Selling of text links

What are the downsides.

[calman]

I have been approached on three occasions recently about the placement of text links on a PR8 site (home page) with good traffic that I own. The offers appear to be legitimate and are financially attractive. The site currently runs Google AdSense only. Some of them have said that it is OK to run text links along with Google AdSense since these text links are not contextual. They have pointed me to several high profile sites (mass circulation newspapers) running both.

Could someone advise me of any downsides to placing text links on this site. What types of questions should I be asking about these proposals? I am very new to this advertising game - my site has been up and running for five years but has been run until very recently as a non-profit hobby site.

Thanks.

[AdDoctor]

Selling text links is just like selling any other kind of advertising. Other than adding more 'clutter' to the page, their will not be any penalties or downside for monetizing your real estate.

[hunderdown]

My site is not as high-profile as yours but does well in a niche, and I've also been considering selling ads. I also run AdSense and it's clear that text ads are just fine so long as they don't mimic AdSense ads and are not contextual. So I think you're OK.

[Musicarl]

Text link ads are a beautiful thing. We were approached about putting up ads for a company that's a good fit for our site, and they've been with us for over a year. They pay promptly and are great to work with. My suggestions:

Find out the specific text they want and where the links will go. You don't want to sell a "10-15 word text ad" and find out they want "supercalifragilistic mightygargantuatic super offer here..." If you can mock it up and show them before you seal the deal, even better.

In email communication, be specific about the dates. When you get paid, confirm with an email like:
"Thank you for the payment. Your text links on (site) are good through December 15, 2005."

Don't come down too far when negotiating price. Your site space is valuable, and you don't want to imply it isn't.

Good Luck.

[buksida]

Agree with the above, we have been approached several times for textlinks on our PR7 site. I only work with two brokers now and the beauty of them are that they can be positioned anywhere on the site (ours are at the bottom) as they're only interested PR.

Another thing you should consider is the type of ads you wish to run, I have rejected adult, pharmaceuticals, link farms, doorway pages etc etc.