Blog Trends by Advertising Type Data from July 2010 or before
Barbara Swafford recently published a post about Bloggers Going Naked over at BloggingWithoutABlog. If you don’t know Barbara you may want to check out her thriving blogging community and blogging tips and follow @BSwafford on Twitter.
Barbara’s post asks:
- Are you a naked blogger (no ads on your blog), or does you blog have some bling?
- If you land on a blog which has advertisements, are they a distraction or have you become blind to them?
- If you do show ads, are they profitable?
These are questions on the minds of almost every blogger, so we should all drop on over to Barbara’s and contribute to the discussion.
Here are my insights on what I believe are the best ways to monetize blogs and my upcoming redesign plans:
What is needed is a public change in perspective. Have you ever wondered why the masses tolerate big brand advertising everywhere but scream whenever a small business or blogger displays ads? We are our own worst enemies.
Small businesses and blogs are the solution to the economic decline we are experiencing. We should encourage them to get smart about advertising and this is how I believe we do that: by <a href=”http://www.growmap.com/bloggers-position-yourself-where-the-money-is/”>geo-targeted blogs</a> that reach specific local audiences and appeal to small business advertisers.
First I want to point out How NOT To Monetize Your Blog. That post I wrote previously explains my reasons why the specific methods mentioned are bad for bloggers.
Bloggers today use a combination of these methods to monetize:
1) “Blogger Welfare” = AdSense (Ok in moderation but can seriously limit who shares and reads your blog if you put a huge block of ads between the title of your post and the text.)
2) In-Text link ads (often annoying and some can get your site dropped from the search engines)
3) Text links – these can be a good idea that is under-utilized but do not advertise them as “for sale” to avoid being penalized for selling links. If you advertise them and make them nofollow there is little point to having them. (The link with anchor text is more valuable than who sees it.)
4) Ad Blocks – these are widely used and not a bad idea. You can sell them for a specific period of time or use them to promote affiliate products you recommend
5) Rotating ads – I am redesigning my site to replace individual ad blocks and rotate ads in the two positions favored by major sites. One will be 726×90 above the header and the other a 300×250 in the right sidebar (after I move both sidebars over). I am doing that to get a sharper, cleaner look on my blog while still being able to offer advertising.
Those ads will all be creatives provided by the advertiser linked either directly to my affiliate link on their site OR eventually to a post that explains why I recommend them. I only run ads for companies and products I recommend.
What we must be very clear on is differentiating between a traditional advertising model (something you allow on your site for the money but do not necessarily recommend but at least don’t find objectionable) and my preferred model where we only run ads for what we can personally recommend.
New bloggers may not know what to recommend or may want to monetize more easily. When that is the case just make sure your disclosure policy VERY clearly indicates what are ads and what you are recommending.
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I’ve heard that banners of all types are becoming less and less effective, even with rotations. I rarely use them unless they are inside of a relevant post.
By the way, your geo-targeted blogs link is naked.
Anthony would love you to read ..Acne Diet-11 Things to Avoid Eating
I used to write blogs about typhoon, and disasters. And this post was really helpful..
Blogging is a very good thing if we have something meaningful to share with others, but most of the time we feel very difficult to monetize our blog. You have shared a very informative blog with all of us, Thanks a lot for sharing.
First time i see someone asking that question about being blind to ads. That’s exactly what’s happening to me. Every blog i land on, there are no ads, there are no links. The only times i click on ads is when i do it by mistake
In a way it’s an advantage because i can think of new ways to place ads so that they become more visible.
Martin would love you to read ..Student Grants and Loans for CDL School
Twitter: freedomunpluggd
April 3, 2011 at 8:17 am
Twitter: @freedomunpluggd
Hi and thank you for this post and pointing me in the direction of Barbara’s blog and advice. Monetizing my blogs has been an issue that has plagued me since I started about 2 years ago. I have to admit that Adsense has been pretty much a total waste of time of time for me.
I have now taken to creating niche blogs based around one product, service or opportunity and capitalizing on SEO to find people interested in said offerings. This has met with a much greater level of success for me to date.
Twitter: GrowMap
April 4, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Haydn,
Have you read my post about how bloggers can position themselves where the money is by creating geo-targeted blogs?
A gr0up blog that targets a specific geographic area for a particular subject such as cars or home improvement is THE way to make money. There is vastly more potential there than just making niche blogs and you can benefit many small businesses who will then be interested in advertising with you.
Adsense now are very strict..I have my friend, his adsense serving add is disabled. And he can’t put ads in any blogs with his ad ID.
I am so glad I discovered this weblog. My blog has a PR4 ranking so please add me to your listing too (if you have one).
Josh Rimer … YouTube Marketing Tactics
Twitter: GrowMap
April 4, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Josh,
I have several lists were I share blogs that are dofollow and use:
KeywordLuv
CommentLuv
BizSugar
DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Community
I am always seeking out other bloggers interested in collaborating. If you use Skype or Yahoo IM meet me there to discuss what else we can do.
growmap would love you to read ..DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Community
In my opinion adsense and affiliation programs plays a vital role when using advertising on blogs …All you said is very true and accurate
Twitter: blogstashdotcom
March 9, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Twitter: @blogstashdotcom
The thing is though that each blog has a different situation, different kinds of content and different kinds of readers. So one size won’t fit all.
I have seen blogs with lots of different kinds of ads on them being very successful (they are still doing good), and I have been reading them for a long time and I have also seen blogs with far fewer ads that for some reason turn me off.
Its a fine balance between transparency and wanting to make money at the same time, while trying to not alienate your readers.
Satrap would love you to read ..How to Make Money Online
Twitter: techdaring
March 4, 2011 at 10:44 am
Twitter: @techdaring
I just using Adsense to make money from my blogs and get some bucks to payment for hosting fees.
Tony would love you to read ..Apple Refunds 100 To Recent iPad Purchasers
Twitter: KeithsMLMLEADS
March 1, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Twitter: @KeithsMLMLEADS
Thanks for the post. I have a blog and was wondering if there was another way to earn some money from people that visit it and then figure out it wasn’t what they were looking for. I am thinking to create a list of when that might happen and then create ads to those websites so people will click through to what they needed. Think this will work?
Keith would love you to read ..Online MLM Lead Creation Equals MLM Blog Success! How Else Do You Measure Success
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Keith,
When I managed AdWords accounts full time there were often keyword phrases for which there were two totally different products and no way to know which one someone was searching for. In those cases, I encouraged the advertiser to create a landing page offering them a choice – in other words let them tell you which they meant when they searched.
Here is an example. Door moldings can be for houses or other buildings OR for cars. No business is going to sell both kinds of door mouldings.
So if Good Millwork wanted to bid on the phrase “door moldings” they would first try to block words related to cars but they would still get a lot of clicks for searches for car door moldings, so they should put up a landing page for organic or especially ad traffic that has their door molding info on it (or a link to that page) and has a box that says “Were you looking for door moldings for a car? We recommend _______” where _______ is a company that sells auto door moldings.
That auto door molding seller should do the same and have “Were you looking for architectural door moldings for your house or business? We recommend Good Millwork.”
If an advertiser can offer both that is best; if they don’t, they should make an agreement with a business that offers the other product or service and agree that they will each put up landing pages and send traffic to each other to recoup the costs of advertising.
You could do something similar on your blog.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing
Nice graph you have there.
I like adsense, but most blogs simply abuse it placing huge ads where they cover more than what’s important – the content. I don’t go to blogs to click ads, i go to read information. One annoying type of ads is when a small banner is inserted inside the article. I read the article, seems interesting, then my eyes land on that small banner and i just feel it’s useless to read more, i want to leave the blog.
Maria Pavel would love you to read ..CNA Training in Arkansas
Twitter: Publishedin
March 1, 2011 at 9:14 am
Twitter: @Publishedin
If you want to make money with Adsense, you have no choice but to manipulate your readers to click on ads.
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Maria, Yossi,
Thank you for commenting. I tune out ads when I’m reading so at least I don’t want to leave as much as Maria does.
Yossi, we all must make decisions about who we are and what we feel is ethical and unethical. While I agree that much of the money that changes hands through the AdWords/AdSense system is because of Internet users not knowing what they are clicking on, do you really want to be unethical?
The money publishers are paid for AdSense is paid for by the advertisers. If you were paying for ads on AdWords would you want to have to pay for visitors who have no interest in what you offer that were tricked into clicking (0r clicked because they didn’t recognize ads as ads)?
That is basically stealing money from the advertisers which is something I can not condone. It also annoys your users and causes them to not trust you – and trust is a huge part of being able to offer products and services that ARE good enough to be recommended.
growmap would love you to read ..Kikolani Blog Post Promotion Ultimate Guide Ebook
I guess it all comes down to this: do you value clicks or do you value readers? I like to know people visit my blogs because they enjoy doing so. If they do click some ads, that’s fine too.
There are also other methods of monetizing, ads by adsense is not the only one.
Maria Pavel would love you to read ..Red Cross CNA Training
Twitter: bradhensler
March 1, 2011 at 2:26 am
Twitter: @bradhensler
Pop ups, or the dreaded flashing window which flashes on the screen, cannot be minimized or removed, usually will make me click the x at the upper right corner. Good content rules, and a good product with tasteful placement is key. A few adsense at the end of article is no problem, but the problem is you cannot really control the products being endorsed by adsense, a good affiliate program is the best option!
Brad Hensler would be happy if you could check out
The Rural America Forum
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Brad,
Thank you for taking the time to comment. Back when I used to use AdSense a blogger/publisher COULD block any advertiser whose ads they preferred not to have display on their site. I suspect you can still do that by logging into your AdSense account.
In blogs that offer KeywordLuv you can put your link in the name field using this format: Brad Hensler @ Rural America Forum
Only Rural America Forum and not KeywordLuv will be linked.
Leaving THE out of your link would be better for SEO, i.e., linking only Rural America Forum without the The in front.
You can also register your site to place your desired links in the CommentLuv field by buying default links from ComLuv so that your comments get two dofollow links with anchor text in blogs like this one.
More details in my KeywordLuv and CommentLuv posts. I just noticed you are brand new on Twitter. See these links for how to use it effectively:
Another post that could be very useful to you is my priorities for Small Business Internet Marketing.
growmap would love you to read ..How CommentLuv Grows Businesses and Blogs
Twitter: dragonblogger
February 28, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Twitter: @dragonblogger
Most of my advertising comes from Amazon Affiliate and AdSense targeting, though I still make a few bit here and there with direct ad sales.
Justin Germino would love you to read ..Choosing your Niche Based on Economics
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Thanks Justin,
I admire that you are one of the few honest bloggers who publishes your earnings on your blog. Good to have you commenting here so frequently lately. I will do my best to return the favor. I am adding you to my posts that include links to trusted collaborators.
growmap would love you to read ..Ethical Affiliate Marketing
I feel that transparency with your readers is key.
I use advertising on my blogs, and find that well placed Adsense and affiliate programs work best. I think if a reader trusts your writing, there’s less disgust with ads – even though there shouldn’t be much at all when the ads are placed esthetically and in moderation. Furthermore, the better the quality of content, at least for me, equals definitely a higher CTR on ads and offers.
Wisconsin Dells Hotels would love you to read ..Great Wolf Lodge Resort
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Twitter: @GrowMap
Thank you Wisconsin. I appreciate your feedback. Do you know about KeywordLuv? You can use a name and keyword phrase in the name field here and on other blogs that offer it and only the phrase is linked. Details on how it works in the post I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply.
growmap would love you to read ..DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Community
I was just doing donkey work i think..thanks for such information especially the map you have provided here. It will help me to boost my blog.
That was an educative share! I feel just as Google respects and finds out a way to earn from ORIGINAL content all over the www, it’s about time we bloggers should find new avenues for earning some revenue. It is not as if writing something original and writing stuff which helps web readers is easy!
I don’t know much about monetization of blogs and coming across this post made me understand more about monetization of blogs. Thanks for your post. I’m learning much.
Twitter: buildrankprofit
February 27, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Twitter: @buildrankprofit
Gail.
WOW.
This is my first time to Growmap (my loss I know) and boy do you know how to leave first impressions!
Thanks so much for sharing what I honestly believe is one of the best resources for bloggers looking to start monetizing…
Shared with pleasure.
Alex would love you to read ..Who Stole My Pagerank
thanks
for sharing your awesome resources with us …i agree with you monetizing a blog is very important thing for every blogger ,the fully blog and efforts are all depends upon this ,every blogger should have to plan how to monetize the blog..thanks again for sharing such an informative post …great work dude ..keep on writing
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