Ads and accepting advertisements is just one more way of
monetizing your blog, however if done right, it can be one of the most
effective ways of making some money online.
In order to do so, you need to turn your blog into an
attractive-enough prospect for potential advertisers. This includes a number of
different steps, such as letting them know that you accept ads, building a
reputation and a large, growing base of visitors through your content, and so
on.
Your blog needs to be worth their investment. But above all,
your blog should be such an attractive prospect; advertisers should seek you,
rather than the other way around.
The following set of points illustrate how you can do just
this.
Choose a Niche
As far as blogging goes, make sure that you identify and
start off with a niche, which your blog operates in. All your posts need to be
related to this particular area of interest. Doing so will make your blog more
appealing to a certain specific group of readers. Depending on the niche, this
could allow you to attract a fairly large group of readers. From an
advertiser’s perspective, your blog now represents a ‘market’ where people who
share a similar interest come together. Any ad that goes up on your blog will
be extremely targeted and will be seen by visitors who will be interested in
it. For instance if your niche is sports, or soccer, you might attract ads by
advertisers such as Nike or Adidas. Similarly, tech blogs might attract
advertisers such as Intel, Microsoft, Apple, or Google, for instance. It all
starts off with the niche that you choose. And in addition, it is also
important to stick to your niche, as one thing that advertisers love is
targeted traffic!
Build Authority
Advertisers would want to associate themselves with top
blogs in a certain niche or industry. They would want their ads to go on blogs
that are considered to be the leaders in their niche; a blog that has been able
to build authority, a strong (and growing) base of loyal readers and is a
respected source of news and information. If you’re able to build such a blog,
advertisers will be not only approach you themselves, but will be willing to
pay to be seen on it (unfortunately, the same cannot be said about small blogs).
Building authority takes time, and the best way to do it is through content
marketing! But once you have an authority blog, advertisers in your niche
will notice you, and approach you.
Build Traffic
Advertisers will look into the some of the vital stats of
your blog, most notably traffic, page views, subscribers, activity (comments),
social activity and the like. If an advertiser had the option to choose one
blog from a list of 10, they would most certainly go for one which had the most
impressive stats, especially in terms of traffic, page views and visitors. More
traffic, quite simply, equals more exposure, and an advertiser would want a potentially
large amount of people to see their ad. Therefore, in order to be an
attractive-enough prospect for organizations and advertisers, you need to have
a lot of traffic, it is as simple as that.
Getting the Word Out
Potential advertisers won’t know you’re open to putting up
ads on your blog, unless you make it explicitly clear that you are! Let people
know that you are ready to sell ads or advertisement space. Announce it on your
blog – through a blog post, a ‘sticky’ announcement, a banner or something else
that says ‘Advertise With Us’. Make it very obvious for potential advertisers
to know that you are interested in selling an ad space. Even if it’s a small
blog, that doesn’t get a lot of traffic, doing so might attract small
advertisers looking to give you enough money that covers your hosting costs. I
would even go as far as recommending a separate ‘advertising page’ in order to
attract advertisers. This page would list down the different ad spaces
available on your blog, the kind of ad it is (CPC, CPM, CPA, etc) as well as
the price for each. It will also be a good idea to put up your traffic stats,
Google PR and Alexa Rank here.
Placement
One of the “4 Essential P’s” of marketing is placement.
Advertisers will look at the placement of ads on your blog in order to see if
it suits them. Advertisers will want their ads to be seen without any need of
page scroll (aka. above the fold), therefore the most valuable real-estate on
your blog lies above the fold, i.e. that banner area. This part of your blog is
essentially the first thing a visitors looks at when he/she visits it. In
addition, any ad placed here will be eye-catching and easily-viewable (not to
mention more expensive for the advertisers!). If possible, make sure you offer
some ad space above the fold. However the area will only be suitable for
horizontal ads; for vertical ad-space, the sidebar makes for an ideal location.
Price
Another one of the famous 4 P’s of Marketing, letting
advertisers know your costing methods is essential. Split costs according to
ad-space, as well as ad types (CPA, CPM, CPC). Be open to reasonable
negotiations. Use the Advertise Here page to put this information up.
Conditions
Make sure that you have developed a set of conditions for
advertisers and any ads that go on your blog – stuff like dimensions/size,
allowable formats, file size of the ads, text/image/animation ads (or a
combination of these), and any other requirements you might feel would be
appropriate. Send this document in if/when a potential advertiser gets in touch
with you.
Provide Incentives
…to keep your current business, as well as attract more
potential advertisers. For instance you could give advertisers a one-week/month
free-of-cost ad placement on your blog, write a free review – or just a few
good words in one of your posts – for their product, or send out an email to
your list about them. Furthermore, make sure that you try your best to keep
current customers happy, and concentrate on developing long-term business; for
this purpose, for instance, it could be a good idea to provide them with a
discount for signing up for a longer term. However after all’s said and done, the best way of getting and
keeping business is by doing what your blog ought to do – provide its users
with high-quality content and build and grow is visitor-base!
