How Can I Sell Advertising on My Blog Or Forum?

If you are making revenues (or trying to) from monetizing your forum or blog through advertising, the question you may have is how should you do it? That is, should you use advertising networks, Google AdSense, or sell directly and keep all the profits for yourself?

The answer to this will largely be a matter of personal taste and style, and temperament. And you may use a combination, of course.

With advertising networks, they serve advertising on your blog and share advertiser revenue for qualified clicks each time your blog’s visitors click on ads. There are a few different kinds of advertising networks and they share revenues in different ways.

Representative (or Rep) Networks generally revenue share; these are the ones who usually carry ad inventory for brand advertisers, larger companies. Targeted Networks focus on specific targeting technologies and usually also use revenue sharing.

Blind Networks use arbitrage; the official investing and marketing definition of arbitrage is “a risk-free transaction consisting of purchasing an asset at one price and simultaneously selling that same asset at a higher price, generating a profit on the difference.” In other words, you’ll buy the rights to the advertising inventory outright, then try to make your money back and get to where it’s making you a profit.

The advantage of advertising networks is clear: they have tons of already-made advertising inventory and they’re waiting for you to knock on their virtual door. The downside is equally clear: they can be costly or eat into your profits, and also especially for Reps your blog may not qualify for their services (such as if you don’t have enough traffic).

What about Google’s AdSense, the system by which you allow AdWords to show up on your blog? Well, it costs you nothing to set up, it’s relatively attractive and subtle (so it doesn’t junk up your blog), and if you have enough traffic at your blog or forum you can indeed make a decent revenue from it. The downside is: everybody’s doing it, meaning the competitiveness of the ads that appear on your blog is likely to be watered down; and, once again Google takes their cut. So it’s questionable how BIG your profits may get from AdSense.

Finally, you might want to consider direct advertising – that is, selling advertising space at your blog and raking in 100% of the profits from this.

Through this you: set your own ad rates; enjoy direct contact with advertisers; have more diversity of advertising options and strategies to employ (banner or text link placeholders, shared advertising options with other bloggers, sponsorships of specific blog posts, and so on); and you have more payment options (you can negotiate with the advertisers without there being any middle man).

What are the problems? Well, basically, two exist. One, you may end up with a contract dispute and have your advertising clients demanding their money back. And speaking of advertising clients, they are more difficult to come by when you’re on your own. With greater freedom and potential profit always comes greater risk and responsibility! So if you choose this route, make sure you: create a hot, shamelessly promoting sell page for advertisers to land on; and, offer them variable rates and different options.

Finally, always weigh up what your blog means to you and think about how successful it is at directing traffic to other pages on your site, or to the products and services you sell. The point is always get the best out of what you have -if your blog is providing people with a service and also sends them to other pages which could bring in revenue fr you, do you really want people to click on ads and leave your site?

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How to Advertise Your Blog on Other People’s Blogs

Blogs are growing, and some even use blogs as websites now. When you reach the point of wanting to drive more traffic to your blog, you may consider advertising on other people’s blog. Here are a few things you should know before doing so.

Research Traffic

First you should research the blog you are about to advertise on. Usually on the blog there will be a traffic indicator. Find out what that is, are they getting a lot of hits? The reason for this is if no one sees your ad, what good will come of it?

Additional Traffic Research

Also look for subscribers via the “Follow Me” box. This is a very common way for people to read your blog now, and can be used with many different services from Networked Blogs to BlogLovin, Blogger or other “follow” services. Another key thing to look for is a Feedburner count or feed number indicator of how many people are “subscribing” to the feed. These additional aspects may mean may mean people aren’t visiting the actual pages, but they are getting updates, or reading via their readers or inboxes. This counts, too! So if the overall page views are low but the feed count is high, you may consider advertising here.

Research Type of Readers

You should then make a determination about the blog itself. Is the content something that will attract people, who will read your blog? For instance if your blog is about antique cars, why would you advertise on a hair stylist blog? You shouldn’t. You should however find a niche that best fits you, perhaps an auto body shop blog, an event planner who hosts car shows, or someone who sells auto polish.

Finding Advertising

In most cases once you settle up on a blog that you think will benefit you, there is a “how to advertise” area of the blog. Requirements should be listed, in case you have to submit a small avatar or your blog to fit in a designated spot. This can be easy for you to do using a free service like Picnik. Usually ads are paid and will run anywhere from a month to three months.

Blog Ad Space Services

Sites like Project Wonderful, BlogAds and other services (search for “advertise on blogs” in your browser) are there to help you find a blog to fit your niche. In many cases these will use a “bid” or “flat fee service” wherein you will be able to see the traffic ranks of the blogs and type of visitors they get and from where they are coming. Project Wonderful also shows your pay per click rate so you can use it for a bit and find out how it’s working for you. Both have pros and cons and you should do your research.

Niche Swap Ads

There are always those possibilities where you contact the blog owner and explain what your blog is about, and offer to cross feature and cross promote one another and swap blog ads. Your chances on this will be greater if you

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Selling Advertising on Your Blogs – A Few Things You Should Know

Blogging is the latest craze all over the internet universe. I call it a ‘universe’ because there seem to be endless opportunities in this virtual world for just about everybody. It’s like the American dream. If you have a genuine idea and you are willing to work hard, then nobody can stop you from becoming rich and famous, no matter what age, what religion or what nationality you belong to. But how have blogs helped so many people make so much money in such a short time? Well, you’ll have to read and find out.

While blogs were initially started as just a place where somebody could express their feelings about something or just as a web space to write something down, very soon people realized that a blog was more than just a scribbling pad or a personal diary. Blogs can be said to have been rediscovered as a great marketing tool and then there was a sudden explosion in the number of blogs and the things that people were doing with them.

People started using blogs to market their products. Companies started using blogs as a place where they could get their consumer’s feedbacks. In fact companies like Ford Motor Company, Honda etc. even asked people to give suggestions as to what they would want to get changed in an existing model and what they would like to be different in an upcoming model. Thus blogs suddenly became so famous that hundreds of people could be found discussing at the same time and making it a really lively place.

But where there’s such a crowd, there’s also an opportunity for generating revenue out of advertising. This is where the monetary benefit of running a blog comes into play. If you run a popular blog, one where you have a loyal visitor base and where people have a lot of fun and get some value for the time they spend, then you too can make a lot of money. You want to know how?

A popular blog is like a popular website where you can always make a lot of money through advertising. There are various methods by which you can make money out of advertising.

1. Sell your advertising space to an advertising company for a fixed amount (this is particularly favorite amongst the more famous and active blogs). This way you get your money every month or in lump sum for a fixed period of time. You don’t have to worry about the advertising anymore.
2. The second method which is the most widely used is tying up with companies like Google AdSense which place ads on your blog and pay you on Pay Per Click basis. So every time somebody who visits your blog and clicks on any of the ads placed by Google AdSense, you get a small commission. The more the visitors, the more the clicks. The more the clicks, the more the money that you make.
3. The third way and the least practiced is by finding advertisers on your own and placing their banners and ads on your blog. While in this way you don’t have to share your advertising revenue with anyone, you’ll have to do all the running around. This is preferable only if you have some solid contacts and a long term contract for advertising.

One of the things that you must always ensure while seeking advertisers is relevance. If you are blogging about health and fitness, then an ideal advertiser on your blog would a company that manufactures or sells health products or fitness equipments.

And to ensure maximum number of visitors, keep your content absolutely to the point while using appropriate keywords to help the search engine locate your blog.

Also if you have decided to find sponsors for your blog on your own it would be wise to not put too many ads for two reasons. The first one is that too many ads may distract and irritate the visitor and keep him or her from coming back. Also if your blog is popular and the advertising space is less, you can charge your sponsors more.

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