Comments on: Why using banner ads limits your blog’s income potential

By: Ruth Ramos

Ruth Ramos — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:47:16 +0000

I’m on the plan to make blogs so I can make money online too just like what other people are interested of nowadays. I am constructing how my blog will be look like and design how it will attract visitors and readers. I am thinking to put adsense although I found that most blogs looks cluttered because of so many links (ads by Google) I saw on top, side and bottom of the screen. I didn’t click any of these because I am aware that the blogger will have a commission once I click this wherein some ads are not related on what I am looking for.

When I read your blog, I totally agree on your point of view. It would be better if you will make an article about the website or product you want to endorse coz aside from minimizing the noise in the screen it will give related information and good insights on the readers. A story of the product/ website that will help the reader to decide or compare on the other product they know. Unlike placing more and more links on the page, I think your idea is more effective.

Hope most of the bloggers will read this so they will have an idea on how to improve the (old) ways of making money online. Although it’s harder than the usual but at the end of the day, it will increase the numbers of visitors and readers that will probably proceed to viral marketing for other people who will definitely love the content.

By: Daphne DeAmore

Daphne DeAmore — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:03:19 +0000

I think you’re right. I have not found banner ads to be very effective at all and from a personal perspective I tune them out myself!

By: Marko Saric

Marko Saric — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:38:44 +0000

@Dean – Thanks for the comment! Absolutely. The best advice always is to be open-minded, try different solutions and see what works best for you and your blog audience.
Definitely a good step that you’re trying to move to self-hosted WordPress. It is a simple process. Get yourself a domain name / hosting, install WordPress on it and use the “Import” tool in WordPress to import your articles / comments etc from WordPress.com to your new WordPress.org blog. See more details in my step-by-step Wordpress install guide. Good luck!

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:13:08 +0000

Hey Marco,

Greetings Bro, Tumblemoose has stated that you may have opened up a “can of worms”. For someone like me I think this is absolutely great stuff, because one gets to be knowledgeable about the pros and cons of certain tactics and strategies used in the blogosphere.
I consider myself to be an absolute newby to blogging. My blog has not been monetized as yet because I have been reading that one has to have content and be known, to create relationships, then one can think of monetizing a blog. My blog is hosted at wordpress.com which does not allow advertising, I am thinking of migrating to wordpress.org to have it monetized in the near future.
For the sake of this article, I am thinking of a combination of tactics.

I would greatly appreciate your input in any way, in terms of migrating procedures, your best advice.

Thanking you in advance

By: Marko Saric

Marko Saric — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:30:12 +0000

@Keith - For some examples on how I use some of these pointers see article on how I monetize my blog with Thesis affiliate program.

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:56:06 +0000

This is indeed an interesting article. It’s not clear to me though how the last four pointers at the bottom of the article can help generate income (could you clarify? Thanks). Like some of the bloggers above, I’m fairly new (launched my blog in late December) and I’m still focused on building traffic to my blog. I use a combination of affiliate banners, AdSense and an Amazon bookshop and there have been quite a few clickthroughs. Clicks on AdSense generate a pittance. I’ve discovered that text links are more effective when integrated in the content and that generates more clickthroughs than the banners in the sidebar.
Traffic is steadily increasing and I’m constantly thinking of ways to increase revenue streams in a more effective manner. There are certain aspects of advertising on my blog that I’m still not happy with and I’m continuously tweaking and keeping an eye on the result. Until CPM becomes an option, I’ll just stick with the banner/text link/bookshop combination I guess.

By: LoneWolf

LoneWolf — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:54:00 +0000

Thanks for that link Marko. It also lead me to the post about creating a media kit which I need to do as well. Thanks!

By: Marko Saric

Marko Saric — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:50:55 +0000

@Pugs @LoneWolf - Check how I contact advertisers directly. You can try something similar in your case. Contact the advertiser and "sell" them why your blog is a perfect opportunity for them to have their product reviewed or to feature their ads on. Thye are running a business and they are always on a look-out for good opportunities, so there is nothing "rude" about it.

By: LoneWolf

LoneWolf — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:59:13 +0000

How do you go about getting CPM ads when you’re just starting out? I know that AdSense sometimes has some CPM in the mix but the majority is CPC. As for affiliate marketing, are you talking about things like Click Junction or smaller affiliate programs?

I am also interested in the question Pugs raised about getting products to review. I recently looked at Buzz for Stuff and it seems that they want the buzz before they send you any stuff, and the stuff may not even be what they want you to buzz about. It doesn’t look like what I thought it would.

By: Pugs

Pugs — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:25:23 +0000

New to blogging but do you have any tips on getting sponsors to send you stuff to review?

Like if I try to pitch them an advertising package on generating hits for them by reviewing their products. How do I go about asking for the products for my reviews? I can’t help but find the idea of asking for stuff rude. Is there a polite way to go about this?

By the way, thank you for making this blog. It’s extremely helpful.