Optimize Your TLA for Advertisers
Now I know that people can tell you that they have all the secrets for optimizing your website for advertisers, SEO, TLA, etc. I actually test out these theories with my friend’s websites. So I know which ones work and which ones don’t.
Optimization doesn’t just start with your website but it starts with your account/package details. I work with and teach a lot of bloggers how to blog, fix their blog and optimize their blog. First off making sure your advertisers are well featured but not obtrusive. I know Pajama Mommy is the best and worst example. The ads are not obtrusive to you the reader, (or at least I hope not) but they are also optimized so you can see the advertisers, however they are crammed in the side. This of course is changing with our new look we’ll be displaying soon.
I did what I could within this layout and I have yet to receive a complaint from an advertiser. So make sure your ads are well seen and not hidden. People are paying good money to advertise on your site make sure you’re giving them their moneys worth so they will renew that ad next month. I had advertisers for 5 months straight from TLA because of it.
That’s not all I did. I really optimized and played with my TLA account. Because of that I’ve sold many ads, most months I am constantly sold out of ads. I normally sell as soon as one expires. This makes me very happy knowing I’m a hot commodity. But I also had a PR 6, now PR 2 and have decent Alexa rankings.
Now my good friend Jenny, and I were discussing how she has trouble selling her TLA she has a PR 0 but similar alexa rank to me, if not better sometimes! I offered to help optimize her TLA account which she graciously accepted. The first thing I did of course was see what she wrote. She is a mother and writes about a variety of different things but I figured her best choices were changing her categories to Baby and Parenting.
I also had her raise her prices. You may think this is insane but remember I’m doing this for a reason. She was priced a little too low, I asked her to raise her price just high enough to get within the first 2 pages of links on both categories. I updated the number of pages within her blog the posts would show on. She has tons of posts, and tons of individual pages on her site. So I jacked up the number to the more appropriate one. Made her ads site wide, and checked on all her stats.
One of the most important things advertisers look for is reader interaction, and visitors. If your site has good reader interaction and good visitors you want to make sure you mention it. Her website gets over 1,000 hits a day so I made sure I put that into the description. I made sure I noted on the visitor interaction, and variety of content. But I kept it short and sweet. Fil always tells me “GET TO THE POINT.” I make sure do that on her blog.
I then played around with her keywords. I added a ton of new keywords, I went through her posts and made sure I hit all the keywords that she has spoken about and asked her the direction she is taking the blog. Which I applied my keywords to.
Pajama Mommy’s keywords are “baby, parenting, mommy, problogger, web2.0, technology, directory, monetize, family, fashion, blog news, blogging tips, business, celebrities, fashion, food, money, music, parenting, politics, SEO, video games, DIY, Crafts, work at home, family, friends, books, movies, B2B, marking, internet, music, dinning, cooking, recipes, house, home, gardening, home office, cleaning, gadgets, money, savings, credit cards, debt, mortgage, cars, car payments, refinancing, luxury, couture, shopping, louis vuitton, marc jacobs, fine living, pets, pet supplies, real estate, vacation, hotels, motels, shopping, apparel, footware, shoes, heels, mary-janes, books, interviews, authors, celebrities, gossip, snarky, jennifer lancaster, breast feeding, newborns, babies, diapers, women’s health.”
Granted they aren’t the best keywords but they are working for me and I am constantly adding new ones. That is a great feature of TLA they don’t have a cap on your keywords.
That was all I did to her TLA. Honestly. I then received and email from her telling me she sold a bunch of TLA ads. So I asked her how quickly it was after I played around with her account and if she made any changes. Her reply “within 1-2 days after you played with my accounts and I haven’t made any changes to it†My next tip was now that you sold a few ads raise your price a bit more. Supply and demand the less supply the more the demand. You may not have page rank but your site is worth the few extra dollars.
Is yours?
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Thank you SO MUCH for this post! I was wondering the same thing and now I’m going to have to write a post on parenting or babies or SOMETHING so I can sell some TLA! Thanks for this, I’ll definitely be using these techniques.
Yes Amanda you did it again, Thanks for the great tips, now all i need to do is learn how to keep those ads in that good spot. It seems when i alter the theme i end up loosing the ads.
Optimize Your TLA For More Advertisers!
This is my how to guide on optimizing your TLA to gain more advertisers! My friend sold 3 more ads after I did this to her site!
Want to help me with mine?
I’m willing to help anyone!
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is signing up for advertising programs quickly, slapping up the code and assuming the money will begin rolling in. As you mentioned, you do really need to take the time to present your best to get more advertising. A nicely written article.
Thanks so much! I’m still waiting back to get fully approived by TLA, but it’s grat to have an idea of what to do in advance.
It’s worked though. I’ve gotten 3 links since you helped me with me site.
How on earth do you change your price on TLA? I just can’t find it
[...] Optimize Your TLA for Advertisers – Amanda writes about great tips on how to sell more links with Text Link Ads. I’ve taken her advice literally, so let’s wait and see how it goes for me
[...]
I’m still struggling on how to edit my price! I agree that just slapping up an ad and expecting results quickly is not how you do it. Some people give up on adsense and other networks because they think the dollars are supposed to add up quickly.
Malin — email the support and request an upgrade. I upgrade at about $20 buxx each time a text link was sold. At one point i was at $210 per link. Which was great but I like to lower my prices so more people will buy! I tell people be greedy but don’t over do it! I’m back down to $180 and they still sell like hot cakes!
Sheena — I think everything takes time. Heck, I put yahoo! ads up and I haven’t even received my first payout! I am very patient! Granted they are staying up till I make the payout and after that I will see about keeping them! But I’ve been giving them a few months so far! and check out my reply to Malin it explains on how to edit your price!
[...] Pajama Mommy » Mommy Blogger Community wrote an interesting post today on Optimize Your TLA for AdvertisersHere’s a quick excerpt Now I know that people can tell you that they have all the secrets for optimizing your website for advertisers, SEO, TLA, etc … /package details. I work with and teach a lot of bloggers how to blog, fix their blog and optimize their blog. First off making sure your advertisers are well featured but not obtrusive. I know Pajama Posted in Pajama Mommy » Mommy Blogger Community ( 785 links from 413 sites) by tbwnet [...]
Could you please give me some suggestions? I would appreciate it. Sometimes I don’t know which direction to go next. This article clears things up a bit.
hi—-amanda:
i have a vegetarian blog, that is my baby, and even though only a few folks see it. lol. i treat it as gold. i want to earn more from it, so right now, i’m investing a few dollars, to get a redesign on the theme. i want to make it attractive to advertisers, so im making it more ad friendly.
that is next on the plate for me, also getting more content on there. i just need more hours in the day. right?
nice article, thanxs for your tips.
hi help mommy, my price is locked at $25, while the new price is $40 per link, how to get the old advertisers bid the new prices ? if they keep renewing their ads, I won’t get the new price.
You cant unless they cancel their link. Unfortunately old advertisers stay locked in at their price however it is good since it looks like you sold more ads at that price the bad part is you lose a bit of money. I had an advertiser who forgot to renew lost their spot and were only paying $65 a link and had to renew at $150. It sucked for them but I was glad to have them back and knowing that they loved the traffic they were receiving from me.
Is it worth it to u to lose the money/advertiser to POSSIBLY gain one at a higher cost or keep them and get what money you can out of the situation?
hm … good point, I better keep my advertisers, TLA won’t let me reject them anyway…
no they wont but you can ask them to remove them if you really want to lose them that badly.
but the more people who purchased your link .. the more demand there will be. I sell out every month if someone loses their spot because i’m a hot commodity its the supply and demand idea.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is signing up for advertising programs quickly, slapping up the code and assuming the money will begin rolling in.
I agree with the last statement. You have to be proactive with any campaign you try. This means analyzing back-links and making sure that your not creating really spammy low PR sites linking to you.
That was a well written article, very intereting,thank you for a good read.
That was a well written article, very interesting,thank you for a good read.