Forget Adsense, get real ads for your blog
Posted on November 12, 2007
Filed Under Making Money, Blogging for Business |
How are the pennies from Google’s Adsense adding up? If it’s not a high enough stack yet, you may need to re-think your strategy – assuming you want your blog to make you some money.
I am feeling inspired to do so, after interacting with ShoeMoney.com founder Jeremy Schoemaker and ACSSEO’s chief technology officer Neil Patel at the BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas last week. Here’s what they said - added to this are some of my own take:
- Get ads at any price: Someone paying ten dollars for an ad for a month may still be more than what Adsense pays. Not saying you make this your benchmark, but start. Get anyone at any price; Jeremy rightly said - ‘No one wants to be the first advertiser, but are willing to follow.’ How do you suppose new magazines are always full of ads from the first issue onwards?
- Tease your target advertisers: If Ford is not willing to commit to ads, place one of GM even if free – Neil termed it ‘hitting at the competitor.’ Then go back to Ford and tell them GM is with you. According to Jeremy, the folks at Ford are sure to ask ‘Hey, how much is GM paying?’ He is right – this happens!
- Forget providing detailed analytics: Jeremy says he does not provide his advertisers any details of traffic – there is no such thing like ‘cost per thousand’ discussion. He just says things like being in Technorati Top 100, number of loyal readers etc – companies are invited to come for the brand exposure. He is successful enough to have his inventory sold out for the next many months. Ok, you may argue that he is already known enough so companies would agree to his terms, and most advertisers still want to analyse the returns on investment (ROI) – so where does that leave you? You can either provide the numbers, or adopt the next two strategies.
- Be confident – offer a money back guarantee: Jeremy offers this to dissatisfied clients – so far he has had to pay back only one in three years. My take: it might work if you do it the right way.
- Join forces: This is Neil’s idea: get together as a group of bloggers to jointly offer your inventory to advertisers. The value proposition may suddenly be more attractive.
- Cut out the middleman: Going direct has its benefits as all the money is only yours to keep. But can you always spot a willing advertiser? Neil offers a smart tip here: Track which ads appear with higher frequency on your blog through programs like Adsense- there is often a pattern. Call these guys up directly after this – they may bite if there is relevancy and cost to them is lower than what they would have paid Adsense.
Are you being skeptical? It may be possible you are – do you have a smarter idea? I am all ears!!
Comments
One Response to “Forget Adsense, get real ads for your blog”
Leave a Reply
Does it have to be one or the other?
Why not run Adsense adverts in one place on your site, and run “real” ads in another spot on the same spot?
One tip: In the beginning, when you haven’t got any/many advertiser deals, you can allways fill the spot with affiliate marketing adverts.