I’ve been trying to get my head around TNX tonight. I’ve been signed up for a while and have been attempting to figure the whole setup out, but without much time to actually sit down and learn the ins and out of the service, I’m left feeling a little confused. You could put it down to laziness, but when it comes to products like this, I have little patience for gaining an in-depth understanding of them.

The service basically offers a way to buy links for both money and points, as well as selling them on your blog. I added my blog to TNX in the hope of getting some free links. I got 2,000 free points by signing up and leaving my details on the Digital Point forums. I started a campaign with TNX but wasn’t really sure what I was doing when I set it up.

I wanted to get as many links as possible without having to pay any money, so I targeted PR0 and PR1 sites. The price of a link ranges from $0.06 or 50 points for a PR1 link to $6 or 5,000 points for a PR7 link. I don’t know who in their right mind would be selling PR7 links for $6.

When you create your campaign and target websites, you choose the PR of your links, the number of Yahoo backlinks of the website, the site category and the language of the site. It’s a simple enough concept. You then upload your adverts leading to different pages of your website. I found this process time consuming so gave up after making about eight creatives. It’s difficult to understand exactly what is needed when making a creative unless you see what an ad looks like.

I ordered 140 links with my 2,000 points, but so far only 14 of those have become active. I put the required code on my blog and you can see it in action at the bottom of the page. I’m a bit confused what I actually get out of having links on my blog, because from looking in my TNX account, I’m only earning nine points a month for each of those links. Given that I could sell 1,000 points for $0.64, I’m unlikely to make any money soon.

I have less than 500 points left from my original 2,000 and I have no idea what will happen when they run out. I also don’t understand why a PR0 link I’ve bought costs 300 points, but my PR0 link is worth only nine points. What am I missing here?

I think TNX could be a great service for building up free links, but I just can’t figure out how to effectively utilize it short of spending money on buying links, which I don’t want to do right now with a service I don’t fully understand. It is a fairly new service, however, and I think that if you have the time to sit down and work out what you can do with it, it could prove valuable.

The whole points thing is confusing though. I think they should ditch that and just have everything sold in hard currency. I haven’t read about anyone who has actually made any money from TNX yet.

Although I’m yet to take the plunge, you can buy points for between $0.63 and $1.26 per thousand points. You can get lots of points for relatively little money. Makes my 2,000 points look a little sad.

TNX also offers an affiliate program that pays 13.3% of all affiliate’s points earned and 5% of income. I’m yet to start promoting the affiliate program.

I’d say try TNX, but don’t expect to make any money. If you want to get free links like I did, head over to Digital Point.

Tags: Reviews by Angel
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It’s time to write my first blog review, and the lucky person to receive that honor is Becky from Pre Blogging, who won my $100 blog contest. Part of the deal was that I would write a full review of the winning blog, and while I’m doing so, perhaps some other people will request I write reviews for them too.

Pre Blogging began in August. It’s authored by a 21-year-old girl named Becky S, who writes on her about page:

I live near San Diego, CA. And I’ve been blogging for a number of years. Many of my friends (and my parents friends) have asked my about blogging in the past. So I’ve put this small website together to help you through the “Pre-Blogging” stages.

Throughout her posts, Becky mentions that she authors other blogs, although like most bloggers (myself included), she doesn’t reference those blogs directly. For proof of her worth though, she did receive a payment from Text Link Ads on September 1 for more than $200, so she is clearly not a blagger.

Aimed at those new to blogging, Pre Blogging sets its goals out as follows:

This site is called PreBlogging.com, a guide for people who want to know how to start blogging. I do mention here that you can make money from blogging, maybe not enough to quit the day job, but I’m sure it could be worth a few beers at the end of the month at least.

This simple ideology is reflected in the tone of the blog posts. Each is written as if it were for complete beginners. Many bloggers forget that there are still readers out there who don’t have a clue what they’re doing, so for these people, Pre Blogging would be an obvious place to start. For this reason, bloggers with a bit more experience may not find much to sink their teeth into.

The layout of Pre Blogging is clean, with two columns and no header, so all the focus is directed toward the content. The image of a number of credit cards sits at the top right of every page, and though it is connected to money, it fails to serve as a branding tool for the blog. It is, however, better than the previous image of a toilet roll that confused the hell out of me for a while.

In terms of monetization, Becky has chosen not to make it a priority with minimal ads on the homepage. Though Becky says that the focus of Pre Blogging is not on making money online, a lot of the posts recently are on that very topic. Beneficial to beginners is the simple approach Becky takes to this type of post, breaking it down for her audience.

One of the areas Becky has chosen to highlight is her five-step guide to blogging. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it would be a good reference point for anybody looking to start a blog who may not have a clue what they are doing.

Part of Becky’s blog that could be improved is the choice and size of the font used throughout, which can make the posts difficult to read and a little untidy. I’d also tweak the CSS to change the color of links to something that stands out more. The RSS button could also be given more prominence, perhaps with greater emphasis at the end of each blog post with the use of an image. Speaking of images, the ons Becky uses in her blog brighten the posts up, even if they are a little distracting.

Becky’s toast fund, a play on the “buy me a beer” widget, is an amusing touch, but I’m always skeptical of bloggers who use these widgets.

Pre Blogging is usually updated every other day, and although it is perhaps not the most insightful blog for making-money-online tips, for no-nonsense blogging tips and product reviews, it is a worthwhile read for those new to the game. Check it out and decide for yourself, or subscribe to the RSS to jump right in.

Like this review? What one of your own? Contact me.

Tags: Reviews by Angel
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