Last year, I wrote a piece about how Text Link Ads had basically disappeared in Google SERPs, and how TNX popped up to try to capture some of the link buying/selling activity.

That post has been getting quite a few comments along the lines of:

you’re an idiot, I can clearly see that Text Link Ads is first in the Google SERPs when searching for text link ads.

And if I had just posted that article yesterday, these scallywags would be correct. But I posted that back in 2007, well over six months ago. And a lot can happen in that amount of time.

So today I’d like to tell you a little story…

Many years ago, a new service emerged called Text Link Ads. It was setup to allow you to buy or sell links on websites, with a premise similar to most ad networks - you put your links out there and people click them. Pretty typical.

For years TLA was a popular service and managed to earn a PR6 from Google.

But then, on one fateful day, there was a big shakeup!

With Google’s ranking algorithm being based largely on backlinks and anchor text, people could “exploit” their PageRank system by buying backlinks (instead of gaining them “naturally.”) Google didn’t like that one bit, so they huffed and puffed and blew TLA deep into the dark depths of their SERPs (back to page 5 or 6, where no searchers bother to go.)

The next year was like an ice age for link sales. With the big woolly mammoth size TLA out of sight, a herd of new text link marketplaces (like TNX) popped up and ran free over the arid landscape.

But alas, they all succumbed to the great ruler that is Google. The new services were dead before they began.

Text Link Ads, on the other hand, were hard at work, despite their lackluster SERPs. They kept bringing in more advertisers and publishers, and they also expanded their services to various types of link sales, including feedvertising. (Feedvertising is the act of placing ads in an RSS feed.)

Feedvertising would not manipulate PageRank, so apparently TLA was trying to run an advertising business, not a company bent solely on exploiting Google.

So Google did something surprisingly heart-warming - they lifted the ranking penalty!

Yes, Text-Link-Ads.com is now back in Google for phrases such as “text link ads” and “text links.”

And everyone lived happily ever after!

(Except for the companies like TNX, who crashed and burned. Oh well. It’s hard enough to get on Google’s good side when you have a legitimate website.)

The Story, Part 2

As I was writing this story, Google did something that did not surprise me at all… they must have penalized TLA once again, because now they’re not in the rankings. Google is toying with them!

They just jerk us around with their infrequent toolbar PR updates, hidden link selling penalties, and constantly changing rankings!

Where will TLA rank tomorrow??

Photo credit: bobster1985 (earthquake) | Photo credit: rpongsaj (woolly mammoth) | Photo credit: Raymond Brown (snow white)

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So by now everyone must know that Text-Link-Ads (TLA) has all but disappeared from Google. Does that mean that text link selling services should quit and give up, or does it mean that there is an open spot for market leader?

TNX.net is hoping for the latter!

This new text link marketplace seemed to appear out of thin air but now boasts a link inventory of over 30 million! That’s pretty serious, especially when you think about the 10,000 or so odd links being added each hour.

I couldn’t help but sign-up after reading this detailed review plus a tip from Blogstorm.

This is the point that stood out:

The great thing about buying links at the moment is PR hasn’t updated for months so links are really cheap. You can log into TNX and buy up thousands of links on PR0 pages that have lots of Yahoo backlinks for ultra low prices.

Plus, link inventory is hidden for security, the points system makes buying links pretty cheap, and they’re nice enough to give out a bunch of free bonuses.

Did I mention their system tries to set-up your campaign legitimately so it doesn’t look like link spam? That’s pretty sweet, and shows how smart the people behind TNX are. (Granted you can still screw things up if you’re stupid, but they try to help out.)

They really make link buying awesome. The more I buy, the more I like it.

I figured I’d test the ‘link selling’ part too. (That’s on one of my smaller sites, not here, of course.) It’s pretty simple to add the code to your page, but it’s still over 100 lines of PHP code… I’m worried there’s some sort of “footprint” in there making it easy to spot. I’ll get back to you on that part after some testing.

[*Update* I'm pretty sure TNX does leave a footprint that makes it obvious you are selling links.]

But overall it looks good on both sides. I could see myself using this a little bit and possibly recommending it.

Get your links (and sell your links) at TNX.net.

Bonus hint: Remember the tip about getting good links from PR0 sites with lots of backlinks? Well, those are the only sites I bought links from. Don’t fall in the trap of “well I’m not sure about PR0, so I’ll get the PR1 links.” The PR1 sites probably aren’t that great, I mean, they only got a 1. But the PR0 pages could be on their way to a PR5 once the PR update finally hits.

And like I said, get your links (and sell your links) at TNX.net. At the very least, it’s cheaper than Text Link Ads.

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