Making Money With Link Lists

I'm sure there are a number of webmasters here who are currently, or who will soon be, submitting to the link lists. Link lists are a good way to get traffic to your sponsors and AVS sites, and you can make money with link list traffic alone. The traffic is free (except for the content fee and your time), and there's a lot of places to submit to around at the moment. I want to go over some tips which will help you make more money with your link list sites.

Surf to get listed...

Surf at least 50 - 100 link list sites with your note pad before you start building a link list site. While this no way guarantees that you'll get listed, you'll see examples of sites that did get listed successfully. If there's a link list that you really want to get into, and you've been declined, surf that link list by itself and look at the sites there. This can give you valuable clues as to what they are looking for. Generally speaking, once you've got a site that's acceptable, it will be listed at most of the link lists out there.

When ads are restricted - make each one count.

Don't freak out totally when you read the rules. Remember that a limited number of ads can still be devastatingly effective. I did an experiment with the link lists recently, and put only one ad on each of the index, main, and gallery pages. I found that I was still able to maintain my goal of sending 10% of my visitors to a sponsor. My conclusion was that it's more the quality of the ad than the number of them which is important. While I don't recommend only having one ad per page, this illustrates that fewer ads can still make you money.

Setting up some form of click-tracking script can also help you hone your link list marketing skills, and let you see which ads are actually getting people to a sponsor.

Use the first page to make sales.

Especially the first part of the first screen - those few inches at the top of the site's homepage. Just because this is a link list site, your goal here doesn't change: To get them off to a sponsor as SOON as possible, as willingly as possible. If you can get a surfer to click on an ad and not even scroll down your page - you've done an excellent job. Here's a site which goes for the attack from the B of Bang:

http://www.coolhardcore.com/pierced_lesbians/

.. with a nice text ad at the very top of the page. The rest of this site is also a good example. Take a look at how the main page is built in particular.

Put a text link next to the enter link.

An old classic, that I still see on many new link list sites, is where webmasters give the surfer a choice at the enter link. There's a sponsor link either above, below, or to the side of that says something to the effect of "OR Go To [Sponsor site name]". You have to be careful with this tip because it could break the rules of the link list, but take a look around some of the link lists out there. Putting an alternative to your site next to the entry point is an excellent way to get surfers to your sponsors. They'll just think they're on your site - except here they can make you money... Here's an example:

http://www.dickup.com/amateurs/index.htm

Put a sponsor link next to the gallery links.

A similar little trick is to do the same on the "gallery 1", "gallery 2" links on the main page. Putting sponsor links next to navigation links is a way to get them to click through to a sponsor. Here's an example of a site which is doing just that:

Something like:

Gallery 1

[ Sponsor name ]

Gallery 2

Can work very well.

Use 8 recips per site - text links if possible.

I always recommend mirroring. I can't say enough good things about it. And if you can use text link reciprocal links back to the link list - do so. Text links are just as good for the link list, possibly even better. And they're ideal for you. Remember that every single kb of bandwidth is important and some of those animated recip images can run to quite a size. It all adds up over a number of page views. Use text recips wherever possible. But check the rules pages - some link lists will require ONLY a graphic recip.

Make money by making sponsor links more prominant than navigation links.

Keep the gallery links, and the enter links small-ish. We're not trying to make them impossible to find (that will stop you getting listed) but at the same time, you won't get paid if the surfer gets to your galleries without seeing any adverts. Text links will make you more sales than banners (if you want my advice - forget banners) and putting those text ads in a LARGE font, with your gallery links in a smaller one, will get them noticed more. Some people also color navigation links a darker color than the sponsor links.

Space = clarity = sales.

Format the text ads properly. Don't let them run the full width of the screen. Get someone to look at them and make sure they're 100% easy-on-the-eye and readable. One thing you can do is to make sure there's plenty of blank space around the ad. Put a couple of carriage returns above it, and below it. I've seen some great text links which are rendered useless because they weren't formatted properly.

Here's a site which uses very simple text links sparingly, but uses them well:

http://www.xfetishx.com/wrestling/cunt/

Get creative with the gallery pages.

Try to come up with something other than banner, row of thumbs, banner. This will send people to sleep, and they'll be able to find the picture links in automatic pilot. Think about some alternative gallery layouts. The game is always the same: how do you get a surfer that's seen a lot of other link list sites to notice YOUR ads? What can you do differently to wake 'em up?

Here's a tutorial to help on that:

Alternative Gallery Layouts
http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/alternative-gallery-layouts.html

And here's a gallery layout that captures what I'm trying to say here beautifully:

http://www.bestbigtits.com/lesbfree/jade/1.html

If you get stuck for inspiration - take some tips from the gallery masters. Go over to the TGPs and see what some of those guys and girls are doing. They know how to structure galleries.

Be different

This one's easier said that done! But, with time and practice, you can put some of YOU into a site (or any kind of adult work you do). Try to get your own style in terms of layout, color, and what you say to the surfers. This can really pay off. If a site looks different, and things are in a different place to the regular run-of-the-mill free sites, I guarantee you it will make a huge different to clicks and sales. Here's an absolutely beautiful example of what I'm talking about:

http://www.hottest-free-porn.com/sites/juicy-big-boobs/warning.html

... and one of the best link list sites I've ever seen. Also note the enter link section - to the SIDE of the page, dark, and with an alternative entry point:

Enter
juicy big
boobs
or
Exit to a
nicer
place

Brilliant!

Good luck on your link list sites. Now go build something that will make YOU money.

TOM ^"^

Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER

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