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vangogh
10-24-2008, 02:22 PM
I just came across this post reviewing ad marketplaces for bloggers (http://traffikd.com/making-money/ad-marketplaces-and-ad-servers-for-bloggers/). The idea is the marketplace makes it easy for you to buy and sell ads and in exchange for that ease the marketplaces gets a cut of the transaction.

I haven't tried any of these myself yet, but a few look good and I do think they're worth trying especially if you're not having success finding buyers for your ad space.

Sometimes when I've looked at these marketplaces in detail I get the impression that if you have very little traffic you may still have a hard time selling ads or at least have to sell ads at a very low price. However I would think that depends on your market as well as the marketplace and you do have to start somewhere.

The post also lists some WordPress plugins to make displaying ads on your blog easier.

Anyone here having luck selling ad space on your blog? What has and hasn't worked for you?

orion_joel
10-25-2008, 02:24 AM
Maybe something interesting i will have to take a look at. For the moment though i think my traffic is maybe still a little low to be considering selling to much ad space and not keeping the focus on building the traffic first with some good content.

vangogh
10-25-2008, 01:54 PM
I've seen mixed opinions on whether to offer ads sooner or later. Some argue that the ads might discourage people from subscribing resulting in slower growth, while others think you might as well be making some money while you grow and figure out what works and what doesn't as soon as possible.

I think even with low traffic you can still sell ads. You just won't be able to make as much money as you would when you do have traffic.

Seems to me that you probably don't want to put ads in the day you open shop, but it's ok to sell advertising even when you're pulling limited traffic. Sometimes I think if done right the ads can actually lend an appearance of having more traffic than you do. People might see your blog and think you must be doing something right if you're able to sell ad space.

Harold Mansfield
10-31-2008, 05:20 PM
I am not big on ads on any of my blogs. I would much rather put up an affiliate banner where I make money off of the sale, rather than per click. Also, ads are usually content driven, and I don't work to send traffic to other people, if they click on something I want it to be mine.

On all of my blogs and sites, every ad, banner or product widget is either from another of my sites, or affiliate programs.
I think Google turned me off of ads since I just couldn't crack the code of getting more than pennies per click, and I was sick and tired of competitors low balling clicks off of my site, and reaping the benefits of the traffic.

The logic say's , with ads...even if they don't buy anything, you still make something. but my logic says, if I just use my own programs and sites, if they don't buy anything I have still directed traffic to another site that I own with the possibility of getting a bookmark , and if they do buy I make more than just the PPC and possibly a repeat customer.

vangogh
11-01-2008, 02:08 AM
Not all ads need a click before you get paid. Most of the ads in these networks are probably pay per impression. Maybe you sell a 125x125 adspace for $50/month or $10/1000 impressions. If you have enough traffic or you're in the right market you could sell space for a single ad for some pretty good money. These networks might have some per click ads, but most are probably per month or per impression.

orion_joel
11-01-2008, 03:45 AM
I think that it entirely depends on what sort of network of either products or other sites you have. If you have a dozen sites that are all complimentary, then it would absolutely benefit you to send traffic between them if you had products on them that were being sold and people were possibly going to buy, same with affiliate programs.

Same as for someone with just one or two sites, that may have no products and no affiliate sites, then they may benefit from selling the adspace as Vangogh suggest's or using something like google adsense. This is not to say that they should not also look at other options like affiliate marketing and the likes, however it depends on the compatibility of the product and the time that someone may want to put into getting the ad revenue built up.

vangogh
11-01-2008, 04:04 AM
Absolutely. There's definitely not a one size fits all. It'll depend on the topic of your blog, the availability of affiliates in the space, how much traffic you get, what kind of traffic you get. There are so many variables to consider. Selling ad space directly is certainly an option though.

Harold Mansfield
11-03-2008, 10:58 PM
I certainly agree with the above. Everyone is not going to make money online the same way. There are so many different ways to do it. You have to, as they say, "get in where you fit in".

Some programs just work better for some sites, than others. You need to test them to see which is best for you. There have been may times that I stuck with a certain program, or banner for months, and after not converting anything, I changed to something else, and started converting sales.

You have to test it out.

vangogh
11-04-2008, 01:48 AM
Everyone is not going to make money online the same way.


You need to test them to see which is best for you.

I just wanted to highlight the above quotes in case anyone missed it. We're all different. We have different skills and different personalities and what works well for one of us may not work well for another of us. Fortunately there are a variety of ways to make money online. Try something and see if it works for you. Stick with it for awhile to give it a fair chance, but if it doesn't work try something else.

andrewmoquin
06-08-2009, 12:56 AM
I think advertising on your blog is fine. There are tasteful ways to do it. Most of the time if the ads don’t get in the way of anything its fine and I don’t mind people trying to make money off things that they put time and effort into.

And yeah, if I was making money from advertising on my blog I would be motivated to keep it updated.

vangogh
06-08-2009, 01:51 AM
I think as long as you do it in a way that's ok with your readers there's no harm. And there are ways you can deliver ads that do serve your readers. After all we all do buy stuff. If you can help people find products and services they need and want they aren't going to be upset if you make a profit on the transaction.

KristineS
06-09-2009, 01:14 PM
I'm still struggling a bit with advertising on my blogs. I've tried a few things, but haven't been dedicated to any one method. I guess I'm sort of a purist, even though I know that advertising isn't evil, and even though I wouldn't mind generating a little bit of income through my blogs, I keep feeling like I'm being a bit spammy. Guess that's because I've seen those blogs that are solely there to run Google ads or whatever and don't have any useful or relevant content.

In reality, I think advertising on your blog is fine as long as you don't go overboard. In my opinion, your blog should be about content with a few ads served up as garnish. If your blog becomes one long ad, with paid reviews and tons of banner ads, then I'm going to go elsewhere. That's just me, though.

vangogh
06-09-2009, 06:31 PM
Kristine think of your audience and think of the kind of things they'd be interested in. Then find some quality products or services and point them out to your audience. There's really nothing wrong with it as long as you don't go over the top with it.

KristineS
06-11-2009, 06:08 PM
Yeah, I do agree with that. I've been experimenting with doing product reviews on When I'm Thin. I have a lot of exercise DVDs and stuff and every once in a while I do a review and include an Amazon affiliate link. It hasn't done much yet, but I need to work on building up readership on that blog.

At least that feels like I'm offering more than just an advertisement. I feel like I'm offering useful content (the review) with an advertisement included. I know that's a small difference, but it works for me.

vangogh
06-11-2009, 06:50 PM
Exactly. As long as you're being honest in your review and doing your best to offer a balanced review you are doing readers a service and there's no reason why you should profit some for helping them.

Just think if you reviewed one DVD and let people know it was good for beginners while another is more recommended for advanced people you're saving both groups from buying the wrong product and steering them toward the one they'll more likely be happy purchasing. It's hard to see someone being upset with you for then using an affiliate link. As long as your honest and steering people to the right products they'll be fine.

It's only when you start recommending something not because you believe in it, but because you're hoping to get people to buy it that you lose your audience.

KristineS
06-12-2009, 12:46 PM
It's only when you start recommending something not because you believe in it, but because you're hoping to get people to buy it that you lose your audience.

Yeah, that's something I really don't like. Blogher does a lot of that, working with manufacturers to have popular bloggers write about particular products. It's so fake. If you genuinely like something and would use it, or have tried it and don't like it and are honest about it, fine. Having a bunch of bloggers write about a product on the same day just feels fake to me. I don't care for it and, in my eyes at least, that blog then loses a little bit of its legitimacy.