A new advertising trend is catching on: inline contextual sponsored links. IntelliTXT is the primary provider of this hot new service. If you want to make money on the web, this is definetely an article to read.

I’m sure you’ve encountered these advertisements before — a double underlined link that brings up an light box when moused over. If clicked, it takes you to the sponser’s site. Payment works the same as AdSense; company pays IntelliTXT per click, giving the publisher a cut of the pay.

From the consumerist POV, I do not click IntelliTXT ads. Since the sponser gets to choose their keywords, the link titles are usually pretty general (forum, shop, toys, cars, etc). The link is not directly related to the article, it is simply corresponding to the keyword.

However, examining actual IntelliTXT publisher profits, I see a much different trend. Take a look at John Chow’s November blog income. Pretty interesting.

• Google AdSense: $872.69
• Vibrant IntelliTXT: $791.56
• TTZ Media: $338.54
• ReviewMe: $50.00
• Text Link Ads: $30.00
• FeedBurner Ads: $57.14
• Grand Total: $2,139.93

IntelliTXT is almost head-to-head with AdSense. This is quite a surprising statistic to see. The real question is, are readers clicking the sponsored links because they do not realize it’s an advertisement? I know I have personally done this a number of times.

While dummy clicks provide a nice profit for publishers at the moment, an ad network can only succeed if the advertisers see a return. Keep an eye on this new contextual ad trend, it’s going to blow up.