Blog Monetization: Selling Advertising Space on Your Blog
If you had a traditional business, all aspects of that business would be employed to maximize its income producing potential. As consumers, we are used to seeing multiple advertising methods almost everywhere we look.
Selling advertising space on your blog provides you, the blog owner, with another possible blog monetization technique with which to realize maximized income from the virtual real estate of your blog.
Getting Started
Getting ready for the sale of advertising space on a blog is a long-term project. As with many other forms of promotion, the maturity of the blog, the traffic it generates, its visibility in your selected niche, PR value, and your own reputation all play a role in being able to use this technique effectively.
When people choose to invest their advertising dollars, they will generally look for a method that gives them the best potential return on their investment.
Purchasing advertising randomly on content sites that provide little traffic and exposure to their ads would not qualify as a sound investment of their advertising dollars. So, how then do you, the blog owner, prepare your blog to be an enticing venue on which they will feel confident in spending those dollars?
Blog monetization of this type requires a marketing plan and the big “C” – commitment. Potential advertisers will look at the age and maintenance of the blog to determine if it will be long lived. There is no point in investing in something that is here today and gone tomorrow. All aspects of your blog promotion will come into play.
Increase Your Blog’s Visibility
In order to increase your blog’s visibility, you need to move beyond the borders that its virtual real estate represents and visit other blogs that are relevant to your niche and that you find appealing.
Get involved with the conversations on those blogs by posting comments. Comment on forums as well that are within your area of interest. Along the way, people with like interests will begin to stand out. Keep them in mind..
Article Marketing
Use your article marketing efforts to increase blog traffic and also build your own credibility amongst readers in your area of interest. Never forget to include basic SEO techniques in these articles in order to catch the eye of the search engines and increase the ranking of your articles.
Keywords and phrases, eye-catching headlines and articles written to catch the eye of Internet skimmers will increase the effectiveness of your articles.
Prepare Your Blog For Advertising
In order for you to host an ad for someone on your blog, you will first need to prepare your blog for advertising and create ad slots. You have probably seen this done on other blogs where an advertising block is shown with words indicating that this space is available to be rented for ads.
Ensure that the way these advertisements are situated on your blog will not detract from its overall quality and look. The space you designate will also play a decisive role in the types and sizes of banners you will be able to host for advertisers.
Another consideration will be that of making a decision on how much flash you will allow and possibly even the colors you will allow an advertiser to use. Too much flash may turn off your readers and clashing colors may make an ad stand out, but also seriously detract from the overall look of your blog.
Get Advertisers For Your Blog
When first getting started with this form of blog monetization, it may be a bit difficult to get advertisers for your blog. You may want to consider a banner exchange with sites that complement what is offered on your blog. You do not want to host ads that are in direct competition with you. A banner exchange will provide both sites with increased exposure to new audiences.
The number one method, which will help you to get advertisers for your blog, will be traffic generation. As people visit your blog, they will become aware of the advertising space that you have made available and they will purchase that advertising space from you if the pricing and nature of your blog suit their own advertising strategy.
Once your blog becomes a force to be reckoned with, you will be in a position to charge advertisers for hosting their ads. You will need to decide on a pricing structure for ad placement. Pricing is usually determined by the placement of the ads, whether they appear above or below the fold.
Always remember that you have the last say in which ads will be accepted. Once again, you will want to choose ads that are not in direct competition with you, as well as ones that blend well with your blog’s look and topic.
Selling advertising space on your blog takes effort on your part. It is a form of blog monetization that works best for blogs that have gained long-term popularity, stable readerships and where the blog owner has taken the time to build a credible reputation in the niche that is represented.
To Your Success,
SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com
