Blogging has become an increasingly popular way to express yourself, share information, or even just keep up with friends and family online. As more people turn to the internet for their news instead of traditional media outlets, the number of blogs is growing exponentially. If you're looking to start your own blog, here are some tips on what it takes to be successful at making money through ad revenue.
So how exactly does one earn money off of ads placed on their site? And how much money could you potentially make if you were running a highly trafficked website? Keep reading as we break down everything you need to know about this topic.
There are two ways that advertisers pay bloggers to have their content appear on sites like yours. The first method involves placing banners in prominent areas around the web -- these ads usually show up on sidebar pages or above posts (called "above-the-fold" placement). This type of advertisement pays per 1,000 times the banner appears on a given page. For example, let's say you had 10 readers click on your banner each day. Each reader would see your ad 100 times a day, which means you'd receive 0.10¢ per impression. If there are 3,000 views total every day, then you'll earn $3.00 from those impressions. Of course, not everyone clicks banners so you may want to consider other options below.
Another option advertisers offer is called contextual placements. These ads don't take up any real estate space but they will still display alongside your blog post. You can also choose where your contextual ads appear within your blog. They often show up near the top of the article or next to the title. With contextual ads, you only earn when someone reads all the way to the end of your blog entry. So if you write a 2,000 word blog, you won't receive payment until someone actually hits the back button after clicking away from your site. Contextual ads tend to cost less than banners because providers place them lower on the page without taking up valuable space. Advertisers use various tracking services to determine whether users clicked on the links contained within your blog entries.
You might wonder why anyone would ever opt into receiving text messages from random companies rather than simply opting out. Texting is becoming increasingly popular among younger audiences who prefer communicating via SMS messaging. In fact, according to Nielsen Research Group, 90% of U.S. cell phone owners under 35 years old admit texting is their preferred mode of communication. Therefore, many advertisers target this demographic by sending texts directly to customers' phones. By signing up to advertise on your blog, businesses agree to send promotional offers to your subscribers. Once signed up, you can tell your clients to respond to certain keywords or phrases that you set up specifically for your business. When your subscriber responds, you'll receive a message containing the link to the company's product or service.
Now that you understand the basics of earning income through advertising, read on to find out how much money you can really make.
Yes, absolutely. Bloggers have earned millions and even billions of dollars from different types of advertising campaigns. There are hundreds of websites dedicated solely to helping bloggers make money. However, before jumping headfirst into trying to earn money through advertising, remember that most bloggers aren't going to earn enough to quit their jobs. Most bloggers work full time either in another job or working towards school, meaning they probably spend 40 hours a week doing something else aside from writing. Even though you may feel confident about your ability to create engaging, entertaining blog articles, chances are you can't compete financially with established journalists and writers.
The best thing to do if you decide you want to pursue monetizing your blog is to focus primarily on building traffic. Although it may seem difficult to generate consistent traffic using free methods such as social networking, search engine optimization, email marketing, etc., it's certainly possible. It just requires hard work and dedication. To help you build traffic, try implementing a few strategies including guest posting, submitting quality press releases, creating viral videos, and offering giveaways. Remember that driving traffic to your site doesn't mean you'll necessarily make money immediately, but it sure beats sitting behind a computer screen watching TV all day.
Once you begin generating sufficient traffic, look forward to paying attention to emails sent periodically from reputable advertisers. Depending upon your goals, you may wish to accept payments ranging between several hundred cents and half a dollar per visitor depending on the amount of traffic your site receives. Don't worry -- you won't suddenly lose control over your finances once you start accepting advertising money. Rather, you'll have a little bit extra cash flowing in while you continue to maintain your regular schedule.
Keep reading to learn how to drive visitors to your blog and increase the possibility of landing lucrative advertising contracts.
In order to maximize profits, it's important to think ahead and plan strategically. Before beginning any form of advertising campaign, carefully research potential advertisers. Make notes regarding their products and services, targeted audience demographics, budget constraints, and expected ROI. Pay special attention to things such as customer satisfaction ratings, return rates, and average sale prices. Take note of anything unique about the advertiser's offerings or marketing approach. Try contacting previous customers or associates from the company to ask questions related to their experiences. Also, visit competitors' websites to compare pricing structures and terms offered to prospective advertisers. Consider contacting local newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television channels, universities, schools, chambers of commerce, libraries, community centers, churches, clubs, and organizations in nearby communities. After researching multiple advertisers, identify a few who interest you based on location, budget, desired ROI, and market competition. Then contact them and arrange meetings to discuss potential partnerships further.
When meeting with representatives from the selected companies, bring along sample copies of your latest blog entries. At the very least, include proof of existing subscriptions or memberships to demonstrate that you already have a substantial following. Always arrive prepared with printed versions of your blog URL and name. During your initial discussions with the representative, emphasize that you currently run a high volume of incoming daily visits and that you intend to continue increasing traffic in the future. Let them know that you already have a large base of loyal followers interested in learning more about specific topics. Request permission to provide samples of your recent blog entries and/or promotional materials. Be honest about your current earnings level and explain that you're hoping to grow your list substantially. Ask them to reciprocate and inform you when new features are released or updated. Above all, remain professional and courteous throughout the entire process. Never come across as desperate, rude, or overly aggressive.
After completing your due diligence, select three prospects whose solutions match your particular niche(s) well. Contact these brands regularly and inquire about upcoming promotions or events. Send links to relevant blog posts and encourage feedback from others in the industry. Stay informed about changes occurring within your chosen field. Learn the ins and outs of each brand's policies and procedures. Finally, always refer inquires to appropriate parties whenever necessary. This includes asking reps from competing firms if they have received similar inquiries.
As mentioned earlier, be aware that you won't instantly gain access to huge amounts of cash simply by joining an affiliate program. Instead, expect to devote additional time to promoting your site and participating in group forums. While it seems impossible to succeed overnight, stick with it long enough and watch your bank account fill up gradually.
Most major blog hosting platforms allow you to integrate third party advertising programs onto your website. One popular choice is Google Ads. Simply sign up for an account, pick a design template for your background image, and insert snippets of code provided by Google into your WordPress dashboard. Your webpage now contains images and hyperlinks designed specifically for attracting more traffic. Clicking on these buttons directs viewers to external URLs located elsewhere on the Internet. When used correctly, these tools boost both visibility and sales.
While the majority of bloggers are familiar with basic editing functions available on their blog hosts' user interfaces, it's worth mentioning that integrating outside sources may require specialized knowledge. Read our instructions thoroughly prior to attempting adding advertising widgets to your site. Otherwise, you risk damaging your reputation as a blogger and losing credibility among your fans.
To find out more about getting paid to host third party advertising campaigns on your blog, check out the resources listed below.
http://www.bloggerati...
This resource provides detailed tutorials on how to properly add Google Ads to your blog. Additionally, they outline steps required to remove ads from your site should you experience technical difficulties.
https://support.googleads.g...
Google Ads Help Center A comprehensive reference guide for accessing Google's support system.
https://en.wikipedia....
Wikipedia's official documentation section outlining the proper installation procedure for Google Ads integration.
Advertise your blog effectively by utilizing this helpful toolbox of tactics.
We hope you found this informational piece useful. Feel free to leave comments below. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions on ways to improve this article.
If you're a blogger looking to monetize your site, then the first thing that comes to mind is probably advertising—especially with all of the new tools available today to help you drive more traffic to your website. But what if I told you there's another way to earn income while keeping the content free for readers? It's called affiliate marketing. Here are some things you should know about it before starting an affiliate program in order to maximize profits as well as minimize headaches later down the road.
What exactly is affiliate marketing? In short, affiliate marketers sell other people’s products or services. Affiliates market these products by posting links to them on their websites and earning commissions when they successfully generate sales leads. Commissions vary based upon product type, size of company offering the product/service, etc., but typically range between 20% – 75%. The key here is that affiliates only get paid after someone purchases something through one of those links posted on his or her site. So instead of just getting a check every month, affiliates actually receive a percentage of each sale. This means that even though they might not be making thousands of dollars per year, the amount of residual income is far greater than most traditional jobs offer (not to mention tax advantages). If this sounds like something you would enjoy doing, keep reading.
Yes. You absolutely may. There are many different ways to advertise online, including banner advertisements, text link ads, sponsored posts, email promotions, newsletters, social media platforms, etc. However, banners and promoted posts will bring up fewer questions regarding privacy issues. Banner ads simply show at the top or bottom of web pages. Sponsored post ads appear inside articles published on your own blog. Email newsletter and Twitter ad campaigns require permission from others involved so that you don't end up spamming your subscribers' inboxes or followers on Twitter. Social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn allow companies to promote themselves directly within user profiles. These kinds of promotions often include "promoted updates" which appear below status updates users write, thus giving brands access to millions of potential customers who follow them already. Of course, any kind of promotion is technically considered advertising, whether we want to admit it or not.
As mentioned above, you have two options for displaying promotional material on your blog: banners and promoted posts. While both types of ads serve similar purposes, there are subtle differences between the two. For example, banners usually display larger images and take up large portions of screen real estate whereas promoted posts seem smaller and less intrusive because they show up in article archives rather than homepage banners. Banners also tend to stick around longer since visitors aren't immediately taken away from your page once clicked on. Promoted posts disappear quickly after being read, however, unless users click on backlinks included in the post itself. Finally, banners sometimes attract annoying clicks-worth popups asking users to sign up for daily deals, emails, or subscriptions. On the other hand, promoted posts are easier to moderate and avoid disruptive notifications, especially those that ask us to opt out of future mailings. As a result, promoted posts are usually preferable and recommended over banners.
The average commission earned from selling affiliate programs ranges anywhere from 15% - 60%, depending largely on where on the Internet consumers choose to shop. More popular markets such as eBay, Amazon, iTunes, and Google AdWords generally command higher rates due to high competition levels. Others, such as travel destinations, health and wellness, and financial institutions, tend to garner lower commission percentages because demand isn't quite as strong. Keep in mind, however, that compensation varies according to specific terms and conditions associated with individual offers. Also note that commissions earned from promoting digital goods via e-commerce sites can reach into the hundreds of dollars per transaction. Some banks, credit cards, mortgage brokers, and insurance providers, for instance, are now using affiliate programs to distribute coupons and special discounts exclusively to their loyal customer bases.
In addition to varying payout amounts, prices charged for various forms of advertisement also change frequently. Most commonly seen ads include standard banners, video ads, email ads, and sponsored tweets. Prices for these items depend upon numerous factors including location, number of impressions/clicks, quality of content, popularity of brand name, current economic climate, etc. Fortunately, there are several reliable sources for comparing affiliate pricing information. One of our favorites is Commission Junction. They provide detailed breakdowns showing price comparisons across multiple categories, regions, and networks. Another great resource for finding low priced affiliate products is ClickBank Marketplace. A third option is Linkshare, which has been helping publishers worldwide find advertisers for nearly 10 years. All three of these resources have helpful comparison charts and calculators allowing buyers to select the best deal possible given their unique circumstances. For example, if you need cheap banner advertising space, consider placing orders during off-peak hours or limiting yourself to monthly plans. Conversely, if you plan to use a lot of space, try shopping around for better deals throughout the day or week.
While yes, many bloggers certainly do, those who become successful with affiliate marketing differ greatly from those whose efforts are unsuccessful. Successful affiliate marketers focus intensely on building relationships with prospective clients, developing trust, and providing valuable advice. Unsuccessful ones, on the other hand, are quick to jump ship whenever the going gets tough, resorting to desperate measures such as buying fake reviews, begging friends and family members, and outright lying about the effectiveness of their work. Affiliate success stories go beyond mere statistics, demonstrating results achieved despite the lack of any monetary incentive whatsoever.
So why bother trying to monetize your blog? Because you love writing and sharing knowledge, right? Well, good news—you'll still continue to do that regardless of whether or not anyone ever reads your stuff. What really matters is having fun. And let me tell you from personal experience...it sure beats working somewhere else.
Affiliate marketing doesn't necessarily replace organic growth. Rather, it supplements it. It allows bloggers to build long-lasting connections with potential clients while simultaneously generating passive income. Best of all, it does so without requiring additional time commitments outside of what's necessary to maintain regular content production. So no matter what niche you cover, you'll always have plenty of fresh ideas ready to share. After all, a true expert knows the importance of remaining relevant, informed, and current.
To learn more about becoming a part of the next generation of profitable entrepreneurs, visit http://www.entrepreneurship101school.com/.
Blogging is a great way to earn extra income, especially if you have an established audience of readers who are interested in what you post. But earning money with advertising isn't always as easy as it sounds. There's plenty of information online about the best ways to monetize your blog, but not all methods are equally effective across every blogger. To learn more about this topic, we spoke with some experienced bloggers at Make Money Blogging. Here are their tips and tricks for making sure that you're getting the most out of any ad revenue generated by your site.
There are several different types of ads you might want to consider running on your website, including Google Adsense, contextual links, sponsored posts (also known as "promoted posts"), or affiliate marketing programs. For our purposes here today though, let’s focus specifically on Google AdSense.
The first thing you need to know before diving into building an AdSense account is whether or not there is a way to embed code directly onto your own domain name without having to go through an intermediary like Chikita Interactive Media Inc., which handles the billing process and administers your payout. If you choose to use Google AdWords instead, then yes — you will have to give up control of where those advertisers display their banners.
If you decide to go with embedded text ads via Google AdSense, however, you won't be doing so manually. You'll only need to upload one file containing the code and paste it right under the header section. That said, if you prefer working with other formats, such as banner images, you may still find success using a similar technique. In fact, Tina wrote a tutorial about adding image-based advertisements to her WordPress blog back in 2011.
After you set up your new AdSense profile, you should receive an email notification telling you when your account has been activated. Once that happens, you’ll see a small link appear next to the search box within your dashboard. Clicking on this link takes you to a page called My Account. From there, click on “My Content” and select the content category that applies to the topics covered on your blog. Then scroll down until you come to the section labeled “Ad Units.” This area allows you to customize your settings based upon your preferences and goals.
From there, you’re ready to start setting up campaigns. To create a campaign, just hit the blue button located beside each individual advertisement unit. A pop-up window will open asking you to either edit, add another unit, delete an existing unit, etc. This same option also appears whenever you try to change your settings or view statistics about specific units.
Once you’ve created a few campaigns, head on over to the Campaign Management screen. The left panel contains options for viewing data related to past campaigns, while the center column offers tools for creating future ones. For now, we simply want to take note of two important things. First off, once you create a new campaign, you’ll notice that the default CPC price per impression changes depending on the type of product being advertised. So don’t expect to see exactly the same rate everywhere. Secondly, you can adjust these prices yourself if you wish. Simply hover over the price field for a particular ad group and enter whatever amount makes sense for your budget and traffic levels.
Next, look toward the bottom row of buttons. These include options to update your privacy policy, review your reporting history, manage remarketing audiences, access analytics, and track conversions.
At this point, you can begin placing your ads wherever you'd like them to show up. However, keep in mind that since they aren't technically yours, you shouldn't hold them hostage against anyone else. Don't feel obligated to stick them in certain areas because you think someone else would appreciate seeing them there. Remember, people visit blogs to read articles, not stare at big blocks of white space.
Just like the previous step, you’ll probably want to spend some time reviewing the various payment options available for each campaign. Some offer higher rates than others, and some allow for larger impressions, whereas others require smaller amounts. It really depends on the advertiser and your current situation.
When you arrive on the Payment Options portion of your management interface, you’ll see the following sections:
Payment Frequency - Choose between daily/weekly payments or a combination of both. Daily means paying per month, weekly means paying per week, monthly means paying annually, and quarterly means paying three times a year.
Billing Method - Paypal, check, or direct withdrawal. Check means sending funds straight to PayPal, whereas Direct Withdrawal lets users request withdrawals directly from their bank accounts.
Minimum Charge - Set the minimum amount required to qualify for payments. Most providers automatically charge the lowest fee possible unless otherwise specified.
Remarketing Audience - Select the list of visitors whose details you’d like to store for later reference. Should you ever opt to sell personal items, for example, you could identify potential buyers based on your recent purchases. Alternatively, you could target prospects who haven’t yet purchased anything, giving them an incentive to become customers eventually.
Conversion Tracking - Enable conversion tracking so you can monitor the number of clicks, form submissions, and even purchases originating from your site.
Keep in mind that the above fields are optional. Feel free to leave them blank if you don’t care about them. Also, remember that many companies provide multiple forms of payment beyond credit card processing, often offering flexible plans that meet your needs better than alternatives.
Note: If you plan on selling products, services, or digital downloads, you’ll likely want to enable Remarketing Audiences as well. Otherwise, the advertiser will assume you’re trying to generate leads for physical goods.
You can also tweak the settings underneath Manage Settings in order to fine tune the performance of each campaign. Change the date range displayed beneath Targeted Traffic to modify the age demographic targeted by the adverts, along with changing the duration of the advert itself.
Lastly, ensure that you turn on the Display URLs feature. By enabling this, you’ll be able to share custom landing pages for each specific campaign.
One thing worth mentioning is that sometimes, the system gets confused and fails to recognize if a user clicked on an advert or visited the URL associated with the ad. When this occurs, Google tells us that the user didn't actually interact with the ad, but rather was redirected to it due to cookie restrictions. As long as you don’t rely solely on this metric for deciding if something counts towards your earnings, everything should work out okay.
In addition, you may have noticed that some units say "No Clicks" despite generating impressions and clicks. This usually happens when users fill out webforms on a mobile device, but it does occasionally occur elsewhere too. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t seem to have a solution for this issue, nor do they explain why it happens so frequently. We reached out to Google regarding the matter, and received no response. Hopefully, the company will address it soon.
As previously mentioned, the actual amount earned varies greatly depending on the advertiser and market, as well as your unique circumstances. On average, you can expect to receive anywhere from $0-$5 per thousand views. What constitutes a thousand views differs from provider to provider, so it’s good practice to test drive your campaigns for awhile prior to committing fully.
Some sites report earning less than $0.01 per 1000 views, which seems extremely low. However, keep in mind that many websites garner hundreds of thousands of hits per day. Furthermore, advertisers must factor in overhead costs beyond just the commission themselves. They also incur expenses related to maintaining servers, managing affiliates, shipping merchandise around the world, and countless other factors. All told, profit margins tend to sit somewhere near 50%, meaning that advertisers typically end up spending half as much again to cover operational costs.
Additionally, if you ever run into technical difficulties, troubleshooting issues can quickly eat away at profits. Luckily, the vast majority of problems boil down to outdated templates, incorrect IDs, or improperly configured codes. Since most problems arise shortly after installation, it’s wise to consult a professional service or developer for help when needed.
It’s also common for advertisers to ask for exclusivity deals, whereby they reserve exclusive rights to advertise on your site. If you accept such requests, you’ll lose control over placement, targeting, and ultimately, commissions. While these arrangements certainly benefit both parties, they rarely last longer than six months anyway. After that period expires, you can continue charging standard CPC fees.
Another popular trick involves stuffing your sidebar full of unrelated affiliate links that send customers to merchants outside of your network. Although this tactic works quite effectively, it can easily lead to complaints from readers concerned about cross-contamination. If you find yourself in this position, consider incorporating only relevant links that relate to your niche. Doing so helps prevent confusion among consumers and keeps your site looking clean and organized.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.