10 Secrets to Making Money with Advertising on Your Website
Oct. 09, 2009
22 Comments
Below is a post written by fellow entrepreneur, Jared O’Toole co-founder of Under30CEO.
A lot of people talk about how advertising is dead. Guess what? They are wrong! Advertising is not dead…the models are only changing and evolving.
Advertising is still a great way to monetize a site you just have to know what your getting into. Here are 10 ways to make the whole process easier on yourself…
1. Focus on content
Content is and always will be king! You will need great content and lots of it to drive an audience. Varying your content can be key. Make some social media friendly content ie. lists, but also have the in depth more thought out stuff. A steady dose of both will build and drive a powerful audience to a website.
2. Don’t worry about size
Even if your website isn’t huge its ok. Advertisers are looking for niche audiences. More then size concern yourself with defining that niche. Even the smallest niches can drive huge ad dollars if you prove your site is a player in it.
Find ways to measure those numbers. A great way to take a measured slice of your audience is to develop a Facebook fan page. It will track all the demographics of each fan and will chart it all out ie. age, gender, location. Perfect overview of your general audience.
3. Look to the Future
Whats the next ad model to come out? It never hurts to try campaigns and pitches. One thing that will never change is that companies will look to push their message in front of audiences. It’s up to you to create a new more effective method for them to do this on your platform. Look for the next big way to do this or some else will.
4. Hustling
There are companies that will buy that banner ad on your site. You just have to find them. This means calling and emailing everyone.
Gary Vaynerchuk gave a great description of this. He compared it to those times you see that guy with that extremely hot girl and your asking yourself how the hell he got her. He got her because he asked every hot girl he came across out and eventually someone said yes!
Same with selling ads. Its the hustle. Someone will eventually say yes!
5. Look outside “advertising”
Get companies to sponsor things on your site. Maybe a series of articles. An event. Even the entire site. Be creative and think beyond banner ads. There are probably quite a few sponsorship opportunities on your website if you look for them.
6. Build a Community
A strong community will be more likely to trust ads and partnerships you have with advertisers. A trustworthy community will lead to advertisers seeing results which means they will be happy and will consider advertising with you again.
This goes back to defining your niche. Advertisers want to see that community and know that they are active.
7. Put yourself in the advertisers shoes
How much would you pay to be on your site? Where would you want your ad on your site? What would make you buy a spot?
Think like you are buying something on your site and see how you feel about it. This will let you optimize your site and pitch to meet those advertisers needs.
8. Don’t be afraid to put ads front and center
Don’t over do it but people understand that nothing is free. Everyone needs to make money to keep things going. Having an ad or two near the top or in an article won’t corrupt a whole community if its whats keeping your site afloat.
Remember that if you plan on creating a serious revenue stream from ads you will have to use optimal locations for these ads. If your not willing to do that advertising may not be for your site.
9. Analyze others
Look at who is successful in the ad space. Mashable and Techcrunch are great examples (both do millions each year in advertising) but also look at sites in your industry. Even better try and find out what they were like in their early days.
Focus on where they place ads. What they get sponsorships for. Look at their media kits and what they pitch to advertisers. All of this will help form your campaign.
Don’t just look at these sites once. Keep checking in over the course of months. Ads and sponsorships will pop up in various ways overtime as they try new spots or get offered various deals.
10. Build other revenue streams
Yes the 10th secret is don’t use advertising! Build other streams and look beyond ads. Have multiple revenue streams. In the end maybe ads aren’t your million dollar ticket. So try multiple things and see what works and expands the best!
Just remember advertising is not dead, you can make big bucks from it you just have to understand what is best for you and your site.
22 Responses to “10 Secrets to Making Money with Advertising on Your Website”
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Oct. 09, 2009
[...] Secrets to Making Money with Advertising on Your Website Original source: My blog: 10 Secrets to… 1. Focus on content Content is and always will be king! You will need great content and lots of [...]
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Oct. 11, 2009
[...] Posted by benmaxime I've played, great idea! Good luck! Thank you! I just read the article Making Money with Advertising on Your Website | Ben Lang, Entrepreneur on your site and couldn't agree more. It basically sums up what we are trying to accomplish. Very [...]
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Oct. 18, 2009
Making Money with Advertising on Your Website | Ben Lang, Entrepreneur…
Thank you for submitting this cool story – Trackback from PimpThisBlog.com…
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Feb. 24, 2010
[...] Sale by Owner Option – Selling your Own Home Ideas | My Grandma's AdviceSecret Warcraft » Blog Archive » Make 500 Gold per Hour With GlyphsStager’s Secret Tips For When You Prepare a Property For Sale to Compete Against New Constuction | Property Marketing21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites and Steps to Great Conversion Rates | Marketing ShindigHomes selling in secret | Brisbane Property Investor Sell Your Home: How to Avoid the 7 Mistakes That Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars in the Sale of Your HomeMy Design Secrets | Creating a Home Office That Works for YouPay Per Click Success Secrets – 15 Reasons you Must Avoid for your Success in PPC Online Advertising | Lastarticle.comMaking Money with Advertising on Your Website | Ben-Lang.com [...]
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This is a really interesting post. I agree that advertising is not dead and will always be vital in a commercial world. The form of advertising is definitely changing as TV companies will point out that their revenues have been greatly reduced because of competition from the Internet.
It is more vital than ever that businesses know how to spend their money and time in promoting their business. And for businesses that have relied on advertising to pay the bills such as TV and Radio stations they need new ways to gain income.
Roland, thanks for your insight!
Regards.
Agreed Roland the models are just changing and businesses are looking for the best methods to get their message to people. Today it might be more cost effective for a company to advertise on 50 small niche blogs then to try and run a mass TV campaign.
Competitive analysis is key to success on any website, from literature to entrepreneurship, no matter the topic. Analyze your competition and see not only what they do right, but what they do wrong. From there, create a model of your own that mimics their strengths while avoiding their weaknesses at the same time.
And focusing on a niche pays too. Advertisers like targeted audiences as well as reaching the masses.
Thanks for the post, Jared.
Rocky, thanks for your comment.
Jared's blog is very impressive: http://under30ceo.com/
I'm a huge fan of niche. It has become to easy to reach the masses via the internet today. People love the idea that they can sell to someone in London, China, and New York at the same time. However I think all of this has made the idea of niche even more powerful to not only your business but for advertises looking to target people.
Great post, thanks for sharing the list.
No problem Alex!
this post is very helpful.. thanks to this…
Thanks for the comment, thank Jared!
"He got her because he asked every hot girl he came across out and eventually someone said yes!"
that's so true!!! This post definitely put some things in perspective, as far making money with your blog. One thing I'm gonna be working on is building a community of friends and networking with those around me!
Glad you learned from this great guest post. Thanks for commenting!
I don't think advertising is dead either but traditional advertising IS growing old and new media is taking hold.
I like point 2 because you don't have to be the biggest player online or in a niche but do be a big player in your targeted niche. Also point 3, we should always be testing and keeping an eye out for trends.
In fact I like all these points, they are all awesome
Thanks for your opinion Blaine!
Great post! I particularly loved this analogy:
“Those times you see that guy with that extremely hot girl and your asking yourself how the hell he got her. He got her because he asked every hot girl he came across out and eventually someone said yes!”
Very nicely put across
Yeah its quite funny, Jared O’Toole is a funny guy
Great points, especially #4.
As for #2, are you talking about size as in the size of the site (number of pages)? Or the size of the readership?
J @ The Digital Life & Tools Blog´s last blog post: Updating Your WordPress Blog Too Frequently: Avoiding Getting Banned from Ping Services
It’s referring to traffic and readership…
Thanks for commenting!