Advertising on blogs – the disadvantages
(This is a guest author article.)
After seeing a variety of advertising on numerous blogs, I have to conclude that ads don't really make a lot of money for the average blogger. I'm not talking about the really popular bloggers or those who get extremely targeted traffic from search engines, but about you and me. Why can't we make a lot of money with ads (of any kind) on blogs?
Here are some of my reasons/analysis on why individual bloggers should be careful about using ad networks online:
- A majority of bloggers are satisfied with surprisingly low amounts. This is a fact. If you look at the number of people who think that AdSense will make them rich, it's surprising. AdSense does not make individuals rich – it makes Google richer. The same goes for any popular ad network. In other words, you're providing them with additional revenue by using their service and making them more popular at the same time.
- Advertising networks usually talk about how much money their clients make. They will usually only show off their most successful publishers. Do not use this as a benchmark. The successful publisher might actually be getting 1000 times the number of hits on his website than your blog does on a single day.
- Every ad network has a "minimum payout" period. Some of them hold on to your legitimate earnings for until it reaches $100. If your site is not earning quickly enough, imagine how much interest they would earn on your money (and others) over that period of time.
- Ad networks can afford to undersell your value. This is because they make money on volume, not on higher margins. They can make a very small online profit and still earn lots of money. Additionally, think about the commission they make on every ad they place on your site. That eats further into your revenue.
- Ad networks make all the rules. You have no option but to accept them if you want to do business with them.
- Individual publishers cannot afford to fight the big ad networks in court when it comes to a dispute. True, theoretically you could take them to court. But how many can do it? Think about it this way. If an ad network decides that you've violated their ToS and unilaterally decides to cut your payment, how on earth can you fight them, particularly if you're on the other side of the world?
I think every individual blogger must be aware of all this before deciding to sign up with an ad network. Have you ever thought of it this way – why would you want to help a mega-corporation make more money while getting peanuts in the process? Sure, many bloggers feel that something is better than nothing, in which case, I would suggest that you handle your own advertising selling on your blog. Not only will you get a better deal, you can actually negotiate prices with the ad sellers and have a lot more control over what kind of ads get displayed on your site.
Think about it. It involves a little more hard work to market your own website, but I think the end result would be worth a lot more. Don't sell your web space cheap.
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Hi RT,
I agree with what you're saying and I've been thinking about direct advertising recently. I've seen other blogs who do it and I've been thinking why not mine! I'll probably go ahead and do it in the next few months..
Hope everything is going well for you.
Stephen Cronin's last blog post..Where Have All The WordPress Plugin Lists Gone?
Ahem… it's a guest article written by me.
hari's last blog post..Geeky and Meeky 21 – Dad's Office
Whoops! I should have spotted that – sorry Hari! The main paragraph still applies…
Stephen Cronin's last blog post..JobsInChina Presents LocalCurrency For WordPress
No problem. It's so easy to get confused.
hari's last blog post..Geeky and Meeky 21 – Dad's Office
your are rite….blogging is one of the way to publish or to highlight any thing we want…..
You're right about this. The problem is that it's very intimidating finding your own advertisers. Beyond writing a good "your ad here" page, how would I go about finding people to buy space?
I'd say the first thing any blogger needs to recognize is that advertising might work better on sites other than blogs where the content is richer and can be crawled easier by search engines to get lots more SE traffic.
I think blog format makes it harder for search engines to crawl the older stuff as it's buried several layers deep (and unless you use a custom archive format, it's difficult to get indexed).
hari's last blog post..Geeky and Meeky 21 – Dad's Office
If you're talking about a social blog, not niche blog geared toward converting search engine traffic, it is difficult. That's because your traffic volume and the conversion quality of it is too low.
An achievable income target for the average social blog with between 5000 and 10000 monthly visitors is between $100-200 a month. Private ad sales, well matched affiliate offers and paid reviews should get you within this target range rather easily. Save Adsense for targeted niche blogs and avoid other advertising widgets that everybody and their brother-in-law are displaying because John Chow recommended it.
Want more money? Get more targeted traffic who're willing to buy whatever you're selling them.
Frank C's last blog post..Moving, Trash Dumpsters and Niche Blogs
"Niche" blogs, I do not consider as blogs even though they may be driven by a blogging software.
I think the term "website" describes it better.
hari's last blog post..Geeky and Meeky 21 – Dad's Office
sometimes, advertisers already get a week or two of exposure before they say your entry is rejected. and you don't even know why.
ceblogger's last blog post..Vote For Me
I've seen this happen. It pays (no pun intended) to research the advertiser/sponsor before you plug in their code.
I agree with you completely. A lot of work goes into a good blog, and if you aren't going to get your money's worth it is almost better to keep it ad free. Or, to designate 'hidden' posts for search engine traffic and go for targeted adsense hits like Vic was writing about.
My local news "niche" blog, however, I have bigger advertising plans for. I am going to approach local businesses next month. Here again, I am going to shoot a little higher than some would. If you start out with lowball advertising prices, you are stuck with them. If I value myself too high I can always come down.I made this mistake with a bi weekly humour publication Ernie and I used to produce. Once advertisers think of you in a certain price range, it is really hard to raise.
Tim's last blog post..29th Annual Red Deer Home Show, Farm and Acreage Show
ceblogger and RT, yes, agreed completely.
Tim, thanks for the comment. I think you've got that right about negotiating rates. You've got to get a deal which works to your advantage straight off.
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So many people are looking for the easy button, but any real success comes from building one-on-one relationships with other business people who have products and lists.
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