Advertising on your blog can be a great money maker! The more readers you have, the more money you can make from using your blog space for advertisements. While it is tempting to dive in and start filling up your site with all kinds of ads so you can sit back and watch the money roll in, there are some important things to be aware of before you start. Here are a few tips on accepting advertisements for your blog.
Don’t detract from your own products
If your company offers products and services for sale, be aware of whether or not you’re going to minimize the advertising power of your own ads and website by cluttering it with ads for other things. Don’t use any 3rd party advertising unless you really need to. Your blog readers will be much more likely to click on and purchase ads for your own goods than for 3rd parties.
Be aware of your audience
You don’t want to confuse your audience by advertising irrelevant products. For example, if your company sells kitchen hardware collection, you probably don’t want to advertise wheelchairs or kids toys. Keep your ads in the area of things that will appeal to your audience. From the example, you might want to promote baking items or cook books. Something in the same family that people will be interested in.
Think about what pricing model makes sense
CPM, CPC, CPL…all the different types of advertising can get very confusing! Before you accept ads onto your blog, make sure you research the options a little bit. Cost per mille, or CPM, ads mean that you get paid by the amount of people that click on them. It begins around 1,000 clicks, meaning the advertiser will pay you for every 1,000 clicks their ad gets on your site. There are variations of this, such as Cost per Click and Cost per lead, where the advertiser pays each time a visitor clicks the ad or each time a sale is made from a click through. Make sure you understand the different measures and which one will make the most sense for your company.
Don’t alienate your readers
No one likes to click on a link that interests them only to find themselves overwhelmed with all kinds of ads asking them to spend money, sign up for this or that or join an organization. Even social media sites are getting on the advertising train and it’s starting to upset their users. Try to keep the amount of ads you use to a minimum and use thoughtful placement.
In a day and age where advertising on your blog can lead to headaches, you want to be sure you are making thoughtful and informed decisions about the ads you are accepting and how you are using them. Don’t risk the chance of losing readers because your ads are scaring them off! Likewise, don’t jump into the blog ad world without doing a little research into which ads will make the most sense (and profit!) for you. These tips should help you accept ads with confidence.
What kind of ads do you let on your blog? Leave your comments below!
Photo credit: Tax Credits
Definitely some things to think about here. I recently signed up for adsense and am liking what it is doing for me so far. It ties into my reader’s interests for the most part. I waited until I had a decent size audience for my blog until I started ads. I used to go through other ad sites, but the percentage that they take from sales seem to be too large. Great post, Courtney!
Courtney, is there a magic number for audience size before considering ads?