Monetizing your Blogger Blog with Text Link Ads: Three easy Steps

Text Link Ads is a simple and effective way to monetize your Blog. Now with the power of RSS feed you can feature TLA in the new Blogger. ( If figured it out a while back and clued Patrick Gavin in. He was too happy to implement it and make it available to Bloggers as a new year gift!)

Here are easy steps to get your Text Link Ads working in Blogger.

Step 1: Migrate to New Blog*Spot( Blogger -All New*) and Choose a Template

When you log in to your blogger account, you will be given the option the migrate to the New Blogger. Just walk the steps. You will be asked to sign up for a Google Account if you don’t have one already. The basic migration does not alter your Blogger blog in any way.

For Text Link Ads to work( With Blogger), we are going to use the Page Element feature of the New Blogger. Log onto your New Blogger. From the Dashboard migrate to the new Template as below:

From your Blogger Beta Dashboard, Click on the ‘Template’ link pertaining to your Blog. It is a good idea to save the old template. Blogger provides an option to revert back to your old template in case you are not satisfied.

Once you have chosen a new template, you will be able to add New Page Element by clicking on ‘Layout’ link in the Blogger Dashboard.

When you are able to see a page like above, you have successfully migrated to the New Blog*Spot with Templates. You are 50% done on your way to display Text Link Ads on your Blog*Spot Blog.

Bonus Links:

Blogger Beta Templates:

3-Column Template from HOCTRO

3-column templates for Blogger Beta from Hackosphere

Blogger Beta Templates by Beautiful Beta

Vivek’s Useful Tips on Several Blogger Beta Aspects

Step 2: Get Your Text Links Sold::Sign up for Publisher Account with TLA(Free)

This obvious step for signing up for a publisher account might take a while. But the effort of signing up and the wait are well worth it. Imagine you can rent out links and earn money month-on-month for it!

Step 3: Install TLA in your Blog
Login to New Blogger Dashboard, Click on the ‘Layout’ it will take your to ‘Add and Arrange Page Elements’ page.

Locate ‘Add a Page Element’ link and click it: A pop up window with ‘Choose a New Page Element’ will appear. Locate the item named ‘Feed’ and click on the ‘ADD TO BLOG’ tab. This will pop up yet another window with ‘Configure Feed’ on it.

It will prompt for the Feed URL. Just copy paste the Feed URL from your TLA publisher account and press ‘Continue’.

It will show a preview of the ads, Press ‘Save Changes’ and you are done!

Now enjoy the cash!

PS: For those wondering why the hell am I blogging about it here, here are the reasons:
I made a small presentation about Blog Widgets in the BlogCamp Chennai. I was experimenting with widgets and this is where it took me.

It gives me immense satisfaction to note that I figured out the method of featuring the ads in blogger first. All this small economic churn due to Bloggers selling ads and others buying them is sparked off by me!

SecondLife as unconference medium: CaseCampSecondLife was a massive success!

The CaseCamp at SecondLife was a blast. CaseCampSecondLife kicked off with chit chat networking and of course audio testing( more things change more they remain the same!). The event was well organized and well executed. Hat tip to the organizers:

C.C. Chapman (Cleon Goff): Crayonville: 5 slide stage is a neat idea. Placing the slide panels on a curve might make it easy to zoom in and out easily.

Kate Trgovac(Katicus Sparrow): Everyone had something to remark about her dress. A nice ice breaker indeed. Proof that SL is not just a game, or a chat room, it is a powerful collaboration medium.

Bryan Person (Zeke Barber): In( and out) world communication and coordination. Seamless!

Eli Singer, originator of CaseCamp : CaseCamp rocks just like BarCamp. Success of unconference depends on the constraints agreed upon by the community. Restricting the presentation to real life cases is pretty neat and sustainable.

The presentation were mainly audiocasts and auido was mostly without a hitch thanks to Lynette from Lynette Radio

Moving on to the presentations:
The camp kicked off with a presentation by Doug Walker from RockPaperScissors. was a lucid and interesting presentation. The RPS Society site started off(mid 1990s) as a spoof( sort of), ended up as a ‘Hobby that went out of Control’. A classic case of never-imagined-even-in-the-wildest-dream community response through Word of Mouth spread. Interesting quote: We claimed that we are the authority in the field, people clued us up, and we became The Authority in RPS. I was amazed to learn several interesting word of mouth, playful marketing techniques from the presentation. The talk ended with group play of Rock, Paper, Scissor by everyone present. No champions were chosen though .

Then it was Michael from Scotiabank . During my legendary trip to Yukon( ~1997 I did a coast to coast drive from New York, NY to Anchorage Alaska with an Internet friend/stranger: Dan Haas Where are you! ) I’ve encountered the bland Scotia Bank indeed. It was bland to say the least. I’m surprised to see the bank using the social media and the cutting edge SecondLife for its brand engagement. Michael shared how they were able to convert fanatic Sports fans into Fanatic Brand Fans by planting call for action with word of mouth elements. I was not able fully understand the techniques, nor was I able to fully appreciate the Ottawa Senators, till I looked up and found out that they were Ice Hockey, NHL stuff. Dumb me, I was thinking democracy and politics when Senators were mentioned. Holy Canadians, they live and breath Ice Hockey.

Marketing unconference without Google Dance? Of Course Not. John Wall from AccuRev presented clinical details about google optimization. Tip: When you cross the magic 0.5 % hit ratio, google treats you differently and you go into a positive spiral. Whew, that is so cool and so vicious. I started experiencing some audio bottlenecks during this presentation. Though I had several questions in my mind, I was hesitant to ask lest I make a fool of myself asking about things already spoken. I was surprised to find that there were no questions. May by other people were also in a similar situation. Google juice success stories are always inspiring!



Non-profits are always looking for people with spare cash, or spare time or both. If they are liberal minded, Wonderful! The SecondLife gamers sure have time and cash in hand. And SL makes it easy to dispose cash in loose change. Eli Singer’s presentation on World Wildlife Federation’s Global Warming, Save Our Climate campaign was interesting and educational. By now I mastered the art of zooming in and out and reading the presentation slides. Classic case of how the “New” Social Media is becoming so mainstream! Simple physical artifacts like TShirts and balloons were employed to engage the community effectively. Further reinforced by social media. Classic case of intersection of blogosphere with neighborhood activities. SL has lot of scope for intersecting with real world. This is where my interest is.



I’ll be closely watching Eli on his WWF/SL moves. There is a lot to learn! Eli is very SL savvy, and his avatar has a nice tail. He changed his avatar couple of times. Good Show, Good show!

Totally it was a wholesome and fruitful unconference with impressive( diverse) turnout.

Bonus Links
You can get a freebee for your RPS initiative.

Avatar makeover on the eve of CaseCampSecondLife

When I shared the news that I have got invitation to attend the CaseCampSecondLife, Maha( Second life Name: upsl Pink) was very excited about it. She suggested that I give my avatar a complete makeover and got into action immediately, without waiting for an yes from me. Thankfully, she was in a happy mood after listing her new dress collection in SLBotique, and I did not get mauled.

Look what she can do to herself:

I’m going to a learn a lot about SecondLife marketing and marketing in general from CaseCamp, stay tuned for more.

CaseCampSecondLife, SecondLife unconference on Marketing

Never in my life I have ever thought of attending a marketing conference! But it is true, I’m going to attend a marketing unconference( a la BarCampChennai type unconference) at Crayonvile at SecondLife. I’m thrilled to get an invitation to the CaseCamp SecondLife event. There is more than 60 people waiting in the list to get in there.

SecondLife is increasingly becoming a marketing medium. I’m tracking secondlife just to learn a few tips about using secondlife as a marketing tool.

More after I attend the event!