How to earn money with Highlighted Posts from Sponsors

I am not hundred per cent sure, probably Techmeme pioneered this very idea. However it has spread the web world like wild fire and earned quite popularity. It is like this; editorial posts occupy the left column of the page and the side bar has a section with title “Techmeme Sposnsor Posts”.
On this part the advertisements from the sponsors site or blog get highlighted and redirect traffic to their sites. The method has a huge potential of earning.