It’s been one week today that I signed up with Adbrite and blogged about their service. Adbrite is an advertising network that brokers the sale of text links and online advertising, similar to Text Link Ads. After reading their free guide on buying text links, I am considering testing the brokering services from various networks.

I’ve been told by a few sources that Text Link Ads takes a higher cut from the sale than AdBrite… but after one full week and no takers, I am curious to test the response I would get from the advertisers at TLA in the same amount of time.

I didnt choose to display Network Ads through AdBrite, as they werent very clear about the payout for showing those text ads. I have a feeling they pay according to the number of views and/or clicks - versus the amount of time that they are displayed on your site. Advertisers pay by the day, week or month. But the Network Ads pay by pageviews - or at least this is what I gathered from what I found on their website.

So instead of Network Ads, I chose to simply display an advertisement for the advertising. It basically links to the AdBrite page where they can set up an Ad to be displayed here on ClickNewz. When you go to that page it gives you stats such as the cost and the average CPC, pageviews and uniques per day, etc.

Unfortunately not enough people have clicked on that ad to give ClickNewz decent stats with AdBrite… so I can see why the spot hasnt sold in their Network.

It is interesting to test the various ways to make money with websites and blogs, and watch those results. Particularly between:

• Selling text links
• Google Adsense
• Affiliate Programs

At the end of the day, I would rather have more editorial control over what is displayed on my websites… and I know firsthand that personal recommendations and promoting something within the content area are the two things that equal higher profits than anything else.

Is there a point where selling Text Links means higher profits than other ways of monetizing a website - or is it a matter of how much work a site owner is willing to invest? Obviously it takes more work to write up sales copy and reviews and personal recommendations…

Let’s take an A-Lister (high profile blogger) for example - like TechCrunch or Robert Scoble. Would their recommendations (and their reach) not net more revenue than the sale of a Text Link or Sponsorship… or is that a personal decision as much as a financial decision?

Feel free to leave your thoughts below.

Tags: selling links, text links, advertising, monetizing, adbrite, text link ads