Why using banner ads limits your blog’s income potential

As I browse and read a large number of blogs, I always wonder why it is that bloggers commonly use a bunch of 125 x 125 size banner advertisements placed in the top right-hand sidebar of their blogs.

I doubt that many of these banners are paid for by the advertisers.

Major bloggers have companies paying fixed fee deals to have their banners in the sidebar but majority of bloggers only have affiliate deals or pay-per-click deals to work with.

I understand when bloggers use banners if some company contacts them and wants to pay them a fixed monthly fee to display their banners.

If your blog is big enough to attract these offers, it seems like a fairly easy and simple way of earning blog income.

Your readers have banner blindness

If you are monetizing your blog primarily with banner advertisements for affiliate programs, you are missing out on a ton of opportunities to make money online vith your blog.

Do you know anyone who clicks on banner ads? When is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?

Traditional banner ads take away from the user experience. They distract users and because of that users tend to ignore ads.

Banner blindness is a very known phenomenon which was proven by several different eye-tracking studies and has shown that readers do not fixate on ads at all.

No clicks but increased brand awareness

The most recent study from ComScore shows something even worse for bloggers that try to monetize their blogs with affiliate marketing.

Banner advertising, despite a lack of clicks, can have a significant positive impact on the advertiser:

• Visits to the advertiser’s website increased at least 46% over a four week period
• The likelihood of consumers conducting a search query using the advertiser’s branded terms increased at least 38% over a four week period
• Consumers’ likelihood of buying the advertised brand online increased an average 27%

Insight from the report is that banner advertising may not normally result in an immediate click but it results in a increased brand awareness for the advertiser.

This means that you as a blogger, you create the brand awareness by displaying banners, but it is the brand itself that gets the credit as users do not click directly on banner ads on your blog.

From banners to recommendations

In recent weeks I have tried to minimize the use of affiliate and pay-per-click banners on my blog by not including Google Adsense on my new blog articles and by limiting the banners in other spots of my blog. Limiting banners also makes your blog look much cleaner and user-friendlier.

People are naturally skeptical of advertisements in general and are much more likely to trust reviews and recommendations. Instead of using banners to promote the affiliate programs, why not:

• Endorse the company by being the customer and telling your readers the benefits
• Endorse the product / service by using it and showing your readers why and how you use it
• Writing review of products / services and showing your audience what it can help them accomplish and achieve
• Creating guide articles explaining your readers how exactly they can use the product to help them achieve what they want

What are your thoughts on banners ads compared to alternative ways of promoting affiliate programs?

Image by Jeff Coffman