Link Building

TNX.net Link Advertising Network

Loren Baker

Loren Baker

10/1/07

151 Comments

TNX.net dubs itself as a hybrid of contextual advertising and text link advertising, letting publishers serve an advertising code which is viewed as a natural link by search engines.

In a world where Google is shunning paid linking, TNX.net takes a different approach and uses what could be seen as a ‘work around’. Here is an overview of their link buying & points exchange system.

Linking Economy

The main difference between TNX and other link buying or selling services is the linking economy set up by TNX, where link buyers actually buy points, which they then trade to publishers for links.

Publishers then earn points, which they can use to ‘buy’ links on other sites, or exchange for money.

One interesting aspect of the link points is that the exchange rate is not a constant. According to TNX, the cost of points raises 2% each week which seems dependent upon the amount of publishers and popularity of the service. So essentially, by establishing points in the infancy of TNX, those points would be worth more in the future.. which means worth more links.

Link Targeting

Unlike other link buying services however and similar to contextual advertising, TNX does not let the link buyer know the site which they are buying links on, although the company does match up relevant links with categorical sites.

TNX offers targeting by website’s subject (or category), there is also a targeting using the site’s region and Google PR of each page. TNX makes it possible to combine different types of targeting and compare the efficiency with different setups.

Once a link is established, the link buyer becomes aware of the site running the ad. If a link buyer is not happy with their link advertising purchase however, they can remove a link from a specific page.

Another interesting notes on TNX.net :

  • Links are not served on pages which are not trafficked, so publishers cannot charge for links on their sites for pages which are hidden and not served.
  • TNX pushes publishers to serve ads in noticeable areas of the sites : “they are useful for the visitor and are not meant only for search bots”
  • TNX says it does not know of a “single case when participation in our system would do any harm to any of our partners.”
  • Since currency is not used, TNX makes it easy to buy links on sites which are based in other countries, without dependency on Paypal or other checkout systems.
  • If TNX is based on a points system, is it buying links?
  • TNX has over 25,000 different users (advertisers and publishers) with over 27 Million links in their system, with over 15,000 new links created by the hour on over 17 million different web pages.
  • Links are purchased and maintained on a monthly basis, so you’re essentially renting the link.
  • SEO Consultants & Agencies get a discount.

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