Advertising Alternatives for Bloggers
I got the following question recently from Arlina (sorry it took me so long to answer…):
There are so many “make money online” ads…can you recommend some? I have a blog and I’m using Adsense, but I’m not making any money on it (it’s really new, so not much traffic). There is so much info out there, it’s overwhelming!
Yes Arlina, you’re right. There is a lot of information out there, most of which is very misleading, and it’s hard to know what are reasonable expectations for advertising revenue as well as where to turn to for actual advertising dollars. So, I’ll try to answer your question by at least pointing you in the direction of some of the biggest Google Adsense alternatives out there. And hopefully this is one time when our fairly large and vocal reader community will chime in and share their cumulative knowledge as well.
- To start with, you might want to watch this video from WordCamp 2007 in which Jeremy from b5media shares some of his advice.
- Google’s AdSense is the standard for text and some image advertising in general, but don’t forget to check out the Yahoo Publisher Network as well.
- AdBrite is another large and trusted source. The last time I used them my results weren’t so great – but it was a long time ago.
- Read ProBlogger’s Find a Sponsor for Your Blog article.
- If you write about products that can be sold, look into Chitika, Amazon’s affiliate program.
- If you happen to know someone, and that is a big IF, perhaps you can get into BlogAds.com. But even I’ve never gotten an invitation, so I wouldn’t hold my breath…
That is a pretty good starting point, so now we’ll open things up for comments from everyone else. So, if you’ve had success with any ad networks other than what I’ve listed please share your experience. The only thing I ask is, do NOT post affiliate links. If you like an ad network enough to recommend it, great. But we’re not sharing tips to try to make money off people on this post.
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Hi , any one of you may help me in putting ads by Bidvertiser.com and also inline ads by Miva in my WordPress blog.
I want to know the method or way to show ads at header, footer and in between the posts on my blog
thanks
future pakistan
http://www.futurepakistan.com
Adsense works fine on my blog.
Yahoo Publisher networ is not yet for my country.
Adbrite pays too less.
Chitika refused my request i don’t know why.
Blogads is just too big for me right now.
I don’t monetize my blog at all :(
It’s on the to do list, just a few more items above it.
Promoting eBay through the flexible destination tool has worked well for me. I’ll find a product that relates to my blog about motorcycles and link to an auction for it using the flex tool. The nice thing about linking to eBay using the flex tool is that you link to specific products, but since so many people use eBay for lots of different reasons to buy lots of different products the chance that they will buy something else is pretty high. You still get commissions on those sales as well.
Give Valueclick a try as well. You have to have a pretty popular blog as their traffic requirements are pretty high.
I also have some success with CPX Interactive. In the past, they’ve promoted spyware sites so, you may hove to monitor them.
Thanks for the other networks as well. Good luck!
Being new to blogging I need a lot on tips and advices of “blog-pros”. I am a lucky one to have some great friends, who share their knwoledge. After the basic rules are quite clear and I made my own strategy, what seems to work out fine. Not that I get rich, but it’s paying my rent. Even “Specialization is for Insects”, if you are good in it, it puts some rice on the plate…
Rhoody
Very interesting topic, since I have two blogs. Still learning the very basic stuff however.
Oh, I meant to say, also, that I was still learning and growing last year – I learned an awful lot about blogging and the technical side of it – lots of that! And I networked my little tail off – so it wasn’t just all a waste of money-grubbing infomercially posts! LOL!
I made pretty decent money last year, enough to take over $700/month worth of bills from my husband – which felt really great!! But then the G-Man cracked the whip and the bottom fell out. I had become too focused, though, on the paid blogging companies. For that whole year, pretty much, I stopped learning business skills, internet marketing, and affiliate marketing – all of which I’ve been studying since about 2002-2003. It was fun while it lasted, and I may go back to Izea when they launch Social Spark, but, for now, I’m very glad to be back in the realm of learning all about marketing – the field fascinates me. I would’ve given my left arm (or heck, maybe my husband’s) ;) to join Frank Kern’s Mass Control class.
Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that if you had asked me this about four months ago, I would’ve said, ‘Sure! You can make plenty of money blogging – there’s PeterPaulPat, and many other such companies…’ For now, though, it’s kind of back to the drawing board for me – and I’m quite enjoying it, actually. (And I must admit, especially in the beginning, some of my reviews were total crap. Eeks.) :(
One good place to start would maybe be Jim Kukral’s new ad system. It’s totally G-Man-friendly. And if you get out there and network a lot with other bloggers, and also add your own personal gimick to it, you just might do well. (No, I haven’t tried it yet – I’m still using the non-G-Man-friendly Top Louvre Apples, from which I really need to pull my blogs. It’s just hard when you’re hardly making anything at all to give up that little bit of cash.)
I’ve always known I could make more than I do with mine, but the affiliate market is hard to target. I’ve never really had any success, but then like you said my blogs aren’t necessarily product-driven like some are.
With the right traffic and stats personal banner/link sales are big but finding sponsors is very difficult. Good info John :)