E&P Online: USAToday.com Tests Sponsored Links

USAToday.com is running a test where they're serving up contextually relevant text links very close to content. The 'Sponsored Links' are being sold by Overture, and there's no guarantee that USAToday.com will continue to serve these long into the future, unless they work well, but it's a smart move by an online news publisher to better monetize unsold inventory, while also providing contextually relevant advertising to their users.

The main difference between this type of sponsored link and search engine sponsored listings is that the user doesn't have to actually do anything to get a relevant link (theoretically). Only time will tell if this proves a successful form of 'in content' advertising for the publisher, advertiser, or the user.