Made for Text Link Ads versus Made For Adsense

Mubin Ahmed says building sites for AdSense is over and done. But you can apply the same skills and build for text link ad services - and maybe make a lot more money. And it’s not just AdSense:

Made for Adsense is dead because if you have a site that is specifically made for adsense ads sooner than later you will get smartpriced. The reason being is that the people that click through on MFA sites are usually doing it as a act of desperation to get off of your site. When they end up on the advertisers page they usually leave it without paying/buying anything. This will lead to your account getting smartpriced or even worse you getting your account banned because of the inevitable “invalid clicks” email. This is even worse for those on the Yahoo Publisher Network, because if your not converting they will make you take down the ads. Your not too good for them, they even made shoemoney take down YPN ads from one of his sites.

Emphasis mine. I think the days of AdSense easy money were something most of us realized had to come to an end sooner or later. That’s why I never bothered with it. For Google to remain competitive, sooner or later they were going to have to make it work better for advertisers than it worked for webmasters.

Mutual benefit is a big part of why text link ads could be a better longterm alternative. It’s not just about clicks. Ahmed says it’s about pagerank passing, and at this point in time I do have to agree that’s where most people’s heads are. And that will cause a bit of trouble down the road when - not if, but when - Google decides to either tank pagerank so no one can have it or find a way to punish other people for using it.

But text links are the oldest form of advertising on the web, long before pagerank, and they’re still here for a reason.