Text Link Ads – getting too underhanded?
All Text Link Ads users received an email this morning informing them to update their WordPress TLA plugin.
It is no secret that I use this blog to generate a little pocket money but updating the plugin today has made me question whether or not the time has come to part ways with TLA.
The big issue I have is that I like to disclose all adverting on this site.
I do not want to sneakily slip ads or links in and not inform my users.
If I have an association with a company or product I will always disclose it in every post.
When you are generating your plugin you get to customize the text that will appear on your blogs side bar.
I would like to use terms such as “Sponsors” or “Adverts” as I currently do above the Google Adsense units this site is currently displaying.
TLA will NOT allow me to do this.
Below the box where you can customize the text they have included some text which includes the following:
We encourage you to customize this field, but please refrain from using “Paid Links”, “Text Link Ads” or other title’s that suggest that the links are purchased.
Fine, I’ll take your encouragement under advisement but I want it still to say “Sponsors” in my sidebar.
You’ve got to love the use of the word “encourage” here.
What they really mean is we are going to force you not to use words like “Paid Links”, “Text Link Ads” or other title’s that suggest that the links are purchased.
Try putting in words like “Sponsor”, “Advertising” or anything of that nature into the box.
You just can’t do it!
If you try,you get a pop-up which says:
Please choose a different title. We suggest your website title.
WTF? My website title?
Are you asking me to lie to my readers and imply that I personally endorse the links?
I will not do that!
Those links are advertising and while I may allow a product or site to be advertised on my site, the fact that the advertising is there does not mean that I endorse the damn thing!
It just means that I’m paying the bills and is not in anyway a personal recommendation.
Also what’s the deal with changing the name of the TLA WordPress plugin?
The previous plugin was named “tla_102941.php”. Not very descriptive, but at least it wasn’t a plain out lie like the name of the new plugin: “related-links.php”!
Lets call a horse a horse and a spade a spade here folks – related links they are not!
It’s fairly obvious that I think that TLA are crapping on my rights as a site owner to designate how advertising appears on my site in the hopes of a better bottom line.
It should also be fairly obvious to TLA that without folks like you and me they will have no business at all.
So what about it folks, should I give them the heave-ho or wait and see if they address the issue and allow folks to call things exactly what they are?
Isn’t this TLA requirement they ‘Encourage’ you to use like putting lipstick on a pig?
@Scot I’ve never tried to put lipstick on a pig!
Is that a Texas thing? 
Over here, when someone is trying to sell you something that doesn’t work or looks bad or really stinks, it is called ‘Putting Lipstick on a Pig’… Of course it is not a true Texan that would do that, just those trying to sell a Texan something they don’t want… Let this be your Texas cultural lesson for the day.
Wow, that IS crappy! I can totally understand your frustration, I would feel the exact same way!
I sure think that you should stop using TLA, and then if they realize that they are a bunch of morons, and change their policy, then you might give then a second chance
.
I’m new to the blogging community, but it appears as though G**gle should be the object of our scorn. It appears as though they are trying to completely control the online advertising market.
They have starting with sites like PPP and TLA, and then after they eliminate them…which seems quite possible … then whose next. What is so different from what TLA is doing and what Ads*ns* does.
And if the only problem is that their precious algorithm are no longer working, then write another one. Really I don’t get what’s happening here, someone please steer me in the right direction…
Sadie,
The difference between TLA and Google Adsense, as far as what Mr O’Flaherty is stating here, is TLA will not allow you to alter their text on their ads to advise the viewer they are looking at a Advertisement. Adsense has a title or disclaimer near their ads telling viewers they are looking at an Advertisement or is a Sponsor ad.
My issue is TLA is wanting the web-site or blog site to deliberately deceive people by Not telling the viewer they are reading an advertisement placed on the site. Some of the ads they TLA places could be for a product the site does not endorse so that makes it even worst when a viewer cannot tell what the blogger wrote and what is advertisement places on the site by a third party.
Hope that helps.
@Sadie.
Thanks for your comment, but I think you are missing an important point here.
Google provides an advertising service but those adverts are clearly marked as such and do not adversely affect the search engine results pages.
They do not penalize other advertising companies who clearly mark their advertising as such, and that is a huge an important distinction.
When adverts and paid links are not clearly marked the search engine have no way of knowing what is a honest review , genuine information of paid ads.
If they cannot determine the difference between real information and sites that are just a paid advertisement then the search engine results pages will be reduced to little more than page after page of adverts and spam.
That would put the search engines out of business because the returned results would be useless to everyone.
That in turn, not only damages them, but every blogger and website out there that relies on traffic generated from search engines.
For most bloggers I would hazard a guess that as much as 70 – 85% of traffic comes from Google, Yahoo and the other search engines. It’s around the 75% mark for this blog.
If the SERP’s are full of spam YOU stand to loose that much of your traffic.. more even as new people will never find you in the first place.