Advertising is by far the most popular monetization methods for blogs and websites. That is because running some ads on a site is both easy and efficient. It’s easy because you just need to copy and paste some code and you are set. It’s efficient because if you stick to the major advertising networks your earnings will be pretty decent.
Despite these advantages, I often hear bloggers and webmasters complaining that they are not making as much money as they would like with the ads on their sites. Sometimes this is a problem with the site itself. For instance, if the the number of monthly visiors is too low there is nothing one could do to boost the earnings. Many times, however, the site gets a decent amount of traffic, so the earnings are low because the advertising setup is not optimized.
If you are in this situation, below you’ll find 3 tips that will help to maximize your advertising earnings:
1. Experiment with in-text advertising
Most bloggers and website owners rely exclusively on AdSense or banner ads when it comes to advertising. One type of advertising that complements those quite well is in-text advertising. In-text ads are placed directly in the text of your site (for instance inside your articles or blog posts), and it’s main advantage is the fact that it’s contextual and integrated with your content. This will help to boost your earnings because users who might not see your AdSense ads will see the in-text ads, and vice-versa.
If you want a recommendation of an in-text advertising network, check out Infolinks. They are the world leaders when it comes to in-text ads, meaning that you’ll have plenty of advertisers to work with and reliable payments once you start making some money.
2. Use all your inventory
Making money via advertising is a numbers game. There more impressions your banners get, the more money you will make. If you want to maximize your earnings you need to make sure that you are displaying ads on all pages of your site. For instance, I have seen blogs that only display ads on single post pages, leaving out the homepage, the category and archive pages. The site owner is leaving some money at the table by not putting some banners on those pages as well.
3. Sell your own ads as well
Working with established advertising networks is a good idea, as you’ll be making money from day one, and the process will be pretty straight forward. Apart from doing this, however, you should also advertising spots directly to companies, for instance by having an “Advertise with Us” page on your site. This is important because some companies prefer to work directly with site owners, as this gives them more flexibility when it comes to banner types and positioning. If you don’t offer this option, therefore, in the long run you could be leaving money at the table.
4. Test, Test and Test
There are so many possibilities when it come to advertising that you will only find the optimal combination for your site if you test everything. For instance, should you display a banner above or below the post content| Should you align the banners to the left or to the right| Should you use a white or a dark background on the banner| You need to know the answers to those questions, and the only way to find them is to test. One nice tool you can use for this purpose is Optimizely. It will guide your through the process and provide all the reports you need.
About Michelle
Michelle (aka Meesh) is your classic girl-preneur who is passionate about helping others achieve their financial goals. She is a regular contributor to several financial publications including DBT. She is especially passionate about empowering women to take control of their financial future.
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