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Private Link Sales Review
By Max | July 15, 2007
I mentioned last week that I had submitted a couple of my sites to Private Link Sales. Since PLS is a new link marketplace, I really wasn’t expecting much, but it didn’t cost anything, so I figured it was worth a try. Over the weekend, someone sent me a $20 paypal for my first link sale through them for a nice surprise. I have only sold one link on TLA for this same site before. The best part is I got to keep the full $20 instead of giving half to TLA. In my opinion, TLA prices are a little high, and maybe thats why they don’t get enough volume to sell my links. I am going to keep my eye on PLS. I have spoken to the developer and he seems very excited about its potential. Certainly the commission is nice.
I told him about your comments that he should keep the site URLs hidden from google, and I think he will take this into account for one of the next updates.
Topics: Ad Network Review |
July 16th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Hey, Max. Thanks for mentioning the site! I’m so glad that it’s starting to take off. It’s always nice when your ideas are validated.
However, I should mention that I sold the site on Sat. I put it up for auction on Sitepoint (mainly to get some decent traffic for a $20 listing fee) and got some very nice offers. One of which I took.
Now if the new owner turns it into the next TLA, I’ll probably regret selling it, but I may not have the marketing/sales ability to have taken it there myself, so I suppose I should just be happy with the nice ROI that I made and move on to my next project.
Speaking of…Since I’m out of ideas at the moment, I may be looking to buy a site. Anyone out there have a unique site (no proxies, directories, etc) that’s making at least $200/month that they want to sell?
Thanks again, Max. I’ll definitely continue reading your blog here as long as you keep posting. Later.
–Chad
July 16th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hey Max, how did you miss PLS being for sale? Were you looking at it as an acquisition?
I have a buddy that has joined me in this web stuff. He has already bought a handful of sites and is passing me by. I just can’t seem to find a site I like at the right price.
Anyway, thanks for the update on PLS.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I guess I did miss that sale. I have been traveling, so I haven’t been checking Sitepoint as regularly. I have some ideas for the new owner that would greatly improve PLS.
In any case, I wasn’t really interested in buying PLS because its not yet mature enough to be monetized. My ideal target is already out of the “building” phase and into the “established” phase as far as traffic. I really like to find mature sites that are undermonetized.
Joey, Don’t be discouraged by not being able to find a site. I look at for sale listings every day, and yet I have only found a handful of sites worth bidding on. You definitely have to be discriminating as there is a lot of crap for sale out there.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Chad, I couldn’t find your sales listing on Sitepoint. What section was it in? When did you sell it?
July 16th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Sitepoint auction link here…
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/10410
The serious offers were negotiated via PM.
July 16th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Im looking to create a site similar to PLS but with privacy of the webmaster in mind. Do you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see in a site like that Matt? My main thing would be that you would need to be signed up to see the URL’s.
July 16th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Max*, sorry still a bit concussed from a scuffle in the weekend.
July 16th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Thanks for the link Chad. This is a good idea to advertise a service through a bogus site sale. I am glad that you got offers you couldn’t refuse.
Mark,
The main problem I see with PLS as it is, is that the good listings scroll off the page. I think the URLs hidden from google is also a good idea. If I were going to do a page like this I would have the front page display the 10 cheapest links available for each PR. The 10 cheapest PR7+ links for sale would be shown, then the 10 cheapest PR6, then the 10 cheapest PR5, all the way down.
This does two things. It creates an extra incentive for sites to be competitive with their pricing, and it makes it easy for advertisers to find the best deals in their price range. When someone has filled their volume, their link drops off the front page. Make money by selling premium placement for links that are too expensive to make the main page, 10% of the sale, or maybe a small monthly listing fee.
This will give you an advantage against the market leader TLA, because you’ll be cheaper, and they have a bad system for advertisers to find links. I have sites on there that haven’t been selling many links probably because no one can wade their way through the listings to find my site. If I could get to the top of the list by just being cheaper, I would change my price in a second.
July 16th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Cheers for that, I am going to get the spec’s written up today. What I will do is show all that and just hide the URL’s until they are logged in, so that they see price and PR but has that added bit privacy. I am quite happy to make it free starting out but I don’t want people to take advantage of that and list crap that they don’t want to sell. Thats what I like about the sitepoint marketplace is that it costs to create a listing so you get rid of the people that arn’t serious.
I will let you know when I have a working version for you to have a look at.
Thanks,
Mark
July 16th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Im going with the name WebmasterLinkSales.com, what do you think? I was aiming for keywords…
July 16th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Mark,
That sounds good to me. If you get a good system in place, I have no doubt that you’ll be successful. With a decent marketing strategy I think you could compete with TLA.
One nice thing TLA has going for it is the automatic php code to display purchased ads. If you are able to get something like that going as well, I am sure you’ll have a better system.
July 16th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
So they show ad’s that have just been purchased? Do you have a url that can show me an example?
I’m a pretty experienced PHP Dev so I am sure I can do anything they do…
July 16th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Mark,
They give the publisher a piece of php code which he places on the website. Then once they have sold a link it is automatically displayed on the publisher’s site. This automates the process, so the publisher doesn’t have to do anything other than install the php code and collect paypal payments.
I can send you their client side php code if you email me. Or you could sign up with their site and get the code yourself. I don’t think it would be too difficult.
July 16th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Oh, nice. Thats a cool idea. It could be done easily in php with an include or with xml.
I would be interested in seeing what they use. Email it to me at mark@AT@dakine@D0T@co@D0T@nz,
Cheers
Mark