TNX.net text link service review
TNX.net is another text link based advertising service that caters to both publishers who want to sell links on their sites as well as advertisers who wish to buy links. Rather than flat out cash transactions, they work with points which helps keep balance in their system. You can use those points to “buy” links on other sites or cash out those points through paypal payments. There are restrictions to help keep fraud and abuse limited but overall it’s a fair system.
For Publishers:
One of the main concerns about selling paid links on your sites, and especially using a well known “paid text link” sales service/broker, is that Google, for one, has made it very clear that they are very much against site owners selling links based on pagerank. Of course the reason for this is doing so affects the “true” amount of links, or “votes” a given site gets from other sites in the index. Basically, because of the way Google set up their ranking and the importance they put on incoming links and the visibility they made available, they have created tons of over-optimizing wannabe SEO freaks. Pretty much any site owner these days knows that they need to “build” links to get better search rankings and the easiest way to do that is to just go out and buy links. Google has helped create a system that helps to degrade their own search results and now they are struggling to stop it and in doing so are starting to aggressively penalize sites who obviously sell links based on PR (selling traffic links is ok still as long as you add “nofolow”).
So, is it worth risking getting your site delisted or losing PR to make some money off links? Well that is up to you. No one knows the depth of Googles crackdown yet and it’s hard to say how hard they will come down on specific sites for selling links. Some site owners might not rely much on search traffic or care about PR so for those it could be a great easy way to make more cash. If search indexing and PR is important to you, it might not be the best idea to sell PR links regardless how you go about it but if you do the safest way would be through private sales and not to go overboard with it. TNX does appear to understand this and look to be working on various ways to hide the fact that you are part of their network so there may be less risk than some of the other text links brokers but still some risk.
As far as how much you can make by selling links though TNX, it really just depends on what PR your site is and how well that PR is spread throughout the rest of your site. The more higher PR pages you have, and the more of those pages that are indexed, the more money you will make. You can use the calculator on the homepage of TNX.net to get an overall idea to what you may make if all your links sell out. You can sell up to 4 text links as well so the more you allow the more that number will go up.
One cool feature is you don’t have to sell links on every page of your site. You can pick and choose specific pages if you wanted to. You will make the most if you just add the code sitewide but some site owners might not want the links displayed on some sites and it’s easy to make sure that doesn’t happen.
For Advertisers:
Although there is conflicting “evidence” (read: opinions), from what I have heard Google doesn’t bother penalizing sites who obviously buy text links, even for PR. They seem to only look for link seller. If that is the case, you can go crazy buying all the links you want and TNX makes that pretty easy. And cheap.
Of course it’s not a great idea to go and instantaneously get tens of thousands of new links to your site overnight as that is pretty obvious to the search engines but if you were smart about it and set up a small number of links over time and kept adding to them then it could be an excellent way to really get some great links.
Unfortunately you are not able to pick and choose which sites you get links from so that could be an issue depending on the quality of sites in the network. I mean, this type of setup would be attractive to crappy spammers who would want to take advantage of it and if there are enough in the system then you could end up with some “bad neighbors” sites linking to you. TNX does have pretty strict terms though so it might not be something to really worry about. But not being able to pick the specific sites that link to you also takes away your power to make sure you are getting very relevant links. But in the end, it seems, regardless, links are links and they help.
Overall:
In my opinion, the advertising part of TNX seems to be the most usable, and least “risky” for site owners wishing to get some links and traffic built up. I personally would be a bit of a wimp trying to sneak past Google by selling links through a service, regardless of the integrated protection schemes that might come out, but I have no problem buying links this way. At least until it’s clear that Google will penalize for that as well.
The best way to decide if it is for you though is to just test it out yourself and see how it works for you. They have a promotion going right now where you can get a free 5000 credits on your account…all you have to do is sign up and head on over to a thread on DigitalPoint forums and ask. That should be enough for you to get at least one good campaign going and see if you want to continue or sell links yourself and earn more. You can find that thread here: TNX @ DP
Picking sides sucks. But a chance to win loot makes it a bit easier.
So, Gyutae Park and Tyler Cruz decided to have a digital pissing match and decided to put us, the readers, in the middle. I’d rather not be hit with the collateral splashing but have to stand up and choose a side. It’s like trying to choose between living with Mom or Dad. Either way one is going to be upset but who knows, maybe in the end you get more presents come Xmas time 
. When it comes to presents for this little promotion, the prizes start with 3 winners winning $100 each. The catch is you can only win if you side with the ultimate winner so be sure to choose wisely.
Tyler has the clear advantage as his blog has been around longer, has more traffic and a larger RSS subscriber list but I have a feeling Gyutae enjoys a challenge and seems to have a knack for marketing which may even out the odds in the end.
I actually read both blogs on pretty much a daily basis and enjoy both. Both are great for learning some new tricks, getting marketing ideas and seeing some of the best done reviews out there. It is hard to decide which is my “favorite” to be honest but rather than try to choose a favorite I will go with who has inspired me most. Both have inspired me some and I have learned from both but one stands out a bit.
Tyler has been pretty successful with his online earnings by most people definition. He lives a comfortable life and is happy with his revenue and only works only when he wants to, which tends to be less and less often. Although a nice place to be in, that can also be dangerous as once someone gets comfortable they stop trying and striving. I’ve always considered Tyler to be one of the “A list guru bloggers” and assumed he was a good source of inspiration. That is still partly true but after reading his recent 2008 goals post it really gave me the feeling that he is just doing enough just to get by and not challenging himself much at all and although it’s impressive that he is happy with that situation, it’s not the most inspiring. Being honest with yourself and setting realistic goals is one thing, but just getting by and letting things do what they will makes it a bit depressing as I honestly think that if Tyler put the type of effort into his overall business as he does in almost every single post he makes on his blog that he really would be one of the gurus pulling in hundreds of thousands a month.
Gyutae hasn’t been posting on his blog long but has already made a pretty hefty dent in the scene around him. Don’t make the mistake of associating blog age with lack of knowledge or valuable information (except in my own blogs example…sucks regardless of age lol). I wouldn’t want to say Gyutae has “better” post than Tyler and I’m not basing my vote off of specific post, but Gyutae has burst onto the scene with a “conquer the world and bring them with me” tone and contrary to Tylers goals of just increasing revenue by it’s natural growth/inflation pases, Gyutae is doing it and making it happen and setting his goals much more aggressively. That to me is inspiring and I honestly think Gyutae will continue to build and demand a larger audience because of his hard work. He’s also pretty good at marketing so odds are he has gotten your attention or will in one way or another sometime soon.
So, although I respect Tyler for what he has done and it’s nice to see he is happy with just floating along, in the end I have to “vote” for Gyutae. I think both are worth reading as much as you can and both have something to offer. And although I have “taken a side” for this little promotion of theirs I will continue to support both . Of course I may be a little bit biased still basking in the glow of my free John Chow review I won in theWinning The Web contest.
If you haven’t taken your side yet, you should definitely check both out as they have both already started with the bribes and offering swag to their supporters. In the end they both win and hopefully that will help both of them bring us even more great content meaning we will again.
Getting lucky can be hard work. No, not that kind of “getting lucky” you perve…
I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson
I love quotes and some of the most inspirational for me are ones dealing with “luck”. I may win really small lottery tickets here and there and I seem to be super lucky when it comes to email since I get winning sweepstakes notifications all the time but overall I’m not all that lucky with the odds type thing. That being said, I often win contest and competitions that I take part in and although I’d like to think “talent” has a bit part in that, most of it comes from actual work.
For example, I recently won Gyutae Parks’ very cool pre-paid John Chow Review Contest. Although it took a bit of imagination to figure out, I actually spent a good amount of time and made an honest effort to win. Meaning I spent time each day racking my brain for possible solutions, researched various post on Gyutaes’ site looking for clues, researched various post on Johns’ site for clues and I even went as far as watching to see the usual time Gyutae made new post so I could set my alarm and get up to see what the new letter of the day was to get an early jump at new guesses. That alone may have been what gave me the winning slot as soon after I made my guess there were quite a few people who figured it out and posted as well without noticing my post. I don’t know how many total hours I put into it but I did put in a good amount of time. Sure that might negate some of the value because I used up my time and depending on the total hours spent I may have made less than minimum wage lol, but I really wanted a John Chow review (had actually recently emailed him about it) and definitely didn’t have the cash to put down on it.
Another example could be the “write our funny customer reply email” contest that DealDotCom.com used to have on the weekends back when they first started out. I happened to win the only two they did and although part of it was because there weren’t many entries, I also did spend a decent amount of effort coming up with and writing funny replies. I tend to be funny and sarcastic naturally (at least in my own head) but even for those I didn’t just spit out post and hope I won. The post I made had multiple drafts, which alone would show there was some effort, before I made my post. I’m still waiting to see the results for the t-shirt contest they had which I put even more effort into .
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t seen anyone claim that I won only because I got lucky and in fact it has been the total opposite in all those cases where the other people taking part have been very supportive and generous. But I have been wanting to write about people complaining they don’t get anywhere because they are unlucky and this seemed like a good stepping point.
I’ve seen quite a few different blog post and forum threads with people saying how some super affiliate or “guru” just got lucky and basically saying that is the only reason they got anywhere. Although there may be some small piece of luck with various parts of their success, I would be willing to bet that the majority of their success comes directly from the effort they put into their work and what they learned because of that. In all actuality, odds are they are unlucky much more often than they are lucky because they have likely failed at a lot of the things they tried and lost a lot of time and money getting there. But as they learned and worked harder their “luck” improved and they make their success look so simple that it gets confused and credited with lucky breaks.
That all sounds kind of preachy and can be annoying but for all those that write off all the “winners” as just being lucky a-holes, if they took the time to become lucky they might see it in a different light.
I still don’t expect to win the lottery any time soon even though I will probably try. But I have a lot of confidence that I will get lucky as I advance more and more in this “affiliate marketing thing” because I am going to make that luck happen .
I’ll end this with a few more quotes that I like:
Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent.
~Langston ColemanIt’s hard to detect good luck – it looks so much like something you’ve earned.
~Frank A. ClarkThe only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
~Harry Golden
PS A huge thanks to Gyutae Park for sponsoring the contest. If you haven’t checked out his blog you really can learn a lot, including how to “win” 
. Also wanted to thank all the other cool people that were taking part in the contest. And of course, thanks to John Chow in advance for doing the review even if you are doing it only because you got paid to…you lucky bastard! >;)
Very cool prize pool for bloggers
*(Drawing has been held but you should still check out his site) It’s probably obvious that I could really use a new theme (yeah this is a free one) and even a really cool logo but as most of us on the low rung of the industry know, those things can be really expensive especially for the really good work. I definitely think the kind of work done by the pros is really worth the high price tags but being one of the broke bums out there, the only chance I have to get an awesome new custom theme or a great logo is to win it. Or maybe beg for it a ton but I will hold off the begging until after I make my official sacrificial post offering to enter this awesome drawing.
It may sound like I am being a kiss arse to get an edge but it’s not. It’s completely honest appreciation of the pros and their talent. And they have plenty of great references so it’s not just me. I mean, if licking shoes would help you can be sure I would be tasting the soles of their penny loafers but lucky for everyone, it is completely random. But regardless if you enter or if you check them out for some custom work it’s definitely worth your time.
The gracious host of this amazing giveaway is David Airey over on his logo designer blog (great read BTW) as a celebration for his blogs great first year. Just by seeing the talent he has and how open and helpful he is I am confident that the growth rate will only increase. You can find the details of the ultimate graphic designer giveaway on this page: > HERE <
Want to know the prizes and what has me drooling so much? Here is the listing of what is being given away. Some truly awesome prizes!..
GOOD PRODUCTS
COOL LINKS
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