I can't speak from my personal experiences, but I've got a few webmaster friends who were selling text links on TLA. Unfortunately, every blog they listed with TLA was penalized by Google with a 0 PR in the last update. A few of them seem to feel that Google may screen TLA and take action against a penalty action against listed sites. No proof of that, just theory. One of my buddies in particular has a few blogs listed with TLA and then some that he manages the link sales himself. Every blog he had with TLA was penalized, while the ones he manages weren't. Could be a number of reasons why the TLA blogs were impacted, but it's a heck of a coincidence.
getting in with linkworth, backlinks or TLA is simply asking for trouble from google. They are banned and their publishers gets banned as well.
I don't use Text Link Ads on my sites! I have heard also that they have problems with Google AdSense ads on your site. So, if you have Google AdSense ads on your site or blog, don't use this service!
I used TLA heavily with my websites when it first became popular. It did nothing for me compared to the amount of money I spent testing it. I know it is for SEO purposes but you end up paying $400 a year for a PR2 link with some of their more quality websites and the links are so hidden at the bottom of pages you get little to no clickthroughs.
I was using tla for a site I really had no intention of making money from but it was make a few hundred a month....went from PR5 to PR 2 To PR 0....quite sad as it has tons of unique content. I have since removed these ads.
I've used TLA in the past. Some poor guy is being charged for ads every month on a site that I don't even have anymore and the ads aren't even shown.