Attracting Real Advertisers Takes More Than A Desperate Plea Banner
Just stop… the banner ads with the “Advertise Here” text and all of the open ad spots on your page simply aren’t working. If you want to get blog sponsors and advertisers on your site you are simply going to have to work for it.
Enough with the ad networks, and running Google Adsense just to send your traffic away for a few pennies. Lets get serious and start talking about bringing in quality advertisers that will advertise with you and pay a premium in the process.
Here’s how easy it is to get started, but way too many people are too afraid or lazy to actually do anything about it.
Step 1: Visit Your Competitor Web Sites and Blogs
You know who your audience is, and you know who your competitors are… go check them out right now! Now look through their web sites and see who is advertising on their sites. While your at it, take a look at their traffic stats and advertising rates if possible. Make a list of all the advertising and brands listed on your competitors sites. You will need them for step 2.
Step 2: Contact Your New Potential Advertisers
Now that you’ve taken the time to research your competitor sites and already created a list of advertisers who are spending money to get exposure on sites like yours, it’s time to contact them and see if they would like to advertise on your site. If they go forward with advertising, awesome! If not… there’s always step 3.
Step 3: Don’t Let the Advertiser Say No
So you made a cold call or sent an email to an advertiser to buy some ad spots on your site and they said no… big deal. Now you just need to sweeten the pot. After all, you are just serving dead “Advertise Here” banners anyway.
Offer your new potential advertisers the chance to buy advertising at a heavily discounted rate. If they still aren’t interested, throw in a review, or ask if they can do a media buy and commission campaign. This way you are paid a small amount for their placement on your site, then you will also earn a commission for any new leads and sales that are generated through your site. It’s a win-win situation.
Rinse and Repeat to Fill Your Ad Inventory
Yes my friends, it is that easy! Don’t wait for the advertisers to come to you, you need to go to them. Do you know how much money some of their web sites and ad companies are sitting on every month for their ad budgets? You are hundreds more times likely to see your ad space if you are aggressive and make an effort to contact companies versus just letting your banner ads try and sell for you.
Now get out there and fill your unsold ad space!
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Latest posts by Zac Johnson (see all)
- Getting Real Advertisers For Your Blog Is Stupid Easy! - April 25, 2012
Great article Zac, I agree completely. Loading up a blog with “advertise here” banners looks pretty unprofessional and you offer effective methods for gaining real advertisers. Nice job.
Even if you are just using place holder ads, it can make your banner advertisers want to be seen on your site if you are showing competitive ads!
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Zac Johnson recently posted..How Getting Banned from Google Adsense Can Be a Good Thing
Many bloggers offer an option for visitors to purchase advertising space on their blogs. Direct ads are typically shown in the form of banner ads or similar display ads provided directly to the blogger by the advertiser to be uploaded to the blog.
Lots of options when it comes to selling your own ads. You can do this through software and plugins like OIO Publisher, or through an ad network like BuySellAds.
Yes i am agree with Brian. Using Excessive Ads means coverting your blog from Blog to Ad Poster place. Awesome article Zac.
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Thanks.
Amit Shaw recently posted..Impact of the Recent Google Changes to You
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Great article Zac! The “advertise here” banner definitely look unprofessional, and a blog loaded with too many ads will appear like an advertising poster. The tips you have given here will help get more real advertisers without looking desperate.
It’s alright for blogs and web sites to have an occasional “Advertise Here” button on the site every once in a while, however when they are all over the place it’s quite horrible. Also, many sites won’t even take the time to split test their “Advertise Here” buttons… just because it’s an open ad spot, it doesn’t mean it could be further optimized for maximum click through rates!
Thanks Zac,
people don’t really know that there are some great quality advertisers out there that pay good money. People need to get rid of the banner blindness and start taking note of who is advertising where when they go to a site. Brian is right keep the blank ad spots to a minimum and just add one if you need to.
Great post got more?
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Brad recently posted..Spray Tanning is Very Safe California Spray Tan Explains
Exactly, and the price that many of these sites with open ad space would be willing to accept (compared to their overall ad spend budget) is peanuts. With enough effort, it would not take much to sell out all of your advertising if you have a quality site with traffic.
It seems easy when you have an established authority. Step 3: Don’t Let the Advertiser Say No may require great skills in communication and marketing yourself, I guess the only thing you could do is to offer your very best with quality and consistency. It’s been a great read!
The hardest part is getting your sites to that authority level, but when it does… good things happen.
Zac Johnson recently posted..How Getting Banned from Google Adsense Can Be a Good Thing
By the way, I have seen and understand that it is important to have many backlinks on sites that shall earn you money. But what is with websites which are intendedly “non-commercial”? Protecting internet users from email scams is not a field where you can make big revenue.
Google is changing the way they are indexing web sites right now. Links are always important, but how effective they are will depend on how they are given and received.
If you have a non-commercial site, I would imagine you aren’t trying to get advertisers on your site. If you have a web site for protecting users from email scams and looking to make money, there is a whole world of potential. Just look at how “consumer reports” related sites are making money… through ads for privacy protection, anti virus software and other related services.
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Zac Johnson recently posted..How Getting Banned from Google Adsense Can Be a Good Thing
You’ve really mentioned simple and best way to find interested advertisers. If they’re advertising on your competitors blog then there are good chances that they can advertize on your blog too.
Checking out the competition and contacting directly the advertisers seems like a good idea. I think that this methods has greater chances to succeed as compared to crowding the blog with ads.
It’s an excellent way to find out who the top advertisers are within your niche.
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Zac Johnson recently posted..How Getting Banned from Google Adsense Can Be a Good Thing
There are so many blogs on the web looking for advertisers so they can choose where to be and be tough in the negotiation of prices, you have to fight and work hard to get good advertisers and the advice in this article is the perfect guide how to do.
Excellent article Zac,
Too many advertise here ads could be detrimental, if a potential advertiser sees them their first thought could be ‘if there are so many available spaces and not many advertisers taking up the opportunity it could mean your site is of low traffic quality’ They could give up doing research before they have started!
Would it be best to have no advertise here banners on the site so the potential advertiser is left guessing and is forced to enquire if he thinks your site is worthy?
A desperate and poor man would not go to a job interview looking desperate and needy but would try his hardest to look the part, convey confidence and strength. Should the same be done for websites?
Regards
Andi
Andi the Minion recently posted..Tim’s Minions Interviews – Clair Trebes
Great analogy Andi, convey confidence and strength as in a job interview. I know I think “low traffic quality” when I see a widget full of advertise here banners.
I featured this comment on Pinterest at:
http://pinterest.com/pin/280208408035764097/
I’m a “real advertiser” and there are a few things I look for when I consider advertising on a blog:
1) the blogs stats: unique pageviews and reader engagement
2) how the blog’s content relates to my products
3) ad placement: ad spot must be in a prominent position
Also there’s no way I’ll advertise on a blog that looks cluttered, full of ads or contains poor, rehashed or stolen content…
Great comment John and I highlighted it on Pinterest at https://pinterest.com/pin/280208408035764046/
Thanks
I hate it as well when i see “Advertise here” images. It looks totally unprofessional and it is like begging for an advertisement. They should be asking to advertise on your blog,not you. Well at least this is the goal!
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Rashmi Sinha recently posted..WordPress Vs Joomla
Brian, are they other ways too besides the banner ads? Like product reviews or links? Google is not liking sites with too many ads these days. Or are you referring to more like 1 or 2 ads on the page only? I do not like sites/blogs that have a ton of ads all over them. It makes it hard to find and read the content. I’ve been playing with SocialSpark. Too soon to really know how it will work out. I have made a few dollars from affiliates as well. I like your point about not waiting for them to come to you – so true with anything you want – just go after it!
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Lisa recently posted..Why Do You Work Your Blog So Hard?
Hi Lisa, this was a guest post but I think Zac is just showing us how to replace pathetic “advertise here” banners with real paying advertisers. As far as affiliate, cpa ads and even sponsored blog posts, I guess that’s going to require some testing to see what works and where.
how can find the advertising rate for a competitors website
Awesome article. It’s a stupid act to have the banner ads with the “Advertise Here” text on a website and it looks unprofessional and it doesnot help you to take ads from advertiser.I like the way you explained step by step how to take ads from an advertiser and it really requires some effort.Thankyou!
It looks quite odd to have banner ads with the “Advertise Here” text and it doesnot help advertiser to search you and advertise on your website:)
I like the tips that you have shared here and step by step approach to reach your advertisers and take ads from them is a good possibility to have advertisement on your website.
Thank you Syeda
I my case many advertisers contact me for Advertisement but the problem is that i have no PayPal account to receive money.
You must live in an area that restricts PayPal Mohsin? That’s rough since PayPal has pretty much become the standard but there should be a couple of alternatives for you. Good luck.
Great post, contacting the advertisers work the best.
They will not find you if you don’t contact them, give coupon and lower the price in the email and you will get new customer.
thanks for sharing
My belief is create a demand, even if it is artificial and advertisers will come. Empty “advertise here” ads do the opposite of creating a demand. Nice write up.
You lost me at artificial Destin, that’s a sure fire way to ruin your reputation and impossible to hide. The advertiser will know almost immediately that the numbers are artificial when they get nothing for their advertising money. I recommend playing it straight and building a good reputation for long term growth. Just my two cents.
Brian, this article really made me think. The line “sending your readers away for pennies” really hit home. I’m on a couple of advertising services (Clickbank and the other one) and think I will put some effort into finding some sponsors that fit my content (which is getting zanier by the month). Yeah, I put up an “advertise here” text widget in my first week of blogging but it looked stupid and sad. I’m beginning to think running AdSense looks about the same.
You know Astro, that’s a great point. No one talks about it but as a blogger myself, I can’t help but think “amateur” whenever I see AdSense on a main blog. By main blog, I mean one that’s not an AdSense niche blog setup just for clicks. Those are disappearing quickly now and they were never true blogs anyway.
I quite agree. Those empty ad spaces looks unprofessional and are annoying at times, too.
Hmmm… I think I might have to look further into this. Selling advertising space might be worth it, especially as I start to grow my traffic. I’ve been promoting some Clickbank products, but hadn’t really thought much about what else I might could promote. Thanks for sharing!
Grady Pruitt recently posted..Understanding How to Properly Use the Secret Law of Attraction
High traffic can certainly help ad income Grady.
First, nice “get” Brian! Quality guest poster; love it!
Good stuff Zac. I actually have a blog with advertisers but I haven’t done anything towards getting more of them, and I like the approach you’ve given here. Definitely something I need to think about in improving my income on that front.
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Mitch Mitchell recently posted..I’m Just Sharing 10 Things You Must Have For A Happy Life
Thanks Mitch, Zac did a great job.
Yes i am agree with Brian. Using Excessive Ads means coverting your blog from Blog to Ad Poster place. interesting article Zac.
Hi Zac,
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thanks for sharing these good tips.
When you have an established site with good rankings and nice amount of traffic, advertisers will come voluntarily.
But do search for them and be proactive is a good idea, if you have a new site that need to start earning some money online.
Erik Emanuelli recently posted..The Secret of Blogging: Make Writing Quality Contents Your First Priority
Thanks Mitch, Zac did a great job…..
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Fahad recently posted..Hide IP Easy V5.1.8.6 (2012) | Mediafire |
Excellent post Zac!
Your slots don’t need to be empty.
What a smart idea. Go check out similar blogs with advertisers and contact them directly yourself.
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Samuel recently posted..Top WordPress Plugins To Reach The Top!
greats tips brian , just published a article on my blog from a guest , the article on my site encourages people to have a advertise here page and a small banner. make sure to check it out.
saad recently posted..4 Tips On How to Get Advertisers for Your Blog
am not getting advertisers on my blog….hope these tips will help me….
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Gautam recently posted..How To Check Whether Your Android Phone Is Rooted Or Not
I’m very happy to see my favorite inspirational affiliate marketer John here
Dear john you always rocks with advertising and affiliate marketing related topics. Thanks for your real tips to get real advertisers.
Sai Krishna recently posted..What are Main Advantages and Benefits of Having High Pagerank?
Nice article, Zac.
I like your point about not giving up after the first attempt of contacting a potential advertiser. I’ve done that a few times where the person hasn’t got back to me so I just left it, instead of following up with another attempt.
Rory recently posted..Building a Swing in the Forest (Video)
Those are some real nice tips Zac. Although one should have realistic expectations when contacting advertisers since most of them might refuse right away, there’s no harm in trying.