I thought on your lines. Here's a better idea.
I needed an article written on niche topic.
Saw a member here at warriors who had a sig about
writing articles. The article was fantastic. I posted the
article and within 24 hours I was contacted via email
from a company in the niche wishing to buy an ad. They paid $100
(for a year) to have 2 places in the article hyperlinked to
their website. We negotiated the price, I even offered a banner
and side ad. They said nothing doing. They want to hyperlink text.
I now know the value, both ways, of link text. I still put adsense
on it. I was inexperienced at how to negotiate. $100 may be low,
but it was out of the blue and cash in hand. Hard to say no.

Paul