While adsense may be the best option to monetize your blog or forum, one possible option would be selling direct advertising at your blog. Today let look into the 8 question you should ask before selling ad space at your blog. What does this 8 questions got to do with generating possible income from selling direct advertising, that you have to read more.
What can I do if my adsense income is very little?
If your adsense income is very little then you must do as follows:
- You must increase your traffic.
- Play around and tinker with your ad placement. You need to refer to AdSense for their general tips on the best ad placements either for blogs or forums.
- Your should diversify your ad providers. Use more than one ad providers. Try an ad network like Adbrite or BlogHer Ads. There are more than 60+ ad networks and affiliate programs that you can choose from.
- Act, research and listen to your market. If your review articles are good, try affiliate marketing. If your blog content is good, try guest posting. If you get direct sales inquiries, you should start doing that.
Which ad network should I partner up with?
At this point, it’s best to get other people views and therefore you need to get a lot of recommendations from other people. You should look at who is using them. You should also look at whether the big bloggers endorsing this network? if not, what do the bloggers in your niche use?
I feel I am drawn to a particular advertising network due to their user interface and their current advertising partner. You should ask these questions:
- From their advertisers list, does their advertiser work well for your topic?
- Test their interface. what is the learning curve, how easy is to use, and how easy to deal with unwanted ads.
Since we’re not a big site, where do I find direct advertisers?
- I had been very lacking in updating my advertising page. I’ll explain in one of the point afterward but you need to create an “advertise here” page.
- You need to get bigger so you’re more attractive to advertisers by leveraging people within your industry specifically among the PR and marketing.
- Go to conferences.
- Be active in your niche’s blogosphere. Basically, you need to network. Look at the bigger blogs in your niche and approach them. Like I said earlier, write a guest post for them or be a good commenter. If they know you, they will link to you, and therefore increase your reach and influence.
- Join a network of blogs for your niche. There are similar associations in every niche. If there isn’t one for your topic, you can start one yourself!
What should go on the advertise page?
1. Rates and placement. For an example, you can refer to The Gothamist network’s specs/rates page which explain this very well. They show you where the ads will appear. While you decide your rates aren’t public (like mine and one of the reason why I never put up any rate), show advertisers what their options are. At Streamxy, you can choose where you want your ad to be place – site wide, page only or single post.
2. Brag sheet. In the Brag sheet, you should list prominent mentions and links, popular posts, point to hot comment threads, etc. You also need to show your authority and influence.
3. Traffic and subscriber numbers. This is were you need to think like an advertiser. Advertisers are looking for monthly page views (and unique views) and feed or email subscription counts. Although you don’t have big traffic, you should publish these stats on your advertise here page. They give potential advertisers an idea of how you fit into their budgets and marketing campaigns.
4. Demographics data. Gawker’s audience page is a very good example which presented in a very detailed. In order to get this information, you can ask your readers in a survey or using a free service like Quantcast.
How do you know what to charge for direct advertising?
My first sell of advertising space is about $10-25 per space. If they take more than 1months, for their second month, they’ll get a discount for almost 50% (I still practice this, email me via contact form if you interested to advertise on my site).
- Start at around $5 CPM and move it up or down based on the responses you get (or don’t get) from potential advertisers.
- Find out what is the market rate by talking to other bloggers in your niche. This is another benefit of joining a network of bloggers in your niche.
- You can use what the major ad networks. Double it (since networks take half) and then give at least 20% off.
A very good example of a rate cards of a top sites is Gawker which you can use as a guideline.
Another consideration you also need to take into account is the fill rate. The fill rate is a trade off you need to make between charging high rate sell less or charging less sell more. You might make more money charging a high rate (and filling less of your inventory). Or you might make more charging less and selling out. Either way, your goal is to maximize your total revenue, so the price of a single impression is not your only concern.
Should I make my rates public?
Another reason why I don’t put up my rates public because I want to have flexibility. Flexibility game me the opportunity to talk to the advertiser directly to work with them.
If you don’t have a lot of time, or you only serves standard ad sizes and don’t want to negotiate furter, then public rates are a good way to weed people out.
What do you do when advertisers are unhappy with the results?
So far I had good experiences with advertisers because I work with them to make sure they’re happy.
Sometime advertisers may not have realistic expectations. If this happen, in their best interest, clearly communicate what you offer before the campaign starts, and talk to them during the campaign too.
If they do complain, don’t panic. You should work with them to change creative or campaign to maximize their result. Give them a discount on future campaigns if you have to.
The last question, how to get another sell from the existing customer?
Having one sell from existence customer is not enough, you should also think how to get another sell from the existing customer. Furthermore it is much easier to get another sell from existing customer then new customer.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I get a few dozen of offers to purchase ad space on my blog while it was still at it’s infant stage. Of course, I turned them down due to the pricing and all. It won’t be too good for the long run especially after the blog grows in traffic and authority.
Anyways, I’ve just received another offer in my email earlier in the day from a huge tech company buying a couple of ad spaces on my site.
Proves that the strategy for holding back early to get the quality priced ads is right for my case.
If can prove you have a unique audience that has special value for specific marketers you can often sell ad pace at a priumium. The question is which markerts/advertsers DESPORTATLY HAVE to reach the people who visit yoru blog. “Hey, ya know all my blog visitors have computers is not compelling enough to hit up Dell.
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