Advertising on Blogs: And So I Take It Back

I’ve written a fairly recent article on why I decided to turn the ads off on my site. Well I still agree with what was said there, but I have also found a way to meet in the middle. I have signed up for Text Link Ads a company that allows you some control over who you advertise for and only uses links, not flashy billboard ads to spread the news. When I learned about my options with text links (from trusted friends Shawn and Chris), I decided to apply and see if they would accept my site as an affiliate. They have and so I have decided to publish the space they sell for more. I owe you my reasons:

  1. I can actually make enough money (if they sell all my space) to pay for the majority of my book expenses for school. So any money I make will be a part of my book and school supply budget. If this works out there is a high likely hood that I will not have any debt for my PhD program. In other words, between scholarships, grants, and money from ads there will be no out of pocket expenses. Avoiding anymore crushing debt is really important for both Emily and I.
  2. The writing I do on this site is meant to be a resource and dialogue for everyone to use and it is something I grow from personally. My 7 years of schooling thus far informs the ideas I have, and if I were to ever write a book, or make money from teaching or speaking engagements I wouldn’t think twice about excepting pay for my profession. This is true for here as well.
  3. I can excersize “veto” power over an add if I need to – this is really important to me. I will be watching what gets advertised here and will ask to have sites removed that I do know approve of. If you see a site you find questionable please point it out to me.

I realize my previous post was quite a statement and I still stand behind it. I welcome your comments, questions and criticisms in my changing my mind about the issue.

7 responses to “Advertising on Blogs: And So I Take It Back”

  1. I’ve tried to get accepted to text-link ads but was turned down. I’m not sure why. I think it was because I only average about 250 unique hits a day. How many do you have? (I want to know what I need to shoot for to get accepted because I really want to do text-link ads instead of yahoo! ads.)

  2. I do believe it has more to do with the number and quality of back links one has, and possibly page rank, not unique hits (though that cant hurt either!).

  3. Hi Ben — to be honest I really have no idea how it works. And quite frankly I was surprised they accepted my site. I don’t have that much traffic, much less than you. So I can’t figure it out.

  4. That’s just an affiliate thingy. Anyone can have one of those badges. You get money if someone clicks on it and subsequently signs up to be a publisher with text-link-ads.

  5. Right, Ben. I tried to sign up Scribe for an account and was not approved for anything more than the affiliate banner. Lo-Fi, however, was apporved for the affiliation and the sale of text links.

    Yeah, your back link are good … I’m not sure why you wouldn’t get approved.