What Is a Text Link Ad?

Text link ads are one way to monetize your blog or website. In-text advertising turns individual words or phrases into links, which typically appear in a different color from the rest of the text.

When visitors to your site click the linked word or phrase, they're taken to a specific page on another website. The publisher of the blog or website (you) is paid by an advertiser who is trying to drive traffic to the linked page. Publishers are usually paid based on the number of times visitors click on the text link ad (called pay-per-click advertising), but they can also be paid a flat fee for publishing the link on their blog or website.

Advertisers place their ads on pages that have some relationship to the audience they are trying to attract to their websites. 

• The text link ads increase a website's brand awareness with a targeted audience. Visitors become familiar with the products and services offered.
• Text link ads can build links that search engines value, improving search engine rankings for the linked site.

Text link ads have caused some controversy in the past, notably those known to have committed "click fraud." This is when publishers, advertisers, or both spam a pay-per-click ad with automated script or computer program designed to rack up clicks. If Google discovers such activity it will lower the website's search rankings or even eliminate it from search results entirely.

For this reason, it's important to deal with reputable advertising programs with a transparent business record to avoid getting harmed by spam efforts.

Popular in-text link advertising programs include Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, LinkWorth, and Amobee, among others. They all offer contextual text link advertising opportunities, including text links to contextually relevant ad content. If you are interested, go to one of these advertiser sites and register. The advertiser will pair interested parties with your blog or website.