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SOHO HO & TLA

written by John Chow on December 9, 2006

How one lazy bum made $176,697.50

SOHO! HO!

If you live in Vancouver, or will be in the Vancouver area on December 19th, then join me and Stephen Fung at the SOHO 2006 Year End Wrap-up Reception. This is the most fun event you can have while making business contacts. Last year’s party was attended by over 250 people.

Date: Tuesday, Dec. 19th
Time: 5pm – 9pm
Location: Azure Lounge, Plaza of Nations, 101A-770 Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6B 5E7
Directions: Map

I hope to see many people there. It will be a lot of fun.

Another Text Link Sold

Today I got an email from Text Link Ads. It seems they have sold another text link for me. This time the link says Tax Calculator and it’s from H&R Block. This sales bring my total Sponsored Links to five. Three more sales and I’ll be sold out. If you’re looking to buy a link, better get a move on before I’m sold out!

textlink.jpg

I had another look at the Text Link Ads Calculator and I now understand why TLA has been able to sell links on my blog so easily. According to the calculator, one link on John Chow dot Com is worth $800 per month. TLA has been selling my links for $200 per month. I guess advertisers see this as a bargain when compared to the value the text link calculator splits out. I get the feeling the calculator inflates all link value so advertisers feel they’re getting a deal.

I have been very pleased with Text Link Ads. I really like their flat price per month and the fact that they pay you right after the month is over. What I don’t like about Text Link Ads is their 50% commission. I find that very high. I’m going to email them and get a better rate. Just because a network says their share of revenue is 50% doesn’t mean you have to accept it. If they want you bad enough they will deal. This is something to keep in mind as your site grows. In the beginning, there is not much negotiating room but once you start producing results, even Google will bend over backwards for you – something that this blogger just found out.

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Currently the most we are offered is 5 bucks for TLA ads...pretty pathetic actually...good time to switch domains since we are still small time.

Hi John,

Did you try to negotiate a lower commission with TLA? Did you have any success?

Thomas

dear John,
ok. but only if googlebot come when you have buy link...
I write u one email...

How To Buy Websites - The TLA links do no have nofollow tags. The advertiser do get page rank benefits.

about text-link-ads, I have a very bad experience.
n. 1 - I paid with credit card at 25 october 161 US$ for 1 mounth of txt link in moofx.mad4min.net/
N. 2
at 5 November you had cancelled my txt link.
n. 3 I bought The 4 November for 172 US% one txt link in open1.mirrors-r-us.net/ and the internal page didn't have and do not have my link. please looking at this link open1.mirrors-r-us.net/OSA/

and they don't solve problems, in all mounth of my add.
More, this txt link isn't inidcize in Google.
aand they don't give me any refund.
What kind of company is this?

Franz

So your text link ads are $200 each? I would like to see you do some analysis. Find out how many clicks these advertisers are getting for your links. Half of the value of a text link is getting additional page rank benefits. Do these TLA spots have a "nofollow" tag for search engines or are they allowed that benefit too?

Man, you're doing very well from these text adds. Hopefully I'll get those on my blog soon enough. It's still pretty new though...

I had applied to TLA but I think I did it too early in my blog adventure as my request was denied. Once I have had my blog going a little longer and have more traffic, I will try again as it sounds like you have found a nice addition to the monthly income.

I've been trying to get onto Text-Link-Ads for a long time. I get hits, but never enough for an abstract Alexa ranking. But it's probably because my t-shirts suck.

John, what are you thoughts on Firefox and adblock? I know more people are using it than ever as firefox grows in popularity. How will sites get around this?

i think the price is most depend on the alexa rank:)

that's cool 800$/per link!!!

John your comments about leverage and the power you have once you are producing results are so true.

The worst thing for any business is to loose one of their bigger customers, or in this case an affiliate / advertiser that earns them money. You've got to leverage that...I was on the recieving end of this on friday and I bent to the customer's will :)

I've sold 5 links too, and I found that most of those links sold just before the end of November. Probably because an advertiser has to sign up for 2 months at a time and the fee is pro-rated for the current month.
It's definitely a nice revenue stream.

thats good news John, Great to hear !!

You are an evil, evil man.

Well done John...you're gonna have happy Christmas this year! :)

Also, your feed ads are worth $330