The homepage for Linkworth.com has hardly any useful info above the fold, but when you scroll down there are sections for publishers that say, “Sell ads and monetize your site with relatively little maintenance” and “Get paid to blog and write reviews for products & services.” Sounds like a useful service for bloggers to make money with.

I signed up for Linkworth and was immediately confused by the interface. At first I couldn’t even decipher what it was I had signed up for. Linkworth is like a number of the top money-making services rolled into one. The confusing interface will likely be enough to put some people off, but if you keep digging you can find some useful tools.

Once you’ve signed up and been taken to the main control panel, you’ll probably be scratching your head at what all the terms mean. Every time I clicked on something it didn’t take me to where I thought it would. Eventually I clicked on “Products” and found the two services that money-making bloggers will be interested in: Linkintxt and Linkpost.

Linkintxt is a way for bloggers to sell keywords and phrases in their existing content as links. Linkworth crawls your pages, finds keywords, and then you set a monthly price for those words. You add each of your blogs individually and the keywords Linkworth suggests are those that advertisers are currently purchasing in the market.

Once a keyword is sold you are given a piece of html code to add into your content. It sounds a bit fiddly, but if Linkworth can sell your keywords then it would be worth doing. The problem comes with being unsure how to price your keywords. I have mine priced around $5 and will wait to see if anybody picks them up.

Linkpost is like Pay Per Post. Once again you have to set the price per post, and then you must wait for advertisers to make you offers. It’s difficult to judge how big Linkworth is and therefore how quickly you will be offered paid posts, but if you are signed up and have your blogs submitted for Linkpost and Linkintxt then money could start to come your way. Better to have your options open than not, right? WorldofAngel was submitted and accepted within one hour.

I’ve used my affiliate link in this post. For each affiliate you sign up you receive $10 plus $5 of the affiliate’s revenue for as long as they use the service. Payments can be collected by check, wire, direct deposit or Paypal, with a minimum payout of $25.

Linkworth is not a big-money spinner but it’s an easy way to sell text links within your existing content in a way that won’t disrupt your readers. I’ll report back on the paid postings as and when they are offered.

Tags: Monetize your blog by Angel
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I’ve been searching for an ad campaign to run alongside Adsense. All the pro bloggers emphasize that you should not rely on Google for your earnings. I have Text Link Ads set up at the moment, but as I’m busy building up content and not publicizing my blog, those haven’t sold yet.

I’ve seen a few blogs that use Auction Ads. Auction Ads is a simple ad service that advertises eBay auctions in an ad unit. You can choose your keywords, select what size ad unit you want, and customize the colors. I’m not convinced of the virtues of Auction Ads for a blog like mine because it’s isn’t based on being paid for the number of clicks you generate. You can have all the page impressions and clicks you like, but if you don’t score any conversions (ie if nobody buys anything or signs up) then you don’t make any money.

I haven’t seen many bloggers who have used Auction Ads to make much money. It’s difficult unless you’re blogging about a specific product-related topic, like mobile phones or computers, for example.

Pro Blogger had this to say about Auction Ads:

Traffic is going to be a consideration too. CPC programs like AdSense pay out each time there’s a click on an ad so there will be income even with small traffic. CPA ads like Auction Ads will payout less often because they require the reader to DO something (buy, register etc). As a result I’d expect to see less conversions with these ads - a lower percent of your readers will actually convert to dollars.

So if you have decent traffic on a product related site this might be a program to try. It could also be worth setting it up as the ‘alternate ad’ for your current AdSense and/or Chitika ads.

It doesn’t sound too promising, but Million Baby Boomers earned $75.56 in 33 weeks using Auction Ads. I like to think I could earn that and more with a clean layout and decent, uncopied content.

At first I considered running auction ads on my front page in between all of my posts. I implemented the ads in that way and didn’t feel convince that people would click, let alone buy something. For a start, the banner ads have images that are way too small to discern what the product on offer is. I took a note from Desi’s blog and added an Auction Ad block to each single page, just above the comment box.

By doing this I was able to have a big enough block so that people could see the image. I’d like to minimize the clutter on my front page, and having Auction Ad banners between all my posts just wasn’t cutting it.

I’m not expecting to generate big bucks from Auction Ads, but until I can get accepted by something like Chitika, and until my blog will be approved by websites like Pay Per Post and Review Me, I may as well try what I can.

Tags: Monetize your blog by Angel
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I’m always keen to look for advertising alternatives, particularly as the US dollar is so weak and the Thai baht is so strong at the moment. I’m a blogger living in Asia, and having everything monetized in US currency actually harms my earning potential.

I was surprised and pleased to come across a blog post over at www.mybloggo.org, a blog like mine, but in Malaysia instead of Thailand. The author there uses a company called Advertlets to display ads on his page. The ads themselves look a bit ugly, but when the blogger posted his earning my eyes lit up… and then dimmed down again. After a month he had earned RM272.38, which is about 2,700 baht, or $80. Advertlets is a Malaysian service, but it looks like anyone can join. I assume all checks are mailed out in Malaysian Ringit, but it didn’t say on the website.

So he earned $80 in his first month, but most of that was from a paid review. The paid review was the first review offered by Advertlets, and was only open to bloggers in Malaysia. The second paid review available is only open to bloggers in Singapore. Neither of those helps me.

As for the ads themselves, they have a variety of sidebar ads, banners and squared banners. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you’ll see one of their square banners. It’s only displayed one ad since I put it there (some seafood restaurant). In a month, apart from his paid review, Mybloggo earned about $7 from his ads. That’s not especially promising.

At the moment Advertlets works on a cost per thousand impressions rating. The thing is, they don’t tell you how much that is. They are a new company and promise to add new features and more ways to earn soon. If you’re a blogger in Singapore then sign up now because you could earn some serious coin for the review (up to S$128). Otherwise I’m not sure if Advertlets is worth having. It is an Asian alternative to Adsense, but they need to give bloggers a better impression of what they’ll earn.

Tags: Monetize your blog by Angel
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