Blog Tipz

On a typical day, I see more blogs that have excessive advertising than those that have no steps to monetize. Likely, you have become annoyed at the number of ads that blogs try to cram on their home page, but it is something that “must” be done to compensate for the time, hosting, and marketing expenses that are involved with running a blog.

However, much like the hundreds of billboards and skyscraper ads shown in the image below, your blog isn’t supposed to look like a pile of advertising, it is supposed to be your location to showcase your content.

What you need to do is create a balance between what is advertising and what is a sponsorship.

Times Square at Dusk – Photo by Stuck in Customs

Advertising

With advertising, you are essentially placing your blog on the web as a place where other businesses and websites can purchase a service from you, that being advertising. You are getting a return from offering this service, profit. When you look at advertising in this sense, it is “evil,” as you are working towards a greater motive  – getting more advertisers – than working towards increasing subscribers or more unique content, although these two should be a part of your ultimate, long-term goals.

Sponsorships and Partnerships

When you ask for someone to sponsor you, it is more like a donation than anything else. You don’t have the capital to do what you want to do without the extra “income,” so another company or partner comes into the picture to offer this. Much like advertising, it also comes with some risks. If you choose a sponsor or one comes to you that isn’t viewed favorably with your visitors, they could stop visiting your site or tell others about your sponsorship. In most cases, this won’t happen, but there is that chance. The sponsor may provide anything from cash to services or other benefits to aid your blog and keep it running. A small message could read “Blog sponsored by Company X” to give awareness that you aren’t forking the entire bill of your campaign/activity.

Problems with Advertising

The common misconception that people have, no matter what profession or background they come from, is that more is better. Discovering that placing more ads on your site will result in more revenue isn’t necessarily true, and is only true if you are able to maintain a certain level of traffic versus revenue while you have a “saturated” blog full of advertisements.

Take the following situations that bloggers encounter every day:

1. Ten advertisers want to place an ad on your site. Limiting the number of ads sold on a monthly basis will increase the demand for those slots, so companies will demand more from their advertising budgets to place their ad there. You might lose an advertiser or two over time because you are limiting the supply of ad slots available, but it will, in turn, lead to more revenue over the long-term.
2. Your visitors are extremely selective about which products and companies they buy from and use, so having a multitude of advertisers (say 10 125×125 ads or a similar number), they will ultimately be competing to get the most clicks. Advertisers who don’t get the top position and aren’t rotated throughout the other advertisers probably won’t purchase from you again.
3. Having more revenue isn’t always a bad thing, but when it draws customers and visitors away from your blog, it can become a challenge to maintain the level of advertisers and content that visitors first came to you for.

Plus, there are thousands of advertising companies and agencies that are vying to have you serve their ads, if you are doing ads through a network. You are either very selective about this – most choose Google AdSense to place on their blogs due to the return and the fact that the most advertisers have partnered with that service.

Beyond textual advertising, there are image, search, and video advertising agencies that you can place on your blog. Honestly, you don’t want to place more than five different types of advertising on your blog, or your page load time will increasingly become slower and you’ll struggle to manage the income streams.

Proper Employment Methods and Techniques

The best advice that one could give a beginner about advertising on their blog is to be selective and target the niche that you are aiming at. Unless your advertisements stand out in a good way – they aren’t flashy or distractive, people won’t click on them, purchase products through the links, support advertisers, and continue the cycle of earning and advertising services.

With the rise of 125×125 advertisements, it also appeared as though the number of advertisers increased. This size provides a good value for advertisers, more so than larger ads but it can be harder to stand out.

Think ahead about the results of placing a particular advertiser or advertisement on your site. Even though they might have paid you an increased sum to place the advertisement on your blog, it doesn’t mean that it will appeal to your readers.

Some Additional Basics:

• Group similar advertisements together. For example, placing a small number (one or two) ads next to each other, specifically 125×125 and smaller don’t look good when intermixed with your template and content. Above the fold or in the upper portion of the sidebar has been determined the best location for this type of advertisement.
• Make the ads appealing. While you could make them stand out, making them look more like the content can increase the CTR (Click Through Rate) and revenue over time.
• Place the ads in areas that readers will see, such as above the content, in the upper portion of the sidebar and pages that would be able to generate more revenue based on keywords used.
• Featuring one sponsor can help you increase affiliate or revenue if you are operating on a more limited scale – the single advertiser can generate more revenue than ten advertisers at a cheaper rate.

Conclusion

Evolving your advertisements as your blog grows is a surefire way to ensure that you are keeping your readers up to date with a new look, new featured advertisers/companies, and that your revenue doesn’t drop off simply because you haven’t updated your template.

With any noticeable drop or increase in revenue, compensations must be made to ensure that you aren’t overdoing or “under-d0ing” the number of advertisers/advertisements throughout your blog. The key in all this is making sure that you are reaching your goals and still maintaining a level of balance in respect to what you are placing in front of your visitors.