Review: link brokering done differently with TNX

I was recently nudged in the direction of another link-broker system which needed a review, but TNX actually proved to be entirely different to the other systems you've probably seen. Let me explain.

TNX isn't like other link brokering systems because they're wise to the pitfalls (which makes a change). Unlike vendors like Text-Link-Ads you don't actually get to pick the specific sites you advertise on; instead you get to specify the niche they occupy and a couple of other metrics.

Hang on, I don't pick the site myself? How can I trust where it goes?
This was my first thought - normally I'll cherry-pick websites to advertise on but TNX doesn't allow you to do this. Instead you specify the niche the site must occupy and how many backlinks the site needs to have, as well as their PageRank. TNX manually moderate every single site that gets submitted into their index to ensure that it meets their standards and the niche classification is accurate. This helps to ensure that there aren't any questionable sites within the network.

Let me show you how that works
When you choose to create a campaign you are presented with a screen pictured below: (click for a full size version)

You select the website category you want your links to appear on (to remain relevant) and you can geo-target (well, pick native languages). On the right you can see two bar charts allowing you to specify the number of Yahoo backlinks the sites must have as well as the minimum Google PageRank. This allows you to specify (quite loosely) the authority of the sites your links will be placed upon. Obviously higher ranked sites cost more.

Naturally you can limit the number of links per domain and that leads me into my next point, the assigning of links:

Assigning the links could be troublesome
When you've created your advert you have to allocate your budget to each of the categories/PageRank/Yahoo Backlink groups that you selected. Unfortunately unless you're doing a very specific campaign then you could see a screen a lot like below:

That page scrolled down at least 5x more than you can see; making it specific could take a while. If you enter a number into the box on the top right then it enters it across the board.

A marvelous business model
The thing I like the most (from a business-owner point of view) is the abstraction of money as a concept - instead you buy "TNX Points" and all transactions are handled using these points. This is great because the average user will part with tokens more happily than they will money - so it means they empty their account much quicker. I really like this as a model and I'm sure TNX do rather well out of it.

Aesthetics
TNX looks nice, it's fair to say but it worries me slightly when their logo is still dressed up in Christmas attire when it's the end of January. That aside the user dashboard feels clean with some nice logo design and suitable levels of information shown.

Clever Affiliate Scheme
Any link to TNX.net from a site that is accepted into their index is automatically made into an affiliate link - which I think is rather clever. So if you get yourwebsite.com accepted, any link you've made (past or present) to that domain suddenly becomes recognised as an affiliate inbound link - which will help you make money straight away. Their website states:

When you refer webmasters to TNX.net, you get 13.3% (as long as your account is active) of all TNX-points that are generated by their websites. In addition, you will receive 5% of all payments, made by referred advertiser

So that's an acceptable model to work from, although I probably prefer the $25 outright that Text-Link-Ads give you.

Making the text-links look natural
This is both clever and devious in equal measures: they have a link generator that enters conditional statements to allow the link to change a bit so that Google will think it's a traditional ad-unit. It's all explained in this DigitalPoint thread - it's quite clever when you look at it. I imagine Google will become wise to this sort of behaviour at some point but for now it appears to work fine! Theoretically stopping you from losing your PageRank - which would be good (hell, they took mine away ages ago now).

Some feedback for them
It's a nice system, nice design and a nice idea. However I don't really like their affiliate banners that they offer to allow you to promote your affiliate scheme:

It just looks a bit 1999 and I think that it doesn't match the rest of the site too well. That's it really, the interface is clean and uncluttered and it's fairly intuitive. They have some really good information available on the website too - things like why this is better than PPC advertising and why this shouldn't damage your Google PageRank etc.

Overall it's a nice system that allows you to spend as much or as little as you like. It may seem slightly foreign because it's comparable to Google Content Network in that you have no control over where your links are placed. However because this isn't a PPC model you're not going to lose money if your link is in an invasive position. Worth a look. Check out TNX.

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