Contents
Blogging Basics
The Anatomy of a Typical Blog
How to Use a Blogging Service
How to Create Your Own Blog
Create Content for Your Blog
Blogging Etiquette
How to Create a Photoblog
How to Create a Videoblog
How to Add Podcasts to Your Blog
How to Add Advertising to Your Blog
How to Use a Blog to Promote Your Business
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How to Add Advertising to Your Blog
Advertising is the simplest way to make money with your blog. If you have a highly trafficked blog on a specific topic, chances are you’ll find success by placing advertisements on your blog pages. The main types of advertising you can consider adding to your blog are:
- Contextual text-based advertising
- Traditional graphical advertising
Adding Contextual Advertising to Your Blog
Contextual text-based advertising is a form of text-based online advertising that uses the content of a web page to determine which ads to display. By giving priority to ads most relevant to the page’s actual content, contextual
advertising increases the likelihood that readers will click on the ad and buy the advertised product or service. Contextual ads tend to work best for bloggers because they require very little maintenance and almost always offer products or services tied closely to the main topic of the blog. The two most popular contextual ad services are:
- Google AdSense®: http://adsense.google.com
- Yahoo! Publisher Network®: http://publisher. yahoo.com
Adding Traditional Advertising to Your Blog
Traditional blog advertising, such as banners, buttons, and other graphical elements, is typically managed by blog advertising services. These companies act as middlemen between bloggers (often called “publishers”) and advertisers.
- Advertisers pay blog advertising services to place their image- or text-based ads on blogs.
- The advertising services place the ads with willing bloggers, track the performance of the ads, pay the bloggers for including the ads, and collect a commission from the bloggers and the advertisers.
Two of the most popular blog advertising services are Blog Ads® and Crisp Ads®.
- Blog Ads: www.blogads.com. This is a network of bloggers who promote advertising on their sites. Bloggers retain creative control by approving ads before they go live.
- CrispAds: www.crispads.com. This is a service that uses keyword-based ads to place contextually relevant ads on blogs. Bloggers get paid on a per-click basis.
The Pros and Cons of Blog Advertising
Before you decide to place ads on your blog, consider the following pros and cons.
Pros |
Cons |
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Ads generate revenue you can use to pay for additional bandwidth, storage space, and so on, as your blog grows. |
Ads take up space you could use for substantive text or unpaid links to other sites. Since you can’t control ad content, you might get ads with text or graphics that clash with yours. |
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Ads lend credibility. Contextually relevant advertising can help your blog look authoritative and professional. |
Ads can be seen as selling out. Some blogging purists think ads don’t belong on blogs, because a financial motive will inevitably corrupt the integrity of the blog’s content. |
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Ads offer relevant products and services that readers might actually like to know about. |
Ads influence content choices. Some bloggers alter their content or tailor the focus of their blogs to attract new readers to click on ads. |
| Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
