How to find Advertisers for your Blog

April 29, 2009 by Elizabeth
Filed under Blogging For Business

Welcome back!

Finding Advertisers For Your Blog

If you want to make money from your blog, you need to plan how you intend to do it before you begin posting. Most bloggers spend an enormous amount of time and effort writing and marketing their blogs without giving any real thought to how they plan to monetize their work. That’s a mistake that leads to frustration.

There are a lot of different blogging revenue models. Today, I’m going to show you how to create a blog that advertisers will fight to claim space on. I’ll also explain how to find those advertisers and whet their appetite.

Stick To Your Niche

Years ago, sponsors wanted exposure to raw traffic. If you could deliver enough eyeballs, they wanted space on your blog. That’s changing. Advertisers are realizing that blogs that are tightly focused on their core topic may deliver fewer eyeballs, but the readers are far more targeted. As a result, sponsors enjoy higher conversions. Pick your niche and stick to it.

Say Goodbye To Adsense

Adsense can be a fantastic way to generate income from your blog. Unfortunately, it can also become an obstacle to growing your advertising revenue down the road. First, it’s too easy to rely on Adsense as your primary blogging income. That makes it hard to wean yourself from it. Second, it lowers the perceived value of your advertising spots. A small 1-ad or 2-ad block may be fine, but multiple 4-ad Adsense blocks can make your blog seem unprofessional to potential advertisers.

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Targeted Search Traffic Is Key

Blogs are especially well-suited for attracting organic search traffic. Before you begin writing blog posts, identify the keywords that are being searched most often by your audience. Include those keywords in your titles, tags, and throughout your content. Once your blog begins ranking for them, you can show potential advertisers who want to reach your audience.

For example, suppose that you maintain a blog that is focused on mountain bikes. Let’s further suppose that, after some effort, you rank in the top 3 on Google for the keyword “discount hardtail mountain bikes.” Hundreds of businesses that sell hardtail mountain bikes would love exposure to that search traffic through advertising on your blog.

Create An Advertising Package

For potential sponsors who find your blog (as opposed to your approaching them), create a page that provides the information they need to make a decision. For example, list your available ad space sizes, advertising rates, traffic stats, and visitor demographic data. Include the number of RSS readers, notable search rankings, and even Alexa information. By providing these details, you’ll make it easy for sponsors to contact you to reserve ad spots.

Approach Smaller Advertisers First

If you’re just starting your blog, you probably won’t be able to attract the largest companies in your space. Start with the smaller companies and offer lower rates. Even though you’ll generate less advertising revenue in the beginning, you can raise your rates as your traffic grows. Over time, the smaller sponsors will be replaced by larger sponsors at much higher rates.

Don’t wait until you have hundreds of readers to plan your blog revenue model. Think about how you want to generate income as you’re creating your blog. If you choose to pursue the advertising revenue model, plan to attract direct sponsors in lieu of Adsense. There are many popular blogs which generate six-figure incomes through private advertisers. With time, effort, and planning, you can join their ranks.