have time for that.
Reply to this commentBut you get to a point where the advertisers come looking for you, then it’s just a case of setting up a Paypal subscription form and the money is 100% yours.
Reply to this commentSounds interesting, that is ultil Matt Cutts signs up for the service and outs the whole thing.
Reply to this commentSounds like the exact same thing text link ads is doing.
Reply to this commentI think that is a great service. I still do not see anything wrong with buying or selling links. I think that this service is needed.
Reply to this commentThanks John for sharing lets see ho effective it is..
Reply to this commentwhat if google start interfering on it again ?
Reply to this commentI don’t think that selling links should be as bad as Google makes it out to be, however, at the same time, I’m not a huge fan of the idea of putting paid links in the blogroll. IMHO the blogroll should be a place for a blogger to say to their readers “hey, here are some of the blogs I really enjoy reading and think you might like too” kind of a personal recommendation. By selling those links, it loses some of it’s value. Keepting them seperate (having a sponsors/featured sites section as well as a blogroll/favorite sites/friends & family section) is a good way to sell links while still having room to endorse sites you truely recommend.
Reply to this commentI completely agree Nick! Putting links of sites on your blogroll that you otherwise don’t visit is kind of cheating your readers! I’d say that in the long run it can also lower the value your readers get from your blog…
Reply to this commentSelling ads and text links are OK, but selling blogroll links is just morally wrong
Reply to this comment“Morals” ? What is this word you speak?
Reply to this commentI like to be one of the good guys, but a link is a link, be it in your content, your blogroll or anywhere else. If you’re OK with selling links then it doesn’t matter where in your content that link is.
Reply to this commentNot necessarily, I think it makes a difference how/where the link is presented. A paid link does not belong in a section of your site that should be for your personal recommendations.
A place in the blogroll or favorite sites section should be earned not bought. It should be earned and put there because the blog author truely recommends the site not because that site was the highest bidder.
Reply to this commentNotice that in newspapers when an entire page is designed to be an “ordinary newspaper page” but it’s actually an ad, it always says “ad” on top of the page.
Reply to this commentThat doesn’t make any sense since blogroll links are the same as regular links.
Reply to this commentGoogle probably already have several accounts, they just go through the marketplace and penalize all outbound links for anybody taking part. I think link selling is still best done in private.
Reply to this commentI think the Google spam team enjoy chewing sites like that up and the reason is simple. When a site like that pops up all the people who buy and sell links flock to it. More sources to compare against each other equals a much easier task of spotting a link buyer/seller.
If you’ve been loyal to TLA - stay that way - being in TWO spam (according to Google) pools is blog suicide imo, one is bad enough.
It never ceases to amaze me that these sites “aim to fool Google” when they rely on Google PR to create a market to begin with. You KNOW one morning you’ll wake up and Google will have tweaked PR and killed the link buying market in the blink of an eye.
Reply to this commentbtw John, I’ve run into about a dozen articles about blogrolled.com today with several of the sites promoting sponsoredreviews.com. I’m guessing blogrolled ordered a review, are you using sponsoredreviews.com? Just curious.
Reply to this commentNo, this was not a paid review.
Reply to this commentIf these sites are looking up the PR, ya think Google can easily see which sites they are looking up? They’d just need the IP of the service and bam, nice fresh list of link sellers. Wouldn’t even need to join to find out.
Reply to this commentI had written about this sometime back… (not about blogrolled.com but about making money out of blogroll.
http://www.dollarshower.com/your-blogroll-is-a-cash-cow/
Ajith
Reply to this commentIt’s certainly a cash cow. But like any other ad space on a blog, the traffic needs to be there to convert that space into a money-maker.
Reply to this commentAccording to theie terms of service you have to install some tracking code so they can determine the performance of the links their advertisers buy.
This quote is from point 6 in the ToS “Applicable Codes and Code Maintenance. In order for Blogrolled to record the tracking of Visitors’ Transactions resulting from clicks on Links to Advertisers promoted by You, You must include and maintain a Blogrolled “Tracking Code” within the Advertiser’s Links. All Advertiser Links and all advertisements (”Ad Content”) must be in a Network Service compatible format.”
So this means it will be easy for Google to identify links sold through Blogrolled and penalize the seller and the buyer. Doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Reply to this commentmost bloggers already sell links…. I don’ t really see what this will change… I guess it’ll just make it easier to connect to link buyers?
Reply to this commentJohn,
Blogrolled.com is surely the answer of my search lately! I’ve been in the business of ’selling’ blogroll links - stealthly
- but managing their expiry is difficult - Any ideas on this?
Reply to this commentUse a calender - such as Google Calender to automatically notify you when someone’s term is coming to an end. That should work
Reply to this commentI will grab this opportunity now. tHanks for sharing
http://bloggingrevenue.blogspot.com
Reply to this commentThe fact that John Chow posted about this may lead Google to start looking into it in the next few months
Reply to this commentI can’t see this really taking off.
Reply to this commentThanks for the comments everyone - keep the suggestions coming!
Reply to this commentI just signed up and submitted my blog to Blogrolled. Let’s see how this works out. I love the idea.
Reply to this commentHmm. If Google is reading this post they will know who to penalize now… You should’ve kept it a secret!
Reply to this commentThanks for the comments everyone! You can keep them coming here…
Reply to this commentThanks you john for your sharing
Keep Posting 
Reply to this commentThis post is featured in today in FullTiltBlogging.com’s Daily Blog Summary, a summary of the top 50 Make Money Online blogs. Get caught up in just 5 minutes a day.
Great Post.
Reply to this commentMan today I just write my Magnum Opus on making money online and I pretty much start with this link issue.
I LIKE the idea as long as everybody is upfront about what it is. I think a lot of newer people aren’t aware of the potential Google cost down the line. But this post says right at the top what’s going on. KUDOS!
But if you’ve got a throwawy blog why not? But even for a vet I wouldn’t recommend using your main blog (in the first year anyway).
Reply to this commentlol, I wonder if Google would know about Blogrolled after this post
-Mike
Reply to this commentI’m sure google is quite aware already but it just hasn’t found a way to counter it yet. soon to be coming probably however.
Reply to this commentThis sonds like a great idea, I tend to sll links privately and find that it works pretty well, but to have it monitored through a company is bound to make it more successful.
Reply to this commentany idea how much they are offering to a publisher for each link
Reply to this commentand will selling blog roll will effect bloggers Pagerank?
it will be great …..working
Reply to this commentIs blogging is only about making money? I don’t think so but Lot of new bloggers think that way. You are doing a great job by giving bloggers new ideas for making money.
You have a great fan following and I really appreciate that. I understand that a Lot of hard work and dedication has gone in making your blog such a hit.
I think if some blog is giving some information which is really helping even a single person then I think it is doing a good job for the community as a whole.
http://itjobsdelhi.blogspot.com
Reply to this commentGoogle obviously doesn’t take very kindly to these kind of services, so is it really worth the risk? I suppose it is if you don’t care where you stand with Google.
Reply to this commentMaybe some bloggers are into discipline–even being spanked by Google?
Reply to this commentNo Google offers spanking services? Who knew!
Reply to this commentVery interesting post for advertisers.
Reply to this commentThat is a great idea. I will have to look into this as I have some free wordpress blogs with high pagerank that I could use a little extra money from.
Reply to this commentSome might say that it’s morally wrong, others will want to cut out the middle man. I say, if it brings in the cash then that’s all that matters
Reply to this commentMany program for get money… it’s good
Reply to this commentThis is a very interesting idea and I’m wondering what Google would actually be able to do to stop this. Blogrolls have traditionally been thought of as links to friends or recommended web sites and will primarily continue to be so. So if the last statement is true how the heck would Google be able to differentiate between these two types of links.
Reply to this commentSo far what is the BEST TOP 1 money making program for blog?
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