The whole 'making-money-online' phenomenon has quite a charm to it. Much
and more people are now being attracted towards this side, which I like
to call 'the other side' of the internet, since instead of being
web-page visitors, some people are now becoming webpage hosters, so to
speak. Indeed, for many such people, online advertising has become a
major source of income. But many people still don't know fully well
about the various advertising options they have. So this post is all
about different advertising options that you can try out with your blog /
website.
Not all ads work in the same way. Some generate more revenue, while
others are interactive and help in promoting products. With ads,
placement is very important as well. Some might work in a particular
place, while other might not.Hence, you have to choose a combination
that works best for you. And with so many advertising options, there are
literally several possible combinations. It's all a matter of trial and
error. You can't decide on the best combination unless you haven't
tried some. Knowing your options can pay off here.
A word on website traffic
Before you go on monetizing your blog, you first need to take a look at
your analytics stats. First of all, look at your Alexa rankings. Only
start advertising if you have a decent ranking. And in my experience,
'decent' means in the top 60-70,000 websites, or 100,000 at the very
most! If your rankings are below that (i.e. larger than 100,000), you
should not advertise! Work on improving your rank by various methods
shared on MBT and SEM! I might write another post on this topic soon.
Second, get a decent amount of traffic. In my opinion, around 500-1,000
unique visitors is decent enough. If you are getting a 100 or so
visitors and think you can earn a decent living online, don't kid
yourself! Set up a traffic goal and work hard on it before monetizing.
Why all the hassle? I know I keep on saying this, but your success can
only be guaranteed by a decent traffic and a good website ranking.
Adding adverts prematurely will do more harm than good. It might drive
away what little traffic you might have. Not only that, your bounce rate
will go high as well. But if you have a regular and significant
readership, the initial impact of adding ads will be cushioned.
Advertisement
CPC Ads
Cost-Per-Click are the simplest kind of ads. You simple put up ads, and
whenever someone clicks on them, you get paid a certain amount. The most
popular CPC ad network is Google AdSense, although it now has extended
its reach to CPM ads as well. CPC ads are generally low value, and it
takes a lot of clicks to generate a decent income. Not only that, the
awarding criteria is a bit hazy as well. You don't always get paid a
fixed amount, nor do you get paid each time. Still, this form of
advertising is the most common among bloggers, and is usually used with
banners (headers and images), and with text ad blocks within the site's
content.
CPM Ads
Cost-Per-Impression means you get paid for the number of times an ad
appears on your site. For example, let's say an advertiser pays you $1
for 10 impressions. Whenever someone visits your website, that ad is
displayed to them, and the required number of impressions drops by one.
When 10 people visit your site, you are paid $1. Again, Google AdSense
is the leading such ad network. Usually, you are paid per 1,000
impressions. The amount can vary a lot, from under a dollar to around
$50 etc. These ads provide a steadier income then CPC ads.
CPA Ads
CPA means Cost Per Acquisition or Action. You get paid only when someone
takes some action after clicking on your ad, such as making a sale or
leaving their email address or similar. Usually, such are have a greater
value than CPC or CPM ads. But the Acquisition rate is usually lower
than CTR (Click Through Rate). ClickBooth and MediaWhiz are both good
CPA ad networks.
Affiliate Ads
Affiliate ads are a type of CPA ads, except there's a sale as the 'action'. You get to promote products from an advertiser. Whenever someone buys that product through your referral, you get a percentage from that sale as commission. This type of advertising is very popular these days. In fact, almost every company nowadays has an affiliate program that rewards its promoters. Click on the following links to learn more about affiliate advertising.
Affiliate Ads
Affiliate ads are a type of CPA ads, except there's a sale as the 'action'. You get to promote products from an advertiser. Whenever someone buys that product through your referral, you get a percentage from that sale as commission. This type of advertising is very popular these days. In fact, almost every company nowadays has an affiliate program that rewards its promoters. Click on the following links to learn more about affiliate advertising.
Image Ads
Images can be used for CPC or CPM ads. But there are dedicated ad
networks for this, such as ImageSpace Media. Image ads can be used as
pop-ups on a webpage, or pop-ups during videos like we see on YouTube.
Video Ads
YouTube is the largest video hosting site on the internet. It allows you
to sign up as a partner, after which you can integrate your account
with AdSense. Video ads are simply videos that promote or give
information about a certain product. You can use them anywhere. But
people usually don't tend to open video ads, which is why you shouldn't
use them frequently.
Pay Per Post
This method is gaining popularity as well. There are some advertisers
that pay you to write reviews of their products in articles or blog
posts. If you do this frequently, your readers might frown upon you. But
writing reviews every now and then can be profitable. It might even
increase your traffic, since you are drawing targeted audience for that
product. This is a must try for bloggers. I might write a post on
writing paid reviews very soon. So stay tuned :)
Classified Ads
Earning through classifieds is no easy task. But if you do it properly,
you could e raking in money! Classified ads are special ads which are
added by people buying, or selling products, services etc. Freelance job
ads are a good example of this. EBay is a good classifieds website
where people sell all kinds of stuff from wrist watches to cars etc.
The advantage of classifieds is that, it attracts two-fold traffic.
Advertisers as well as customers. You act as a platform between them.
And you can charge a percentage from the sales made etc. But for sales
to happen through your site, you need to have good credentials, and a
good profile, so that people will trust you.
Newsletter Ads
In newsletter advertising, publishers send out ads with newsletters, or
other information conveyed through email. These are shaky ground,
however. People get annoyed at just seeing unnecessary emails in their
inbox, let alone appreciating ads included with them. So do this very
carefully.
Sponsorship
Getting sponsors is a job for the pros! If your website is popular and
has a decent amount of traffic, you have the option of selling ad spots
to sponsors. This will only happen if you are at the top, or near the
top, of your niche though. So build some traffic and fan following
before thinking more into this method.
Top get a better idea about what sort of advertisements pay the most, and what are the major advertisements used by the top earning blogs, check out our post on Top 10 Earning blogs in 2011
Top get a better idea about what sort of advertisements pay the most, and what are the major advertisements used by the top earning blogs, check out our post on Top 10 Earning blogs in 2011
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