Thanks for the interview, first of, I will introduce you with a specific mention of the great how to get out of the sandbox blog article you have (personally I think you hit it write on the head).

Patrick thanks for this opportunity. The Sandbox article http://www.linkbuildingblog.com/2006/09/secrets_to_beat.html was actually written by TLA’s Strategist, Andy Hagans.

Feel free to push any text-link-ads promo stuff as you see fit, but I am hoping for some useful info on your ads and directories.

For your information we have many directories running our affiliate banners but selling links not as many for sure.

Tell us a little about text-link-ads, were the idea and desire came from, and how its going.

Sure, out of college I co founded a reclaimed brick and stone business with my father called HistoricalBricks.com It was in 2000 when I learned about search engine marketing and it helped grow the brick business shipping bricks locally to a nationwide provider. I saw an opportunity to offer these same search engine marketing services to other small businesses so in 2001 co founded with my college roommate a pay per click management service.

Pay per click management services lead you into offering natural search engine optimization services for those same clients and that lead to learning the importance of inbound links into client’s websites. Put simply, the number and quality of inbound links to a website is a top factor in top natural search engine rankings.

This knowledge led to the creation of Text Link Ads Inc which we have been operating under since 2003. We have been growing every year and are constantly trying to improve our system for both our advertisers and publishers.

Ok onto the niche that my readers are interested in, Directories. We can divide your offering to directory owners into 2, selling links and capturing affiliate income. Lets start with the text link sales. What does a directory owner need to do to get into your program?

A directory owner needs a directory that has some link popularity and traffic. We have an acceptance algorithm that takes both into consideration when accepting new sites into our publisher program. You also need to support a server side technology in order to run our ad script. Any site can get into our affiliate program and make money by sending traffic to TLA.

Just how easy is it to install in a directory?

An experienced web master should have no problem installing our ad script.

What is your experience with your ad system in directories?

It really varies on the topic and quality of the directory. They can perform well if the directory has good traffic and link popularity.

Can your system allow a directory with strong internal categories to sell those pages as separate offerings? Or Is it limited to one site, other index page or sitewide for the moment?

It is possible and recommended to submit your main subject pages individually. This allows you to sell more spots off your directory and allows advertisers to target specific niches.

Ok now onto the affiliate part of your program. I have always considered your program fairly ideal for a directory since for the majority of directories most of there traffic are people looking for links! Do you have any stats you can share on numbers of directories using your system as an affiliate of text link seller?

We have approximately 10,000 affiliates but I am not sure how many are directory owners.

What converts better, a text link or a banner for your affiliate program inside directories?

Banner ads seem to drive more traffic but you can always run a banner along with a well placed text ad. Which of the banners is the highest converter? The best banner currently seems to be our “$100 in free Text Link Ads” banner.

Below is the banner that Andy refferes to. (pissstt, its an affilalte link)

Share This