I found a new site for monetizing your blog

Surfing the blogosphere I came across a place I had not heard of before. It is Text Link Ads. This seems very similar to Google Adsense on the surface. They put text-based links (what I saw on the blog I found it on was an image - but not an obtrusive one) on your site, and give you 50% of the proceeds. They pay out at the beginning of every month (minimum payout is $25).



One thing they claim - which I liked - is the ability to deny an advertiser on your site. If you don't like their product or their message does not fit the flavor of your blog, you can deny them ad space.



Of course I signed up right away. Hey anything to generate A Little More Income right? I put in all the essentials. This included my SSN because they have to tell Uncle Sam who they are paying. All of the ad sites require this (or an employer ID - which is easy to get from everyone's favorite Uncle).



After entering all of this information, it sends an email to verify the email address you supplied. Once verified, the site prompts you to enter a blog for displaying ads on. It has about three screens of questions and information to fill out (why they could not do this on one screen I don't know). At any rate, at the end of all this, it checks to see if your blog qualifies (why they can't do this when you first enter the blog URL, I don't know - again).



I searched their site rather fully, and could not find any guidelines as to what makes a site qualify, or what would dis-qualify a site for their ad program. When entering my site, I received this message immediately upon hitting "submit":

Thanks for your submission!

We are sorry but your site has not been accepted into our publisher program at this time. The main reason for websites not being accepted is because of our minimum traffic and link popularity requirements. Please do note that we do reevaluate all submissions monthly and will notify you via email as soon as you are accepted. Hopefully soon!

Again, I could not find any information on what it takes for a site to qualify. Also, I did not find any information on their site for canceling involvement in their program. I sent them a message via their online "contact us" page. The message I sent is:

I have been informed that my site does not qualify for your services. I would like to know what your "minimum traffic and link popularity requirements" are. This would be good information to have for possible future submissions. I don't want to waste time filling out three pages of forms only to find out the site would not qualify.



In addition, there I do not find a way to cancel my participation (and thus have you remove my SSN from your database). If you could provide steps for this procedure, I would be appreciative.

I will wait to see if I hear back from them. I don't know that I will, the whole thing seems kind of shaky the more I look at it. Without letting people know up front whether their site would qualify, they are just collecting personal information.



Another thing I could not find, which makes me even more skeptical of the whole company, is a terms of use agreement. When I signed up my account, it was there for viewing, but afterwards, it is nowhere to be found. I glanced the agreement over, but didn't peruse it. I started to think that maybe the qualifications for acceptance of a blog might be in there, but I could not find it again.



So I went back to the contact us page and sent another message along the lines of:

Where can I find a copy of the terms of use agreement I agreed to when I signed up. Thank you

If I don't hear anything back in the next couple of days, then we'll all know that this place is to be avoided like the plague.





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