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You Don't Make Money? Get Rid Of Your Ads!

UserPost

6:12 pm
March 8, 2011


The Financial Blogger

Member

posts 429

Hey!

 

I'm done to write another piece of info. After asking what you want to read here, I have received several comments on how to make money with your site. Some of you want:

- Get noticed by advertisers

- Optimze their website

- Simply to make more money

 

I would split this article into 2 simple questions that will help you a lot to make advertising choices.

 

#1 Which kind of online income do you want to generate?

The first question you need to answer is which kind of online income you want to get in your pockets. You basically have 4 options:

 

- Adsense

Description: This is a classic. We all know adsense and we all know how it works. The big G posts relevant ads on your site. Each click worth a few cents to a few bucks.

Pros: relevant (not too spammy) ads, easy to use, modify and track.

Cons: you don't have any control over ad content, it is impossible to know which clicks worth more.

Requirements to be successful: get search engine traffic (more likely to click on ads), get a lot of impressions (most of sites will show a click through rate around 2-3%).

Ways to optimize: colors must blend in your design, large boxes get more clicks, play with image & text or text only ad display.

 

- Private advertiser (links, banners, widget, etc)

Description: those ads are paid by companies (mostly SEO firms) looking to increase the ranking of their clients. 

Pros: you control the ad you want on your site, you control the price and the number of ads, it's an easy way to make a quick buck.

Cons: your site may look too spammy and get penalized, you may lose regular readers.

Requirements to be successful: No matter what you hear (I know Alexa rank is pretty popular around here as well as MozRank) but Page Rank is a must for 95% of private advertisers. If you have a PR of 0, chances are that you will have very little advertisers interested. How can you increase your Page Rank? Honestly, simply concentrate on writing great content an gather links from bigger guys than you. This is as simple as that ;-).

Ways to optimize: Get an advertising page, advertising contact and create an advertising package. Those 3 things will make you easier to find by advertisers, easier to contact and you will look professional by preparing a pdf file for your potential advertisers. Another tip would be to crreate an "advertising tracker" in Excel so you keep track of links, dates and contact info.

- Affiliate programs

Description: those are products you recommend or mention on your website. There is a tracking link registering a sale on your name if you refer a client. 

Pros: you can select the product, you are aware of the payout and sometimes, selling a product that you beleive in is easy.

Cons: it's hard to get conversion, your site may look spammy if you advertise too many products, product reviews are too common and most readers are immune (read bored!) by them.

Requirements to be successful: get a lot of traffic, but most importantly, get engaged readers (people that read you on a steady basis and that you figure as an authority in their mind). Another way to be successful is to get targetted traffic from specific keyword.

Ways to optimize: do not neglect to include affiliate links everywhere you see them fit (read: to not over advertise, but if you talk about a product or sevice, you should think of adding an affiliate link somewhere). Do keyword research to find the best way to get targetted traffic.

- Selling your own product

Description: this is your own product that you manufacture. most of the time, bloggers sell ebooks.

Pros: you have full control on everything (price, product, placement, advertising type, etc.)

Cons: it's hard to get conversion, it's even harder to create and market your own product!

Requirements to be successful: get an important loyal readership base. if people don't follow you already, they are less likely to buy a product the first time they go on your site.

Ways to optimize: try to make a marketing buzz, use your friends to promote, try to get the attention from the big guys.

 

#2 Are you making money? Then get rid of your ads!

Now that we have looked at the different type of advertising, you have to make your choice. In fact, it is very rare that you will be able to earn money from the 4 types of advertising from the same website. This is especially true when you are considering affiliate products or selling your own products. Each click on Adsense is a click away from the product you sell.

 

Most importantly, if you don't make money with an ad after a month, TAKE IT OFF! I'll take a quote from the movie The Social Network: "ads suck!". The less you have, the more readers will appreciate your site. Too often I go to site where I see irrelevant or boring ads. I'm sure they don't generate any income, but people put them in because they think they need to put ads to make money. You don't! In fact, the less ads you plug, the more money you can make. And if you don't have much traffic, just forget about advertising. Start by winning some races before you shift your car into a NASCAR look ;-).

 

Then again, I hope this little piece was educational. If you have any questions, please answer back to this post!

6:31 pm
March 8, 2011


SavingMentor

Member

posts 217

I like the NASCAR analogy – thanks for yet another informative post!

6:50 pm
March 8, 2011


The Financial Blogger

Member

posts 429

SavingMentor said:

I like the NASCAR analogy – thanks for yet another informative post!


It's hard to say no to money, but always remember the NASCAR picture before accepting any form of ad ;-)

10:27 pm
March 8, 2011


Buck Inspire

Member

posts 1546

TFB,

 

Love your informative articles.  Ironically, I followed your previous post on how to optimize AdSense.  Honestly, after a few weeks.  Nada.  I think I'm gonna refocus on content, take down my ads and affiliate banner.  

 

You're right, I was driving my NASCAR car around my block with me cheering and screaming, I'm a NASCAR driver!

 

Thanks again! Laugh

10:37 pm
March 8, 2011


Ken @ Spruce Up Your Finances

Member

posts 13

Very informative post. My blog is still fairly new and no PR.So far, I'm only running google ads and have gotten some revenue lately but they are still chump change but good enough to cover the monthly fees (hosting, internet connection, etc). You're right about people who click on those google ads are mostly coming from the search engines as most of the regular readers are "ads immune."

4:19 am
March 9, 2011


My Personal Finance Journey

Member

posts 3159

Thanks so much for the advice! I especially agree with the idea of removing ads after about a month if they don't make any money

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey

Visit me at My Personal Finance Journey

Email me jacob@mypersonalfinancejourney.com

Be my Facebook Friend, Follow my journey on Twitter

7:02 am
March 9, 2011


Aloysa

Member

posts 910

And this is why I don't have ads on my site anymore!

Creator of:

7:12 am
March 9, 2011


The Financial Blogger

Member

posts 429

Buck Inspire said:

TFB,

 

Love your informative articles.  Ironically, I followed your previous post on how to optimize AdSense.  Honestly, after a few weeks.  Nada.  I think I'm gonna refocus on content, take down my ads and affiliate banner.  

 

You're right, I was driving my NASCAR car around my block with me cheering and screaming, I'm a NASCAR driver!

 

Thanks again! Laugh


Buck,

 

if you make some modification and you don't wait until you reach a significant number of impression (e.g. more than 1,000 impression), you won't feel the difference. I'm usually able to see the difference when I make a modification after 1,000 impression. If you look at a smaller number of impression, 1 or 2 clicks can change your data ;-)

 

I like your site as is. much cleaner and looks professional too!

 

I would take off one tag cloud (2 is a bit too much, don't you think?)

 

cheers,

 

Mike.

8:25 am
March 9, 2011


Buck Inspire

Member

posts 1546

TFB,

 

Nice catch, I didn't think anyone would scroll to the end.  It was automatically created by my theme.  I edited my footer and cleaned it up.

 

Thanks! Laugh

6:35 pm
March 9, 2011


Sunil from The Extra Money Blog

Member

posts 362

this is a very interesting post.  from experience, i have 2 niche websites with absolutely no ads. the websites generate income from affiliate sales and sales of their own digital products.

the effectiveness of ads in my experience has all to do with 1) your topic and 2) the type of audience you have. a website on internet marketing or teaching how to make money online likely won't get many clicks to adsense ads because 1) readers are likely aware of them 2) are immune to them 3) simply don't want them

The Extra Money Blog– Expedited Wealth Building Through Multiple Streams of Active & Passive Income (Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing, Personal Finance)

6:46 pm
March 9, 2011


Invest It Wisely

Member

posts 2019

I removed the sidebar ad since ecpm was quite low — now I just have the block below the title on the single post page. so far I think my adsense is actually doing better overall this month. Next month I'll try switching to the text-only version which is something I believe you mentioned as well.

1:39 am
March 10, 2011


The Financial Blogger

Member

posts 429

Invest It Wisely said:

I removed the sidebar ad since ecpm was quite low — now I just have the block below the title on the single post page. so far I think my adsense is actually doing better overall this month. Next month I'll try switching to the text-only version which is something I believe you mentioned as well.


For most of my sites, text only ads are more performing. I really don't know why.

 

From time to time, I play around with color and image to see if stats would change. I guess this is the secret of optimizing each website to see what ads are fit. good luck!


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