Attracting advertisers to your blog is just one of the income streams that you’re able to develop in order to earn an income online. By taking the time to write high-quality posts and articles we then open ourselves up to higher traffic levels which advertisers tend to find attractive, especially when those visitors are niche specific or in an industry that is regularly in need of their services or products.
There are certain things that we can do to make it easier to attract advertisers to our site, and one of those is to ensure that we have an advertising page set up for them with statistics, locations, pricing and availability, and don’t forget to include a method for ordering.
Having a dedicated advertising page streamlines the entire process for you. It not only tells the potential advertiser that your blog does accept advertising offers, but it then goes into details about pricing traffic statistics, and contact information all at a glance.
You can choose to handle the advertising yourself using plug-ins like OIO-Publisher, or you can go with an ad agency who typically take anywhere from 25 to 50% for acting on your behalf. The good thing about going with agency is that they typically have access to a wider pool of potential advertisers who might be interested in listing on your site. I personally use buysellads.com, and have been for the past four weeks and enjoying the hands-off approach to dealing with advertisers.
Obviously, the more advertisers that you can attract to your website, the more income you can generate each month, so it’s important to try to not only try and attract new ones, but also to keep your existing advertisers happy, after all they too are in this for branding purposes as well as to make sales for their products or services.
For me advertising is one of the income streams I rely on each month, so it’s easy to see why it made it into my “Success Book” and its list of goals. The more advertisers, and the higher the quality of those advertisers will reflect directly on the income that I’m able to make.
Ideally I’d like to keep advertising revenues around 20% of the total income generated by the blog, so for a $3000.00 month I’d have to sell $600, and for a $30,000 month, I’d need to generate $6000.00 from advertising efforts.
It’s important to establish early on just what your priorities are for your site so that you can keep focused and on track. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to get side tracked on something that isn’t productive, or in line with your goals.
Personally I ranked each area that was important to me, and to the growth of this blog, and assigned them a number with 1 being the most important. (There can only be one most important goal)
1. Information – Now what this means is that the number one goal of this site is to provide people like yourself with information that relates to internet marketing, and building your own online business.
2. Branding – Since the new kid on the block, I had to establish a presence with my site, my logo, my fan page, Twitter, etc. I’ve invested time and a ton of energy into building up a brand that thousands and thousands of people can recognize. Over time as I achieve my goals, these priorities will change position, and flex with my business and its development.
3. Lead Generation – I’ve written a high quality e-book titled “E-Business; “The Insider’s Edge” and rather than selling it, I chose to give it away to my audience in exchange for their email address. I’ve then made it easy for them to opt in at multiple points of contact they might have with my site, and then can start sending them information (remember priority #1?) that is related to our industry, and when I include an affiliate link to a product I’m discussing they are more likely to purchase through it if it’s something they happen to be in the market for, or that they feel would be of benefit to them.
4. Ad Revenue – Now in order to live; feed, and cloth myself I do still need to generate an income, and part of that income is going to come from advertisers, who promote their own sites, products, or services on mine in exchange for a monthly fee.
5. Sales Revenue – Now this can come from selling my own products like Blog Traffic Tactics, or selling affiliate products that tie in with our industry. I use tools like Market Samurai, or Tweet Attacks on a daily basis in order to be as productive as possible, and many of my readers are in similar situations. An easy way to reward a blogger for providing great information day in and day out is to purchase something you are planning to purchase anyway, through their affiliate link. You get your product, they make a commission, and you’ve now contributed in part to their success.
Now just because Sales are listed last doesn’t mean that they aren’t important to me, on the contrary it absolutely is. Money means freedom, shelter, food, time to learn, time to invent, opportunities, charities, and so much more. It’s just that I set my goals up this way in order to build a solid foundation first with which to grow upon. I’m now starting my second year, and my priorities will start to change as I move into my “growth” year.
Launching your own business is the best feeling in the world! It’s a lot of hard work, and creative thinking, as well as never ending need to learn and know more about your chosen niche or topic, but the feeling you get from your accomplishments are also never ending.
If you are starting or considering starting your own e-business, make sure to grab a copy of my free e-book. It’s filled with some great information that I still use today!
