Monetizing Your Blog by Todd Garland
Last Friday, I listened to a segment of Webmaster Radio with Todd Garland from BuySellAds. I met Todd a while back through Dan, a mutual friend. Todd’s a nice guy who has had success with his ad network he built from the ground up. Check out the site if you’re in the web industry to see a really polished interface.
The topic of the segment was “Monetizing Your Blog”, which interests me as I have a project in early stages that could potentially sell ad space in the future. Here are some notes I took during the interview. I missed the last 10 or so minutes.
- You need to figure out how to build a site that brings people back for the quality content.
- Once you drive the traffic, then you can open up your master spreadsheet.
- Google Adsense is easy to drop in and you can potentially make money the next day. However, it looks tacky and can reduce a site’s trust.
- Charging a flat rate tends to bring in more serious buyers who will commit for a month than the CPM crowd who can be fickle.
- If you aren’t part of an ad network, you could use Paypal Subscriptions.
- [Question from chatroom]:
Personally, I use the OIO Publisher plugin to manage my advertising. I set it up and forget about it. All I gotta do is approve ads when they are purchased and I keep all the money. Why would I use BuySellAds?
With an ad network like BuySellAds, you get network value. Not only are people finding you from visiting your site and advertising with you directly, they find you through a reputable network.
Hear the archived interview at http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/press-this/2009/09/29/monetizing-your-blog/