By Glenn Murray
We all know that online publishers earn revenue from our freereprint articles. They place pay-per-click ads on the web pagethat contains the article, and the advertiser pays them wheneversomeone clicks on the ad. Most use programs like Google AdSensewhich automatically identify the subject of the article anddeliver an ad related to that subject.
But did you know that publishers can do a similar thing withinthe article itself? They can turn any word within your articleinto an ad! They use programs like TextLinkAds to turn selecttarget keywords into hyperlinks to the advertiser's website.When a reader clicks on a link, the advertiser's websiteopens within the same window. In other words, the page is'hijacked' and your article disappears!
Gasp! As authors, we spend a lot of time planning and writingcontent designed to hold the reader's attention. Surely weshould condemn anything which hijacks our audience?
The answer to that question is most definitely, “NO!”
As a heavy Internet user, I'm personally not a fan of textlink ads. However, as an author of free reprint articles, Ithink they're great. Before I explain why, though, let'scover off a few basics...
Text link ads – some FAQs
Like every other form of advertising, text link ads have theirdetractors. The most common questions asked are:
Q: How can I tell if it's a text link ad? A: Although textlink ads look the same as text links, you can identify them veryquickly simply by mousing (hovering) over them. When you hoverover a text link ad for about a second, a popup displays thedetails of the advertiser and the ad content. Check out 
Q: Are they ethical? A: Text link ads are more covert thanregular pay-per-click ads like Google AdWords. They look likenormal text links, but they don't actually jump where youexpect them to. For example, I clicked on a text link ad withanchor text “MSN” expecting it would take me to MSN's search,but instead it took me to the website of some sort of SEOservice provider. As we all know, it's quite common forpeople to link to their site using unrelated anchor text.That's all text link ads are doing. So, by nature, text linkads are no more misleading than any other kind of link.
Q: Are they bad for the Web? A: When people can't trust thelinks they're clicking on, won't they stop clicking?Won't this have a detrimental effect on the perceivedusability of the Web? I said above that text link ads aren'treally any more misleading by nature than normal text links. Inreality, though, I suspect they may encourage the misleading useof anchor text, so in that respect, I think they'redetrimental to the perceived usability of the Web. But does thismake them bad for the Web? I don't think so. In fact, I thinktheir overall effect will be good. By bringing more advertisers(i.e. businesses) to the Web, text link ads ultimately make theWeb more useful. Users will quickly recognize text link ads forwhat they are and adapt.
Q: Are they effective for advertisers? A: I can't reallyanswer that. I've never used them, so you'll have to asksomeone who has. Of course, you could ask one of the companiesthat offers text link ad technology, but you already know theiranswer...
Q: Will they become more popular? A: Once again, I can'tanswer that question with any authority. But I have mysuspicions; I suspect they will become more popular, simplybecause there are a lot of web publishers out there who arewilling to try programs that offer a revenue return. Ultimately,the popularity of text link ads hinges how successful they arefor advertisers, not how well-liked they are among users.
Q: Can I stop it happening to my reprint article? A: No. Ibelieve that power lies solely with the publisher. Of course,you can forbid it in your reprint guidelines, but that willsimply limit the number of times your article is reprinted(consequently limiting your referral traffic and linkpopularity).
Conclusion - Are any of these questions really important toarticle submission authors?
In my humble opinion, the answer, once again, is “No!” Asauthors of reprint articles, we love the Google AdSensearrangement because it creates a demand for quality content. Themore high quality articles a publisher reprints, the highertheir site rank, the greater their traffic, and the more theyearn from the pay-per-click ads on their site. As a result, ourarticle submissions get widely published and we build brandawareness, credibility, authority, referral traffic, and – ofcourse – link popularity (i.e. increased rank).
Text link ads are no different. Like Google ads, they encouragethe publisher to acquire more high quality content. It's assimple as that.
“But my article is hijacked! What if the reader doesn'treturn?” There's no denying we'd prefer to keep ourreader. But most readers know where the 'Back' button is,so if your article is good enough, they'll be sure to clickit. And if they don't, well at least you've got thepermanent link back to your site in the byline of your article.And after all, that's one of the big benefits of articlesubmission, isn't it?
Anyway, enough talk. Let's see how it all unfolds.
Happy hijacking!
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
