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10 Ways to Woo Would-be Advertisers on Your Blog

Posted By Guest Blogger 18th of November 2012 Advertising 0 Comments

This guest post is by Anup Kayastha of MoneyMakingModes.com.

Earning money through blogging is an attractive and viable income source. But it is not possible unless your blog have relevant, current, and useful information for your readers.

That will not only help increase traffic to your blog: it will also attract advertisers to buy ads. but to make that a reality, you need to know how advertisers are evaluating your site.

What makes them think that your blog is worth their investment? What they are looking for in your blog before offering you a deal for ad posts?

Here are ten factors that would help you understand what the advertisers consider before they’ll approach you about buying ad space.

1. Announce that you accept ads

Your blog must explicitly announce to the potential advertisers that it is ready to sell ads. Use an “Advertise with us” banner or message so that the advertisers know that they can buy space with you.

For example, look at the sidebar of this blog. There’s an image link which clearly mentions that ProBlogger accepts sponsor ads.

2. Create a specific page for ad information

Having a separate page that displays the information about ad space on your blog is very important.

Include information such as the blog’s niche, ad space rates, methods of payment, and your contact details. This shows how organized—and serious—you are about helping advertisers reach their audiences.

Take a look at the advertising page of John Chow’s site. When advertises land on that page, they can easily get the required information, like site stats, banner spot and sizes, space availability, and so on.

3. Concentrate on your niche

If your blog targets a particular niche, you must stick to it in all your blogging activities. The advertisers interested in your particular niche will critically monitor this aspect of your work.

Don’t go off topic. Your advertisers want to gain targeted visits to their product sales pages. You don’t want to disappoint them with untargeted traffic.

4. Work to increase traffic

Most importantly, the advertiser will want to know about the traffic that flows to your blog. The blog readership, subscribers, and your reputation within your niche are all carefully considered by advertisers.

These factors directly impact the cost expectations of potential advertisers. Most advertisers are more interested in the traffic that a blog attracts than many other factors.

5. Assess the positioning of ads on your blog

Prospective advertisers will analyze the placement of ads on your blog, to see if those spots will suit them.

First, they’ll ask if their ads will be visible without requiring a page scroll. If the space is above the fold, you should be able to charge more for it.

They’ll also want to know if the ad space is horizontal or vertical? Horizontal space is usually more costly because if has better readability. They’ll likely review the spot’s prominence and visibility too.

My blog, Hack Tutors is a good example of this point. You can see a horizontal (468x60px) banner at the top-right header. Typically, it gets sold as soon as the previously running ad has expired.

It’s the most popular ad spot on my blog, simply because it’s above the fold, eye-catching, and easily viewable without scrolling down the page.

6. Consider costing methods

Advertisers are very careful to review the terms on which ads are sold to the advertiser.

You may offer CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions), CPA (Cost Per Action), or some other method of selling space. The advertiser may be interested in a specific costing method, so be prepared to negotiate.

If you’ve no idea how to arrive at pricing for your ad space, you can get some ideas in this post by Hesham of FamousBloggers.

7. Establish your ad posting conditions

The ad posting conditions you impose will be taken very seriously by advertisers. Ad specifications—such as formats, maximum allowable file sizes, restrictions of animations, niche appropriateness, Flash requirements, and so on—are all considered by advertisers before they’ll buy.

You may not want to display colorful, blinking ads in your blog—but maybe your advertisers want to. It’s very important to clearly communicate your ad posting conditions so that your advertisers won’t be confused. Mention these conditions in your Advertising page, like iTrailMap have.

8. Provide special offers and promotions

Some advertisers also get attracted by special ad offers made by bloggers. Introductory or special offers can give an added incentive to the advertisers to give your blog a try. You can offer to give a free week or month for an advertisement, or provide some other kind of special promotion.

For example, you can offer to promote their product by writing a free review or sending their product newsletter to your subscribers. Such offers can come in very handy when advertisers are considering on buying ads in your blog.

9. Present your blog statistics

Blog statistics (other than traffic stats) are closely considered by potential advertisers.

If you’re proud of them, include your Google Page Rank, Technorati Authority, Alexa Traffic Rank, and others on your Advertising page. These ranks cement the perceived worth of a blog, and advertisers appreciate seeing blog statistics from established third-party sources.

If you take a quick look at the Advertising page on this blog, you’ll see that these statistics are clearly mentioned.

10. Provide discount offers to guarantee long-term business

Advertisers also consider the long-term advertising opportunities provided by a blog. Their fear may be that the blog may not allow more advertisement time after ending of first contract period. For that reason, they may want to book ad space for the longer term.

Discount considerations will also become a factor in these deals. If you’re securing ad revenue for couple of years instead of months, the advertiser will naturally ask for a discount. The terms should be flexible—again, prepare to negotiate!

Final words

There are many factors about your blog that potential advertisers will consider. You can start experimenting and getting to know your advertisers’ needs. If they get some good results, they’re more likely to become long-term advertisers with your blog.

Don’t forget to ask previous advertisers to write testimonials, since most prospective advertisers will want to know if others have benefitted from advertising on your site.

Do you offer ad space on your site? What kinds of things do your advertisers want to know before they’ll buy? Tell us in the comments.

17 year old, Anup Kayastha, has 3 years of internet marketing experience and shares his tips for internet marketing, making money online and blogging in his blog MoneyMakingModes.com.

About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.
Comments
  1. Thank you. This is a very thorough walk through that I had to bookmark. I checked out your “advertise here” boxes on Hack Tutors and I am concerned about using that technique for my site because I am concerned about it looking spammy. The “advertise” here on this site seems less intrusive, but it also doesn’t stand out as much as on your site. I will need find a happy medium between the two. Also, thank you very much for providing the link to the advertising page. Selecting rates to charge for advertising can be a daunting thing, but the way the information is provided on the ad page helps a lot.

    Aqiyl Henry for Healthy Living

  2. Hi Anup,

    Great article with cool tips.

    one question for you, do you recommend to accept cash before or after the placement of the ads? For example, if you are charging a monthly fee, do you ask the advertisers to pay at the beginning of the month first?

    Thanks.

    • Anup Kayastha says: 11/18/2012 at 3:32 pm

      Hi Richard,

      It’s better to accept cash before making the ad live in the site. By doing this, you can guarantee to the advertiser that their ad will in your site till the ad expiration date. Before few days of expiration you can send them an email informing that the ad is about to expire and they need to renew it by paying money for the next month. Personally, I’m using this process of accepting payment without any problem :-)

      Good luck!

  3. Some good points, Anup…

    John Chow has the Name, traffic numbers and stats that will a attract advertisers to his site, ‘like a moth to a flame”….

    He has done a great job of keeping it clear and direct, with his Advertisers page…

    The only thing wrong(in my mind) that he has done, was to allow his POPUP sign up) to appear on his Advertisers Page…they are there as professionals looking for Advertising info, not sign ups to newsletters and tips…

  4. Good tips on advertising.

    In my case, I am not taking any advertising yet but at some point I will have to do that. The most difficult part is trying to decide how much to charge for an advert spot. Also which types are best ie links, banners etc.

    Thanks for this information.

  5. I know that selling advertising space is a great way to bring in ad income, but it’s such a pain (for me) to keep track of traffic and clicks (which is what people want). So I’m waiting for my traffic to reach a point where I quality for an ad network. I’m not sure if this is the way to go, but I guess I’ll figure that out.

    Your steps make me wonder if I’m over thinking it a bit. Thanks for giving me something to think about.

    Kimberly

  6. First up all, let me congrats u for getting ur PageRank 6 again. Yiur web-log is a great inspiration for me and I will definitely check ur other articles too.

    My blog about technology: http://goo.gl/atUSU

  7. Well, this is a plausible advertising strategy, Anup. For starters, I guess it can be a rough ride and a bit overwhelming but once you get through with the help of all these tips, maintaining the blog will be your only concern left . I must say driving traffic to a blog is the most crucial and tiring part in advertising. It imposes a certain level of reputation that could reflect to your effectiveness as an advertiser. Thanks for this!

  8. Very good article. I loved the Advertise here page you have referred to, it has complete details and indeed shows how organized the bloggers’ thinking is. I would love to adopt something similar, but for now, my website doesnt have impressive stats to put forth. Let me see, maybe in the near future :-)

    Thanks for sharing the information.

  9. I have considered adding adveristers to my site but I had no clue how to get them towards my site and interested Thanks for sharing I am now going to your personal site for more info

  10. Excellent Post. I and my guys were actually looking at the nice secrets and techniques on your web site and so immediately I had a horrible suspicion I never thanked the website owner for those secrets. This is my first visit to this blog. I am thinking about starting a brand new blog in the same category. Your site gave me some ideas to work with. (Dont worry, I wont be copying you ) You have done a fantastic job.

  11. This article is for bookmarking indeed. Concise and to the point.

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