8 Steps to Advertising on Your Blog
Note: I may earn money or products from the companies, products, or links mentioned in this post.
1. Get to Know Your Stats.
My first suggestion is to get to know your readers and your statistics. Are your readers stay-at-home moms, wives, or single? Do they have children? What is the average age of those that read your blog? You can find the answers to these questions and more through asking people to respond to a survey, an audience snapshot from alexa.com, or just by conversing with and getting to know your readers.
Once you know where your main readership lies, then it’s time to study your statistics. If you don’t have a site that measures how many views your blog gets, get one NOW! I recommend:
- Stat Counter – This is what I currently use and it works great with both Blogger and WordPress. It’s very easy to use and install and tells you almost everything you need to know about your blog’s incoming traffic.
- Google Analytics – I hear this is the best you can have. The only problem is I have never been able to figure out how to install it.
- Jetpack – This is great if you have WordPress. I currently use this for my every day stat needs, and use Stat Counter for everything else!
When you have figured out your stats, then it’s time to take a look at two things: your monthly page views and your unique visits. Those are your most important numbers. When you are averaging 3,000-5,000 view per month then it’s time to start advertising!
2. Setting Your Prices.
Your next step would be to decide on your advertising prices and what you want to offer. Do you want to offer advertising space, reviews, blog posts, and Facebook and Twitter mentions? Or would you rather keep it simple and just do one of those? All those things play an important part into how you will set your prices.
You also want to think about your stats again. If you are in the 3,000-5,000 range then I would not charge over $10.00. If you are in a higher ranger than it’s going to be a little bit higher. The prices are up to you, but remember to keep in range with what other bloggers in your niche are doing too. This is a great time to check out your favorite bloggers and see what you like about their advertising pages. Do they offer something extra that you like? Do they have a certain way of doing things that really stands out? Take note of that and come up with creative ways to do the same.
3. Set up an Advertising/PR Page.
Now that you have figured out what you want to offer and the prices you are going to set, it’s time to set up your advertising page! Again it’s time to see what you like and don’t like about other people’s advertising pages. What is something you can add that other people don’t have? Do you want your page to be simple or do you want everything neatly laid out?
Some people have a section that says to email them for more info, but personally I prefer to know what that blogger’s stats are and maybe even their prices before I email to ask questions. I like to lay it all out. Again, this is your choice so do it how YOU want to do it!
Things you might want to include on your page:
- Your stats.
- Number of Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest followers.
- The kind of services you are offering.
- Your prices.
- Your Google page rank.
- Your number of RSS subscribers.
- Your email address.
- Your disclosure policy or a link to your disclosure policy.
You can choose to add all of these things or you can choose to only add some and have people email you for the rest. It’s all up to you! You can see an example of an advertising page here on my blog.
4. Set up your Disclosure Policy.
Here is everything you need to know about making a disclosure policy and why it’s important. it takes five minutes of your time and will be a life-saver in the future I am sure. You can see an example of mine here. Go to disclosurepolicy.org to make your own.
5. Advertising Spaces
6. Add Some Affiliate Buttons
In some of your ad spaces I would suggest putting 1-2 affiliate buttons up. Affiliate buttons can help you earn some money by referral, they show you are serious about advertising, and they make it look like you have ads up which makes you more trustworthy. One of my favorite affiliates is Shabby Apple. You can also search for affiliates on your favorite websites – just scroll down to the bottom and look for “affiliate program.”A lot of websites have them now and also a lot of authors – especially those of e-books. So start finding your favorite products and refer them to others by using affiliate buttons!
8. How to Attract Advertisers.
This is the hardest and most important question I get asked. Every month is different. Sometimes you will get more advertisers and sometimes you will get none. It’s just the way it goes. If you are just beginning the best ways to get people interested and to let people know that you are offering advertising is to:
- Blog about it. – Blogging about it lets all your readers know you are starting on a new venture!
- Offer a discount. – Offer a discount for the season, for a holiday, for a special occasion, or just because!
- Do a giveaway. – Offer a giveaway on your blog or another blog and let the prize be FREE advertising.
- Post about it on Facebook/Twitter. – Make sure to tell all your family and friends, you’d be surprised at how many people have small businesses!
- Offer trades. – Trade blog buttons with another blogger. It’s free, but shows that other people are willing to have their button on your blog.
- Advertise on other blogs. – Advertise YOUR blog on other blogs. Get more traffic and get your ad space seen!
- Contact other small businesses/etsy shops. – Contact small businesses, family, friends, and etsy shops and let them know you offer advertising. Tell them about your rates and your page views and let them know why advertising with you would be good for their business!
The best way to attract advertisers is to make sure your blog is attractive.
- Get your own domain. – A lot of big advertisers look for blogs and websites that are serious. Getting your own domain shows that you have stepped out on your own and that you are serious about your blog. You can buy a custom domain on blogger for $10.00 a year or purchase your own hosting and domain through Bluehost or another host if you are on WordPress.
- Continue to grow your blog. – The best thing you can do to get advertisers is to continue focusing on growing your blog. Study other big blogs, ask questions, find out what they are doing right. Learn SEO techniques and read up on the latest blogging tips and incorporate them when you can.
Bonus Tip: Passionfruit Advertising
Several months ago, I made a great discovery: there is a website that can handle ALL your ad inquiries and postings, saving you tons of time and making it easy-peasy for advertisers to buy advertising. I was a little leery about it at first. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a scam. I watched other websites that used it, read about it on their main site and slowly started incorporating it onto my blog. I have been using it for awhile now and I am VERY happy with it. It makes things so easy for the blogger and the advertiser and cuts down on half the work. Visit Passionfruitads.com to find out more!
What about YOU? Do you have any advertising tips that aren’t mentioned here? I would love to hear them!
First time commenting, but I’ve been reading your blog for a few weeks now!
Thanks for sharing this! I’m not currently interested in advertising on my blog, but I’ve always wondered how you begin as far as setting prices, getting advertisers, etc. đ
Hi Callie!
I am so glad you decided to comment! đ Glad you liked the post and hope it is helpful to you in the future!
Very helpful, thanks! Bookmarking this for sure đ
Glad you liked it! Hope it is helpful to you1
What a great article, definitely bookmarked for when I am ready. Nice job Kathryn!!
Thank you, glad you liked it and thanks for stopping by! đ
This is fabulous piece for any blogger to stash in their knowledge base! Great!
Glad to help! đ
Thank you for your great tips — so glad I stopped over from SITS Sharefest!
Thanks for stopping by, glad it was helpful to you! đ
Thanks for the tips. Great information.
Visiting from SITS.
Thanks and thanks for stopping by!
I am starting to think about advertising on my blog, these are good tips to think about! One question… you recommended charging $10, is that per month? I’m assuming monthly rates are standard, but are they?
Found you through Saturday Sharefest đ
Hi Kate,
Glad this could be so helpful to you! Yes, that would be $10. per month. Some people charge differently and you of course can do it how you want, but most I believe charge by the month! Thanks for stopping by!
Bookmarking this page for future use. Thank you so much. Visiiting form Sharefest.
Hi Laura,
glad it was helpful! Thanks for stopping by! đ
Great blog post! I was thinking of starting to advertise on my blog but I don’t have enough followers yet. đ Great blog post to keep in mind for the future.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for the link to create the disclosure policy. It makes it all neat and clean!
Thanks so much for including the number of page views you should be averaging before you start advertising. I checked my stats and I’m still under 3000 page views. Bookmarking your post and concentrating efforts on building a base. Hope to be able to come back to this later this year.
Perfect timing, do you have to include a disclosure statement for affiliate ads or posts?
Great tips! I do very little private ads on my site & you’ve given me the courage to move forward.
Very useful tips–thanks. I’m pinning for future reference.
This is a long term goal of mine….my first step was getting google analytics on my site. I finally did it yesterday!! Are you using wordpress?? I had read tutorials and just didn’t quite get it….but finally found this video yesterday and followed it’s very simply non-techy instructions…and bam! Google analytics is working on my site now. I’m super excited I was brave enough to try it, and it didn’t screw up anything on my blog. So, thought I’d share the video: http://wordpress.tv/2009/05/29/getting-started-with-google-analytics/
I hope I can get a better grasp on my stats, because I’ve just been using the jetpack plugin, and while it gives me some information, I think it’s not official enough for some people. đ Great post. Pinned it so I can refer to it later.
This couldn’t have come at a better time!! I was just thinking about this and your advice is great. My blog is still waaaay too small to advertise, so Im saving this blog for when it grows. Which option do you use on passionfruit? I think there are 3 plans. If I only make a couple bucks off ads, I prob shouldn’t do it, huh? I have google analytics and don’t really have a clue how to use it!
Thank you!
Great tips on this post! I am in the process of migrating from Blogger over to WP and this type of info you’ve shared is motivating me to give advertising a try on my site.
Visiting from SITS đ
So, so helpful! Found this through the SITS gals and I am glad I did. I am still growing my blog, but I want to learn what I need to do now for later. I love all your tips. So easy to understand and I finally feel less intimidated by everything! I appreciate all the tips. Wonderful blog, too!
Carmen
Thank you so much for these tips I have been wondering how to do the advertising.
I just found a link for this on FB and really appreciate all the valuable information you’ve shared here. I’m not quite ready for ads on my blog yet but I’m starting to think about it and now I at least have a good idea how it works. Thanks again.
LOVE this post! I started my blog in July ’13, so I’m definitely not at the 3k-5k monthy visits level, more like 1k a month, but my goal one day is to make this my JOB! This helps me put into perspective what it will take to make it “pay”. I’m still struggling to get people to actually hit the “follow” button, and I know there are more consistent readers than actual followers…Glad I found your site through sweetmiles.com!
This is great advice. I’m saving the link to come back to this when we’re ready to sell advertising on our site. Right now we’re just running Google AdSense? Do you know if that causes a conflict with other advertisers when we start to move in this direction. Also thought you’d want to know, I clicked on the link for Shabby Apple and got a 404 error on their site.
Visiting you from The SITS Girls. Great post, lots of useful information, thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for visiting, glad it was helpful to you!
You are very welcome. Keep up your good blogging!
These are really some of the effective steps to advertise a blog. I really like your bonus tip.
Thankxx for sharing this kathryn !! đ
Thank you, glad they were helpful to you!
We are newbies and approaching the monthly 3k visits so I am definitely bookmarking this article! Thank you. This is one of the most helpful posts I’ve read yet. -Kathy
That’s awesome, I hope it all works out for you and thank you for visiting! đ
This is an excellent, excellent post! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. I’ve saved it to Evernote for future reference!
Awesome article đ
How would you go about getting involved with Shabby Apples affiliate? I can’t find a link anywhere on their site
Hi Colleen, I tried finding a link, but it seems that they may have taken down their affiliate program. The only link I could find on it is this: https://www.popshops.com/affiliate-programs/commission-junction/united-states/merchants/7852/shabby-apple-affiliate-program. Good luck!
Thank you so much for this post! I am new to this, and I’ve looked over postings about making money on a blog before, but nothing this explanatory. Thanks so much! I’ve pinned it.
Helpful tips you have here.
But where is tip #7 or am i just missing something?
These are helpful “starter” points, thank you. In the pricing section, when you talk about $10- is it for a month/day? I don’t plan to start advertising in the very near future (still working on my readership) but I am sure this is something all bloggers think about at some point. Have you covered AdSense?
thanks again.
Hi Kathryn! Love this post. Definitely very helpful. I still need to wait on a few things you mentioned but I know I will be using them in the future.
I did notice you aren’t sure how to install google analytics. I am very new to blogging but I found this awesome tutorial in less than 5 minutes you can set up Google Analytics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0F7jCovhpQ
Let me know how it goes or if you use it!