In this post, guest blogger Ali tackles the issue of finding a suitable monetization strategy for a new blog.

It is possibly one of the least thought about points for almost any new blogger. What is the right type of advertising for my readers and my blog?

If you set up a free blog account, especially with Blogger, you stand a particularly high chance of being completely brainwashed with Google Adsense so you don’t even look beyond that option. This happens primarily because of the simplicity of getting Adsense working. It’s OK, don’t blame yourself for that, blame Google – they’re very good at what they do!

This article is not about choosing the easiest monetizing methods but rather the right monetizing methods.

A trap that many bloggers fall into, is to think that just by popping up a few blocks of pay-per-click (PPC) ads, the same sort of money that more popular blogs are making will happen for them. Sadly it doesn’t work that way. Here’s why -

1. Unless your blog is considerably popular, you probably don’t have the traffic levels that they have
2. It’s unlikely that simply copying their look will yield the same results
3. It’s important to find the methods that are appropriate for your blog

So if you are setting up a new blog or have been experiencing a steady increase in traffic and are thinking about showing some ads then here are some tips -

1. Know your readers
   It’s essential to know your demographics before you think about monetizing your blog. Know what gets them out and interacting with your content. Know what their interests are and what they kind of products they’d be partial to. The kind of stuff that generates community interaction is the kind of stuff that will generate clicks and income for you.
2. Monetize the right way
   Look at both consistent strategies and inconsistent ones.
   • PPC and Affiliate advertising falls into the inconsistent type, you can get a 100 clicks today and 10 tomorrow or vice versa. Results can be highly skewed and you never know when someone like Google, Yahoo or your affiliate site can pull the plug on you. On the other hand, these types of strategies tend to be simple to add to a site and can be implemented almost immediately.
   • Direct sales of text and banner ads can be classified as consistent. Here you know exactly how much you are making per month and plus you get to choose the advertisers for your blog.

     If you choose your advertisers wisely, chances are they will see good returns on their investment, so they stay with you for the long term. If an advertiser doesn’t get results from you then they won’t be back the next month. Bottom line, keep your ads related for a long term turnover.

     Additionally try to price your ad sales in such a way that it makes sense for advertisers and the return they are likely to get. It’s much better to be selling out your ad inventory at a cheaper rate than not selling any at all at a more expensive rate. Often just having ad spots filled will provide a sort of social proof to new advertisers considering. While an empty ad bar can give the impression that it’s not worth advertising somewhere.

3. Think carefully before you jump for the quick buck
   Because often that’s about all you will make, a buck. When starting out with my blog – everybodygoto.com – one big mistake I made was to use only one PPC ad network on my blog. This can quickly lead to ad blindness – the phenomenon where regular readers switch off to the ads. Ad blindness of course only increases the inconsistency in PPC income.

   Keep shifting ads around between a few networks every week or so, this makes your blog look fresh to you as well as to your readers. Kinda like how you change your t-shirt over the same pair of jeans everyday and get a totally different look. If readers see changes happening often, they’ll visit often. Hey Hey! That means more clicks, and more money.

4. Experiment
   Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what is going to work for your blog, so experimenting is a good idea. Try out multiple types of advertising, mix and match and measure the results. Not only does this help fight the ad blindness mentioned above, but additionally you have a higher likelihood of stumbling on something that is a perfect match for your readership.
5. Cut out the crap
   Quick money making schemes, pyramid marketing, long sales pages etc…are some of the most hated type of affiliate advertising you can put on your blog, or anywhere for that matter. So stay away from it, most of your readers already know how much they stink, don’t let them associate you with that stink.
6. Plan campaigns for your advertisers
   A new trend that is emerging among blogs is to plan linkbait campaigns along with your advertiser. If you have a big enough readership and you get a good advertiser on board you can plan one with them. It’s simple, you tell them all they need to do is provide a cash or physical prize, to give away for posts written by your readers linking to the advertisers website with a keyword of their choice. If the prize is good enough expect a huge response to the campaign and a bunch of links for your advertiser as well as your blog. Everyone wins!

So there you have it. Some of the methods you can use to show the right type of advertising for your readers, and increase your income alongside.

*This post was guest blogged by Ali from EverybodyGoTo.com. Subscribe to his full RSS feed.

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