The monetization of your online efforts is one question that all bloggers have to face, sooner or later.
You may decide to blog just for fun, in your spare time, of course for passion, but after months or years of hard work, you likely want to receive “something back”.
One of the best way to earn money with your site is through selling banners. But you need to find the sponsors first!
In this post you will read how to find advertisers for your blog.
A premise. As you can imagine, you will find people willing to pay you, if you respect some points, like :
– having quality content;
– receiving a good amount of traffic;
– having a decent number of pageviews;
– not displaying 50 ads on the same page.
Also, it will help to have reached a certain authority in your niche and if we talk about traffic, let’s say at least a thousand unique visitors daily.
Table of Contents
1. Look at the “Sponsored Ads” on Google
Obviously, you know very well what are the most important keywords for you and your niche. Well , then visit Google and search for them.
See which companies appear in the “sponsored ads”, keyword by keyword.
It is likely that companies can and want to invest money in advertising. Contact them one by one, proposing to invest money in paid advertising on your blog.
2. Check Who is Advertising on Blogs in Your Niche
Like all niches, you know which are the popular blogs and which sites are considered authoritative by the public within your industry.
Well, what are the sponsors who publish advertising on these sites and blogs?
Again, these are companies that probably want to invest money in advertising. Contact them all!
If your blog is able to publish quality content and receive good web traffic, they might also become your advertisers.
3. Take a Look at Affiliate Programs
You could do a thorough research online, trying to find out what are the affiliate programs that offer advertising consistent with the topics of your niche.
Companies that promote these subjects, could become advertisers on your blog.
This applies even if your proposal is dropped from the affiliate program you already use.
4. Search via Traditional Media
Here is a very simple method that – because of its simplicity – it could work out great.
Just observe what are the companies and brands that are promoted through traditional media : ie newspapers, periodicals, radio, television, etc.
Select businesses that have some relevance to your industry and try to contact them.
They might be willing to extend the range of media on which to promotion, and so may decide to place their advertisements on your blog too.
5. Analyze Google’s Organic Search Results
For each keyword in your niche, find business websites that are placed worst of your blog on Google.
Contact those companies and tell them about the advertisement opportunity on your site.
To clarify this point, this is an example.
At the time of this writing, my blog is in good position for the keywords “how to get a lot of likes on facebook” (How to Get Likes on Facebook – 500 and More FB Likes in 2 days).
If I wanted to, I could for example contact companies that offer Facebook likes and are positioned below my site on search results. These businesses could benefit from advertising on my blog, which is best positioned for keywords critical to their business.
6. Analyze Your Incoming Link
In the inbound links to your blog is there someone which come from a company? Well, maybe then that company would be interested to put their ads on your blog.
In fact, if you have links from their website, it means that they consider you an authoritative blogger, who is able to create quality content.
So, why not deepen the discussion? 😉
7. Bonus Tip
These are some tips on how to monetize your blog selling banners directly to companies, especially to those who belong to your niche.
I did not mention the easiest way to sell banners, which is via BuySellAds.com .
If you are able to be listed on their network, this will mean easy cash every month (I am actually using their network on NPI blog).
And you, what do you think?
Do you have any other suggestion to add to this list?
Please leave a comment below and share your experience!
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Jane says
Great tips Erik. Observing Google ads on other blogs in our niche and other direct ads is a piggy back technique; that’s just brilliant! I’ve never done this sort of thing, but this sounds so cool, so I’m gonna try it out.
Thanks for sharing!
Peter Lee says
I never thought of the method ‘Search via Traditional Media’. Goes to show how my mind keeps thinking the complicated ways whereas there’s always a simpler way which could potentially be more effective. Great tips, Erik!
Enstine Muki says
Hi Erik,
I’m creating a short report on my hidden blogging steps to generate $500+ a month from one blog and locating clients is just the first step.
I have some of the points you mentioned in this post and a few others are new additions that I’m happy about.
It’s going to be an exiting report and thanks for adding some meat to it
Jijin Mohan says
Hello Erik,
Informative tips indeed, I haven’t tried any method or tips mentioned above as currently I’m trying Buys and sells ads and other ad networks for getting ad slots. I’d surely try all your tips.
thanks for the share.
Gautam says
These are the some of the really nice tips to monetize any blog thanks for share. you did a really appreciable work.
Sarmista Aun says
Thanks Erik for sharing this idea of monetizing blog. I will soon apply the tricks for my own blog.
Bethany says
I like to look at blogs that are like mine, then check to see if they are showing ads that are not affiliated to an ad network, then I know they are buying the ads through the site that you are browsing.
Lisa says
Thanks Erik for these tips as I’m looking to monetize my blog more for 2014. I’m curious to check out those buysell ads network you referred to. I often get emails from unrelated businesses that want to advertise but I don’t the quality of my blog to do down via them.
Tony Nguyen says
This is the first time I visit your site. I think it is really awesome as it offers a lot of useful information. Thanks for your share about about money making with blog. Today, a lot of people use blog and try to make use of it as one of the best way to make money online. I have much to learn from successful bloggers such as yourself. Thanks again!
chonchol says
Hey thanks for sharing with us. Really I got some great information about selling banner ads. Specially invited system by specific keyword niche.
Apollo says
Nice tips on how to potentially boost revenues. I think most underestimate the hard work which goes into creating a revenue stream through blogging or online in general.
Michael Belk says
Erik you provided some good ideas for advertising that is outside of the box. I never got that deep into thinking about these methods yet.
My blog is so new however it is progressing fast. You have some good content here.
I will definitely come back and read this article again because it is probably too early for me to comprehend everything right now.
Thanks a lot.
Nitin says
hii Erik,
i read the article you posted and found it to be more beneficial for me. It has all information that are really required by me as i also want to get advertisers for my site. And this post help me out.
Really appreciable article.
Thanks for posting such a nice article.
Harsh Agrawal says
Hey Eric
Some amazing tips and here are few of my suggestions:
Have an amazing media-kit advertisement page. Highlights about your demographic and what advantages advertisers will get to advertise on your blog.
Check your competitor site and contact the advertisers directly via Email or contact form.
2nd one may be slow process, but even after 25 emails one converts, one can have a direct advertisement for long period…..I used the 2nd technique and it helped me to get an advertiser who is paying over $800/month from last 2 years..
Kunststof kozijnen says
Great suggestions you got there ! Especially number 1 is great.
Mostly we looked at the highest rankings in the search results, but the sponsored ads are of course also a great pinpoint !
Thanks.
Sanket Patil says
Thanks Erik for great tips. I have tried one by contacting advertisers directly and got several opportunities. You have mentioned some of great ideas to get advertisers. This will gonna rocks.
Samir says
Wonderful tips! Well I really don’t know that Sponsored Ads on Google can be used for finding advertiser. I’m just using buysellads and few other small ad selling sites for finding good budget on my blog.
Thanks for tips!
PrIyAnGsHu says
Great tips to attract advertisers and sell more banners on a blog. Having a good advertise page with up-to-date analytics can really make the difference. Also, using a third party network like BuySellAds sometimes proves to be really profitable, their marketplace has tons of potential advertisers.
isaiah joe says
Thanks alot for this awesome article, i really do appreciate it, i can see your blog and yes, you do have l,ots of Advertisers and this tips are working well. Thanks Erik.
frank joseph says
This is a complete post on how to get advertisers for our blogs, the one i loved most is BSA, but am yet to be approved 😀
However, i get direct offers…
Nanda Rahmanius says
Hi Erik,
What an awesome post, indeed!
Thank you for tweet this post back, Erik. I found this on Twitter. I must admit that this article is one of the most article I was looking for. 😀
I only know 3 or 4 tips to earn money from a blog, and here, I can find 7 tips. Thank you again to share this!
I just create my own Facebook page and I share this article there..hehe 🙂
Have a great week ahead!
~Nanda