Someone who doesn’t want his name published asked me this question -

What are different ways to earn with different type of advertisements for an average blogger, and would like to know what are other sources of income for an average blogger other than advertisements.

Average blogger here means who does not have large amount of traffic coming on his site and also who is not popular.

This sounds very interesting to me. I was wondering why he wouldn’t google down the information. Because there are already thousands of blogs on “making money online”. Well, I did the same and found that all the information on the web is not really helping the “average blogger” as he puts it. An average blogger is someone who doesn’t have loads of traffic and doesn’t enjoy a “guru status”.

So every money making guru us speaking of monetizing using affilate ads, adsense and image ads, but how effective is it on a blog with less than 100 uniques a day? The guys who advice this is probably enjoying a thousand uniques a day and it makes all sense for them to put up a chitika minimall ads or an ebay affiliate ad, but not for an average blogger.

So let’s get down to the facts.

First off, a little clarification on the “money making theory” and the “buy a Ferrari with your website” dreams.

There are two models of monetization models available as I see it. (let me known if you have more.)

Plan A.

Create a website that’s targeted to the search engine traffic.

Plan B.

Create a brand, that will get you popular with the knowledge you share.

Plan C.

Create a combo of both. Brand and search engine traffic.

Plan A - works well and helps you make loads of money if you get the basics right.
It works like this -

Phase 1 (Reaping Traffic)
Do extensive keyword research => Find out the best high paying keywords and the top searched ones related to your niche => Write great articles on them => SE optimize your site that it get’s on top of SERPs for the targeted keyword => Get the traffic

Phase 2 (Content hook)
Once the heavy traffic is around, you got to make sure that it converts in to clicks (money) and page views (retention).
For this a hook is required on the content. Make sure you write more reviews. Make sure that you give less links on the content, so that people get attracted to the ad links. Also, give directive information, not an extensive one like the wikipedia, but one where the information is available, but it will leave the reader looking for more of it.

The idea is that the search engine traffic are predominantly “information seekers”. And they are on the lookout for finding the thing they want from all around the web. And they are the perfect target for you.
- They are likely to click on links.
- They like product/service reviews.
- They like shorter articles.
- All the AdSense gimmicks like above the fold, blending ads etc works on them provided they aren’t ad-blind.

Shortfalls
The problem with this model is that they may not give you “value traffic”, there will be higher bounce rates and less subscriptions. You can curb that by providing “out of the normal” delightful content, and standing out from the rest, like Labnol. But sometimes it’s also possible that if you don’t SE optimize the site, you end up having a website that’s not attractive to the search engines as well as genuine readers.

Plan B
This is a much more relaxed environment where the focus is not on money but content and knowledge sharing. The author or the admin focuses more on delivering quality content and this itself becomes the marketing pitch for the blog. You may not get loads of traffic from the search engines because you are not writing about the gadget that was released yesterday, but you are writing about something you are comfortable with and you have expertise on.

Here, you may not get great CTR on the ads, but the following will be loyal and if you are selling a service or product, it’s easier to sell your services.

Now, having discussed about the two models - Let’s see how a low traffic blog can monetize it.
Honestly speaking, traffic is good. If you can manage traffic somehow, it makes sense for the advertiser to advertise on the blog. But this is not always possible, and you have to go through a phase where you are building traffic, and is not really up there, but still you need some sort of advertising.

1. Subscriptions
Traffic and subscriptions are related but subscriptions are more valuable and appealing than traffic to advertisers. Subscriptions means that there are people following you and they value your ideas. So if they recommend a product/service those many people following you would be trying out the product. So getting a good number of subscribers is a good idea to woo in advertisers.

2. AdSense Ads
AdSense is the friend of everyone. Since they don’t take into consideration your traffic details for approval, anyone can use them. Now the problem is that, if you don’t know how to utilize it, you better not use it. So if you don’t have heavy traffic, you might want to focus on high pay out ads that give more money on lesser clicks and lesser impressions. You will have to find out ads related to those niches, and blog about them. This is totally your call because it might piss off your already existing reader base, so you may want to do it elsewhere, it’s up to you. But they key is to get more money from less traffic.

3. Image Ads
If you are an expert on your niche, then chances are that even if you don’t have heavy traffic, there might be advertisers interested to advertise their product/services on your blog. This is just because whatever little traffic you have, it is loyal, which is attractive to the advertiser. Small ads with the 125×125 pixel do well these days, and they are much sought after too.

4. Product and Service Reviews
If you have a good following and some authority on the topic you are blogging about, there is the option of paid reviews where you can review products and services. It is not good to offer links for paid reviews as Google does not entertain it. But if you can “nofollow” the links and do honest reviews, both your readers and your advertisers will be happy about it and you can make some good money. The basic idea is that you should have some authority in the field, whatever it is.

5. Offer a service
Many people want quick money with no or less efforts and for the same reason this is an often neglected method. But I very much recommend it. Find out what you can do for others like for instance if you are good at writing, write blog posts, if you are good at social networking , try to build a good network that you can sell off. The idea is to find your USP and sell it online through your blog. There are professional guest bloggers, professional Digg specialists and Stumble Upon traffic generators available and they are paid well for doing what they are good at. Think about it.

So essentially, these are the main branches of methods to make money online, there are lot more available but all that makes sense only if you have a decent amount of traffic. Though I believe that there is scope for making money with less traffic, it is suggested that your efforts be to make your blog unique with rich content and unique followers, because if a blog stays without traffic for a long time, I don’t think anyone would be interested in it.

So that means there’s lot happening behind the scenes, eh? Shortly after the release of Wordpress 2.5, Version 2.5.1 is in the stable. WP 2.5.1 includes a number of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and one very important security fix (Does anyone know what the hell is this?). The wordpress community recommends that everyone update immediately, particularly if your blog has open registration. The vulnerability is not public but it will be shortly. I’m guessing it’s got to do something with the “open registration” thing.

And yea, if you are not upgrading because you think it’s a boring process, there’s this cool Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin from Keith that let’s you do it in a few clicks! Yup, the wizard stuff.

Meanwhile, any guesses on what the vulnerability is? Developers?

AdSense is indeed a fine tool to generate some cool cash online. The problem with many young bloggers is that they simply don’t use the AdSense units to optimal use. By optimal use I mean, getting the maximum from the ads using the least resources.

Many bloggers end up just adding the AdSense codes and just earn a few bucks from it even though there is good traffic. The problem here is that they are not able to make use of the traffic and use the ads in the right way to get the clicks.

Well, after all, all AdSense gurus say is  - put the ads in between the articles, mask them, use all the allowed ad units etc. Well, who doesn’t know that? Here are few AdSense plugins for wordpress I found interesting. Now, I can’t possibl tell you how and when to use it. That’s left for the clever guys, but I’ve found luck with most of them. They increase the revenue and also make managing ads a whole lot easier on AdSense.

1. AdSense Deluxe plugin that makes managing multiple ads easier
   This is a ultra cool plugin that helps you to add the adsense code anywhere in your post/theme. Very much manageable and configurable.
2. AdSense manager that helps you manage ads from one interface
   This AdSense plugin helps you to manage several ad-codes from one place and manage them wisely even allowing you to inject it at places without code editing. Cool.
3. AdSense plugin that injects code automatically
   This adsense plugin does not use the tag replacement way, instead it automatically adds adsense codes to older posts, in a finger snap.
4. AdSense plugin for sidebar
   This plugin lets you add the adsense codes to your sidebar and not the articles. Just copy paste the ad-code to the text area in dashboard and voila! it appears on the sidebar.
5. Add AdSense codes inline between posts
   yes, this plugin basically does that. it allows you to add the AdSense code in between articles, between the lines neatly.
6. AdSense plugin that allows to add images next to ads
   No..No..No, I know it is illegal, but this is not it. This plugin helps you add images next to your ads and also adds a line in between. This is legal according to google TOS. Update: This is against Google TOS. Sorry for the wrong information.
   
7. Increase revenue with AdSense referrals
   This plugin adds a neat “Install Firefox” button on your blog that has your referral code in it. So whenever there’s someone who visits your blog from another browser other than Firefox, it throws up the button (not to FF users). You can earn up to 1$ per referral.
8. Revenue Sharing Ads with AdSense
   This plugin helps Admins and a certain number of users with privilege to share their AdSense ads and revenue from it.
9. Simple plugin to rotate between any number of ad codes
   This is great if you are using other ads along with AdSense. When users get different ads each time, there is an increased possibility for attention and clicks.
10. No code edits, easy installation - Same stuff
    Well, this is no different plugin. It helps you add AdSense codes without no code edits. All configurable from the dashboard.
11. Target your ads effectively
    This is a cool plugin that gives you more control over how ads are triggered on AdSense ad units. It helps you with section targeting feature in a more configurable way.
12. Make money from Google referral ads
    This is a cool plugin if you are looking to earn more revenue from the Google AdSense referral scheme. It simply keeps throwing up different referral ads to the readers on the blog. Simple and effective, if you have the right crowd.
13. A plugin to selectively display the AdSense ads ( Super Cool )
    A great plugin that allows you to decide whom the AdSense ads should be shown to. you can decide from search engine traffic, direct hits, older posts etc. lot of options and a brilliant idea to increase your revenue.

Taking a look around, (some people completely miss that out, while obsessively getting stuck to watching their own blog time and again) I found some interesting articles from friends around. These guys are worth a read.

• Some addictive habits of bloggers to kick this season - From Daniel.  Cool one !
• Things you got to keep in mind while moving your site - Must read from the Google Team.
• Brett has eight ways to remove negative search results - Good points there.
• Zac has an awesome article on improving your landing page - Must Read
• Wired has a good article on how to fight splogs - Must Must Read
• Why big brands need SEO - Good question, well answered by Lisa Barone

And there were some changes and news in the Social Media space, you might have missed or already knew.

• Digg has a new account on Twitter - Mutual symbiosis?
• Alexa announced it’s new ranks with new algorithm - Check your Alexa stats if you haven’t. There might be a surprise around.
• Now you can import your Digg stories on to Facebook profile page - Don’t ask me why you want to do that.

Monika Mundell blogs on The Writersmanifesto
and earns a living through freelance writing and blogging. A popular blogger, she blogs on The Writers manifesto, guest blogs for a couple of blogs and for some clients who hire her to blog.

In this interview, Monika talks about freelance writing, blogging, significance of having a style to writing, how to earn money doing freelance jobs/blogging etc. I hope that you’ll enjoy this episode.

Social Media is the buzz. And it’s the carrot to many. A power user is a member with influential powers and has the potential of making any given article popular on the social medias.

Becoming a power user on all the social medias is sure big deal, despite everyone using the social media only a few make it to the top or grabs the powers of a power user. Now, it’s a fact probably that no one can make it easily to the top as a power user in a short time. It requires the effort and time that it deserves. But there are pointers for sure that will help you make it to the top if you get your basics right. It’s all about doing the right thing and following the right methodologies daily in a very religious manner, and one day you’ll find yourself there on the top showered with digg and stumble requests and friend invitations.

So what are the good practices that you should follow to make it  to the top as a power user on the popular social medias?

Understanding Which Social Media works best for you - The behavioral differences of the popular social media sites

First off let me tell you that each social media channel has it’s own unique quality. You cannote use all the media at the same time to get a story popular. Each community has it’s own characteristics and behavioural pattern.

Digg
- Is a news oriented website where there’s no place for internet marketers and bloggers.
- The community gives more importance to breaking news, exclusive stories and articles.
- The community is more techno savvy and if you are targeting to get the attention of technology related crowd, then Digg is the best place for you.
- Digg community does not entertain marketing, self promotion and press releases kind of articles.
- They give more value to the “uniqueness” of the stories and the real value it passes on to the community.
- The secret of getting popular on Digg is to get the maximum diggs in the shortest time span. If you get late getting the diggs, you lose the game.

Stumble Upon
SU is a community which has a different chemistry altogether from Digg - it loves sharing all the lite things(photos, videos, funny stuff) and in between some news articles too.
- SU community does not like anything that is related to promoting your blog.
- Neither does it like people selling their service or products.

Linked in
- Linked in has a very focused community.
- It’s a no nonsense one with no frills but all serious guys out there. Business consultants, CEOs, bloggers and the like.
- If it’s business that you’d like to promote, then probably this is the right place.

Here are the good practices to become a social media power user.

1. Share
   Social media sites are nothing but places to share. If you used to share interesting stories on email two years earlier, now you have Digg and Su to share. This way the original sources of the story also gets benefited and you get a place to share thoughts with like minded people too.
   So rather than seeing them as platforms that generate traffic, see them as places to share ideas, stories and interesting pieces of articles over the internet.
2. Participate
   Social medias are all about participation. Along with user generated content they are also platforms where lot of ideas and thoughts are shared. Most of the social medias today has the groups feature where people create groups based on their interest. These are excellent places to find similar minded people. I’ve seen that making use of these groups and participating in them attaches a special honour to your profiles in the social media and it helps you get make more friends in the community.
3. Be proactive
   I’ve seen many guys complain that one of their friend/friends on the social media never responds to their nudge and they are simply pissed off. It’s completely understandable a problem. It may ask you - why did you add him/her as a friend in the first place?
   The answer to this question is to get proactive. By getting proactive I mean, making sure that you do everything in the first place that you want your friend to do. If you want your friend to digg your articles and respond to shouts, you respond to other peoples shouts first.
   So give before you start to take. If you make a habit of this, it makes life easier at the communities.
4. Contribute to the community
   Social media sites out there are not marketing channels. They are not out there to buy somethign from you. instead they are out there to learn from the internet, from you. So give them something to learn, if you have the resources pass them on, if you don’t pass it on from other useful resources.
5. Be Regular
   Imagine you were with your friends, wouldn’t you be spending time with them daily? And not approach them when you have something to show off?
   The same formula works here. Be a frequent participant in all the social medias that you want to be popular in. Many of them shows the last login time details so others can easily judge from your login patterns as to whether you are a frequent member or not. If you are not, they probably will take you for a spammer, and I think they have all the right to believe so.
6. Be generous, pass information
   While in the community, make sure that you are a generous person. A generous person is someone who will share value with others without a second thought. In a community others give respect to you based on whether you are generous or not. No matter where you get it from, if you are someone who provides valuable conent to the community, then others will accept you and respect you as a master, yes , even if the information you passed on was not really yours.
7. Buy ideas never sell
   Communities are for everyone, for those who are buying and selling. But make sure you are always on the buying part. At least for a major part of your time. Because there are more sellers in this world than buyers. So when everyone is looking for a buyer, be one, so that you have their attention. At a later point, may be, if they find you interesting, you could be a seller. But let that not be your point of interest.
8. Never promote yourself
   Do you have a product to sell or  service to offer? I’d suggest that you keep away your marketing strategies away from the communities. The problem is that the social media community is so sensitive that they can easily make out a marketing guy and a contributor. So don;t act smart trying to sell your product/service by promoting yourself. That’s for the community to decide.
9. Adapt to the customs
   Every social media site out there is a community. And every community has its rules and customs just like in real ife. So in order to get in to one you got to gel to their customs first. If you stand apart from them, you’ll probably end up being an island. You don’t want that to happen.
10. Its almost like real life
    See communities on social media just like real life communities. They are not a bunch of robots out there. They are indeed a bunch of clever guys like you sitting at eth other end of the world. So try to make friends with them treating them just like you are meeting a real person.
11. Make friends
    Forget diggs or stumbles. During your initial days in the social media, make sure you make more friends than anything. Communicate to them through comments, groups etc and make yourself comfortable with the community and learn what’s happening there. Sit back relax and study tha patterns. Don’t do the mistake of going ahead and digging your favorite story in the very first day. There’s no problem as such but had you submitted after making some friends, it would’ve got a better visibility.
12. Never beg
    One of the mistakes I see people repeating time and again is to beg for votes. Well, I’m not talking about you letting know your friend about a new submission or shots. But begging someone , a stranger may be, to vote for you. This creates a negative impression about you to the other perrson and although he may digg your story, the next time you approach him he’ll avoid you. Because you are not passing any quality or value to him.
13. Develop niche groups within
    This is one of the very effective strategies I’ve seen people use in social media communities. Develop small interest groups within the community so that you can share and communicate with the like minded people. Although, please do not confuse this with closed communities. I’m totally against closed communities, they are no good for the sharing purpose. Let your communities be open so that like minded peple can jon and communicate within.
    
14. Reply and respond
    I understand that you have no interest in responding to shouts on email or IM, and yes you may be completely true. Why do you want to reply to those emails, after all you have someone whoting eery minute. But hey, let me tell you, if you does not reply to any of them - fine, nothing bad. But try responding to each of them. Yes respond to every shout you receive and see what happens. I can assure you that, you’ll have at least 10 guys daily adding you as friend on the network. And that’s not a bad thing. All those guys add you as friend because they respect your actions and they see value in you. So I’d suggest that you try reply and respond to every little nudge that you get on the network.
15. Quick guys are smart
    You knew it already. Quick guys are smart. Here in the social media, being quick means being being qucik in responding, being quick in digging stories up the top, being quick in all the activities in the community.
16. Be the first
    if you got to do exceptionally good in the community, one short cut to getting poplar is to be the first in submitting breaking news or interesting stories. If you pick up the best happening story first, others are sure to follow. but this is no easy task, you got to keep a hawk’s eye on the news that is of interest to the community and act quick once it’s out.
17. Believe in quality
    It’s all about quality. If you have 1000 submissions with all of them stories that have been heard before, no one’s going to even bother talking to you. but if you have a couple of breaking stories and interesting, exclusive ones, that sure is going to earn you the respect you deserve.
18. Give before you take
    Essentially the point to keep in mind is before you start thinking about your returns, learn to contribute and share. Don’t count your returns on the very first day. It’s a natural process of getting popular and doesn’t happen over night. Once you have your basics in place, it will automatically throw you up to the top.

I’d love to hear your contributions/additions to the above points.

Guys, this time around we have a very interesting guest Daniel Scocco from Dailyblogtips.com on podcast. Daniel is a professional blogger who earns a living blogging and is considered one of the top quality bloggers around.

This is the first time Daniel is giving an audio interview on his own blogging experience and earning a living online.

Now, Daniel talks to us about the good practices in blogging,how he got his first break in getting popular, generating traffic using social media, earning money on advertising, how to increase your subscribers, earning a good reputation and ultimately the “secret” that can make your blog popular.

I’m no expert interviewer, but I think I’ve done a pretty okay job in getting Daniel to talk about the “less talked about” things. It’s a pretty long interview but the best part is towards the second half of it so I’d suggest you listen fully. So here you go, hope you enjoy it.

.

So it all happened like this.

Heard someone is making lot of money blogging. Impressed.

So, checked out a few blogs. John Chow, Amit Agarwal, Shoemoney….all of them. (Ahha, these dudes are writing basically s***t. I could write better than them.)

However, can’t ignore the fact that they are making money. Shoemoney can’t be lying to the whole world with that cheque image!

Checks out the blog, the contents and a few posts. Hmm impressive!

But now, what’s the big deal? I can do what Amit is doing. I can write better than John Chow.

Searches for free blogging platforms. Okay Blogger seems to be cool and with the Google support, let me not look further.

Starts up with a brand new blog. Selects a damn good template.

Writes the first post. Sends out email to friends and guys on IM.

All of them say - “Wow! You have a blog? Cool.”

Tries out posting another post. Sends out email to friends. Same reaction.

Repeats the above last point quite a few times, there is no difference apart from the fact that some of the guys on IM have started to avoid you by not responding.

No traffic. No attention. Demotivated.

Now, this my friend, is a typical bloggers story who sets out to conquer the world in 1 or 2 days. He sadly ends up in despair getting no attention to his blog because he hadn’t done the homework and hadn’t adopted a process.

A strategy and a process is essential in getting you to your target. Haste, shortcuts and smart work will only help you in the short time and will take you away from your target.

As I see it, a major problem with all the budding bloggers is that they are reluctant to adapt to a process or a strategy. This is a fatal mistake.
Dreaming big is cool. But to get there, you need to take calculated risks and adopt a strategy.

John Chows’ strategy is to show himself as a wicked guy. He is comfortable doing that probably. But he is successful in branding him as a smart, clever wicked guy (in the right meaning) who mints money doing clever tricks and short cuts. He probably knew that a large part of the internet actually will identify themselves to it.

Since the guy came in at a later stage to blogging, when there was already Brian Clarks and Darren Rowses reigning as probloggers, John was right in branding him as the clever guy in the bunch.

The point here is that John himself had a strategy. He probably knew that he’s going to be penalized by Google once he asks everyone to link to him. But he went boldly advertising the competition getting the maximum backlinks. But on the other side he also made sure that he’s getting a lot of attention as the clever marketeer.

Had John thrown an image of an angry guy or a pissed off guy to Google, he wouldn’t have had the fan following as much as he enjoys now.

So essentially, the point is -  we all need to device a strategy unique to us. That will helpn us brand ourself as a unique blog, as a unique service, as a unique product as such. And work towards it with a set time frame in mind. Popularity and fame does not come in a days time, it takes more time and effort, but once it’s come to you, it’ll stick around.

Coming back to the article. Why aren’t you getting the attention that you needed ?

It’s because you haven’t created

- a unique blog,
- unique content
- and doesn’t have a brand of it’s own.

It takes time to achieve all the three. There are exceptions when some blogs have excelled well in either one of the categories, but I’d suggest that you use all the three points in positioning yourself as a blogger and over the period of time, people will find the value in you and give you the attention that you deserve.

Like someone once said - “Attention is gifted not bought.”

(Okay, I cooked that up)

I used to blog because I never did write diaries or took notes and it was comfortable doing the same on the PC with notepad (Yuck!) .
Well, trying to say that everyone has a different and unique reason to blog. After all what is it that motivates you to sit in  front of the PC and type rapidly entering all those random thoughts into bullet points? There’s got the be the carrot somewhere isn’t it? Let’s see…

1. Fame for the blog (Behind the scene masters)
   Some of us like Dosh Dosh or Daily Blog Tips, are more heard of by their blogs name and not theirs. It is one way of motivation - to get a brand of yours to the top into a recognizable one among the crowd. And when you are the man behind it you get sort of a satisfaction from it isn’t it? A large part of such bloggers remain anonymous or in pseudo names.
2. Fame for the author (Publicity freaks)
   While in some cases, it’s the other way round. People blog because they want to get popular themselves. These guys are lucky , they are likely to see dreams where they have their portrait super imposed in the on the front cover of Maxim, or The Week for that matter. (Ahem..Ahem!)
3. Money from AdSense (Wanna be John Chows)
   Some smarties blog because someone told them about the little Google magic! Blog and ye shall receive!
   I fact, the larger population of the internet is after this formula and end up being a “hypnoticed” follower to an AdSense guru or Affiliate Marketer.
4. Status as the Guru (Smitten by Rand Fishkin)
   Some people blog so that they can become something that they never were. Gurus. AdSense gurus, SEO gurus, Social Media gurus and what not? Name it and you have them. Spend a little time with them and they ask for your money. You say no and start being a guru yourself. (May differ according to situations)
5. Living from money online (Hail Shoemoney and the cheque picture)
   Some people are damn lazy. All they wanna do is earn some quick cash by doing no work but anything that will get them money. They sell affiliates, sell services on Digital Point, click their own Google AdSense ads and “make money online”. They are the most clever out of the whole bunch.
6. Appreciation for writing (Attention Deficit Syndrome)
   And then there are those serious guys out there who failed to impress publishers on their writing skills. They write stories, poems etc.
7. Platform to express your thoughts (Introverts)
   Some people express better while they type on keyboards. They never talk loud or join discussions. But they are superstars in the blogosphere.
8. Brand Marketing Service/Company (Hoardings)
   These guys would have a company, a brand to promote and they see Rand, or Nate and jump in. Jason branding the “Mahalo” flower all over social media is an example of good (?) branding. But this is a very good and effective strategy seen in the recent times. At the end of the day you have a clear brand with good recall value and also the “potential clients” read your message as well.

No wrong ideas please. Please take this post in the right/left/non sense, and don’t ask yourself the question - “Which category would you fall in to?”. Seriously.

Sitelinks are more common these days. Popular blogs and websites have been awarded Google sitelinks recently. Google’s explanation is that this is a completely automated phenomena and there’s nothing one can do do help the sitelinks appear for his/her site on the Googel SERPs.
Daily SEO blog has a sitelink and there are some random links on it. See screenshot.

Now, what appears on the sitelinks is completely up to to the Google bots to decide. I can’t see a definite pattern on the links appearing on the sitelinks but yes one of the factors that decides it is the “Popular searches”.

I’ve found from my referral codes and content popularity checks on Google that the pages to which Google has placed the sitelinks are the most popular pages on searches from Google.

Example, Upcoming tech bloggers in India is a post whose content has traveled lot in the blogsphere, and was visited most through search engines and other sources (IM, Email etc). It has some backlinks too (acquired quicker and naturally).

So I think for a link to appear on sitelinks (or sitelinks to appear for that matter) the factors Google would consider are,

1. Popularity of the article/page
   Popularity is considered as the number of times the article has been accessed from the site. Obviously the sitelinks are the ones that are the most popular on that website.
2. Natural link bait or not
   Link bait might be the wrong term for it. But yes, it’s something similar. For an article to get featured on the sitelinks, it might need to be linked most from other websites, at a quicker pace and naturally.
3. Search friendliness
   Another criteria believed to be taken into consideration for a page to be included in the sitelinks is the measure of it’s search engine friendliness/ likeability.
   It can be measured as the number of times the particular article was “searched and clicked on” through the search engines.

Now, what is some page crawled up the sitelinks which you does not want to appear on the sitelinks? What can you do to control the links that appear on the sitelinks?

Here’s what you do.

1. Register at Google Webmaster Central - It’s a shame if you have’t already. Do it now.
   
2. Goto Dashboard > Links > Sitelinks
3. If you have a sitelink, Google will show the existing links for the sitelink and the “block” option
4. Click “block” for those link you think are unnecessary.

That’s it. So even though you don’t have the access to decide what links appear on the sitelinks, you have the access to decide as to whether they should appear or not.

Related reading on Sitelinks at DailySEOblog Article 1,Article 2,Article 3