How to Make Your Blog Attractive to Advertisers and Traditional Media
Originally online journals used for recording and sharing personal perspectives, blogs have gradually become an established form of online media.
Mini-hubs of social interaction, blogs have gained an interested audience derived from a smörgåsbord of keywords, communities, interests and demographics.
They have evolved into platforms allowing traditional media and businesses to reach communities hitherto immune to their advertising efforts. Because of their strong integration with niche communities, blogs are also becoming an invaluable part of any viral marketing or promotional campaign.
The Value of Blogs as Advertising Platforms
A recent analysis of the advertising revenue earned by bloggers in 2006 examines the rising value of blogs as advertising platforms. Utilizing data from Chitika’s network of 12,000 blogs and Technorati’s ranking system, several conclusions were reached:
Ad revenue in a blog is more sensitive to the rank of the blog..One reason for this may be the social value of advertising in a blog. If online advertising is like advertising in a mall, advertising in the blogosphere is like advertising in a country club.
Apparently, the top 15% (rank-wise) blogs accounted for approximately 90% of the total revenue earned. The report goes on to suggest that the overall social popularity or size of a blog is important to advertisers.
There are several major weaknesses in the report. For example, it uses a small sample size and does not take into account the indirect income generated by a blog.
Another problem is the focus on Technorati rank instead of traffic figures, which has a higher relevance when it comes to blog advertising revenue.
While the link between the statistical data and conclusion is not strong, I agree that the ability to influence a specific target audience appeals to advertisers.
Traditional Media’s Growing Interest in Blogs
News broke today that Discovery Communications purchased TreeHugger.com, a environment and sustainable development blog, for $10 million dollars.
In the issued Press Release , Discovery gushed predictably about how the partnership is a way to fulfill their vision of ‘bringing green living to the masses‘.
And rightly so. Discovery just acquired the most popular and respected blog in the environment niche. Treehugger’s figures: 1.4 million unique monthly visitors, 13,500 posts and 35K feed subscribers.
This includes archives of video podcasts, radio shows, newsletters and a job board. An established niche blog which reaches an large audience through multiple streams of communication.
To put it another way, an influencer with a community of readers and supporters.
How to Make Your Blog a Magnet for Big Advertisers/Media
Treehugger’s purchase exemplifies traditional media’s growing interest in blogs. Large advertisers as well, have money to spare and they are looking for blogs which offer the best platform for their brand.
If you own a well established blog within a particular niche, you have a potential money maker. One way to improve your blog income is to focus on attracting both big advertisers and traditional media.
Here are some tips on how to do so:
- Actively contact advertisers to look for ad buyers. Passively relying on advertisers to contact you limits your ad selling potential. At the very least, create an advertising page for your website.
- Think of your blog as a business. Monitor your traffic and webpages with conversion ratios in mind. Set up auxiliary streams of income (Job board, online stores) to improve your site’s perceived income value.
- Consider syndicating your content through alternative means (podcasts, newsletters etc.). Contact online and traditional magazines and offer some of your articles for free in return for credit.
- Build a community around your site by actively engaging in dialog with other similar blogs in your niche. Create forums, social voting sites or allow users to generate content for your site as well.
- Develop social proof indicators such as the Alexa Rank, Technorati Rank or RSS Feed subscribership. While these indicators of social proof can be flawed, they are widely accepted and acknowledged by traditional media and some parts of the general public.
- Establish Authority by focusing on a specific topic in great depth. Spread your opinions by contributing articles to online magazines, blogs and newsletters. Get interviewed if possible.
- Hire writers/guest bloggers so you can focus on strategic planning for your blog. Multiple writers will also help establish your blog as an online publication or community blog.
A strong community that trusts and support your blog is attractive to advertisers, particularly because they can leverage your personal reputation or blog brand.
Building advertising partnerships with traditional media and online businesses is an effective way to generate a substantial amount of regular income from your blog.
For more tips on how to earn money blogging, subscribe to Dosh Dosh today.
“Think of your blog as a business.”
I agree. Blogging today isn’t a personal journal anymore. If you’re blog is more than just what you made it to be, take advantage of it. Blogs today have more value than before.
Sly from Slyvisions.com
Getting people interested in spending money to advertise on your blog is a hard thing to do. You need to focus on setting the correct price too and prove to them why they should give you their money. Like you said, an advertising page is a good start.
Great tips!
I laugh when I hear so called “SEO Experts” say that Alexa and Technorati rankings are worthless. They obviously do not realize that many pay per post, review and link brokers use these numbers to determine your pay.
These rankings can be the difference in you getting $30 for a post or $300!
Don
I’d also add longevity to the list. The age of a blog (not the domain) is an increasingly important factor that advertisers look at.
I agree that when a blog is trusted and supported by many readers, advertisers will be willing to spend their advertising dollars on that blog.
Another tip I’d add to attract traditional media attention:
1. Make yourself part of what the media is covering
Environmental blogs are far more likely to get attention at a time when the environment is on the agenda. Political bloggers get attention at election time, etc. Hurricane Katrina blogs were often mentioned in coverage of the disaster.
Though I’d suggest not taking the ‘ambulance chasing’ approach for ethical reasons…
very interesting post.
such as erik said: It’s a hard thing to do. I have tried it, and it’s not easy.
and about “hire writers/guest bloggers” my be I can try it.
Anyone know others resources?, please share here…
Maki is really insightful. unless you have significant traffic, monetizing or attempting to monetize your blog is time poorly spent.In this sphere first you get the traffic, then you get the money.Blogging business sounds to me like a pyramid scheme, top bloggers bank 90 percent of ad revenue and the guys at the bottom scramble and scrap for crapp. Atleast i enjoy writing my vlog, until i build significant traffic as emphasized implicitly, my vloging(i have a vlog) will be more personal then business.
I guess it depends what the purpose of your blog is. If it’s just to generate Adsense revenue, then I can understand why the “bottom” 85% are apparently scraping the barrel.
In reality, I don’t want Adsense ads on my blog – I’d much rather be promoting my own products and services, and establishing my authority in my niche.
Blogging shouldn’t just be about scraping together some ad revenue
Doshdosh, you did it again!
“Actively Contact Advertisers”
I see this all the time on different blogs, but no one really gives any detail on how to do it. How would you go about this? I mean I’m sure it’s a little more than “Hey want to advertise on my blog?” I guess I just don’t know what to say without seeming spammy or pushy. Ya know?
Not that my site is big enough or has enough traffic yet to have people wanting to advertise, but maybe one of these days…
Deron,
I actually go into a lot of detail on how to get advertisers for your website. You can find my series of articles on direct advertising at the following links:
Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners: How to Develop an Alternative Revenue Source
Remember to check out the links at the end of the article above for the answers to your questions.
Thanks Maki! I’ll check them out. I should have searched first before asking I guess.
Good site you’ve got here. Hopefully I can learn something. You’re in my reader now.
hey those are great tips that I’ll put in use soon, til now I hadn’t even considered having an advertising page I’ll explore that option more
Maki –
Would you recommend getting rid of Adsense ads on one’s website?
I’ve heard big advertisers look down on this as a indication of a low quality blog and non-premium advertising, especially since they could undercut your direct advertising rates by advertising directly through google.
ReggieCasual,
No I don’t recommend getting rid of Adsense ads on your site. Big advertisers usually aim for branding/traffic and direct advertising usually allows them to achieve both aims. A site will definitely be attractive to big advertisers if it has a large audience size and a strong amount of traffic.
Adsense or other contextuals won’t harm the attractiveness of the site.. that is unless you stuff the site with tons of ads and make it look incredibly unsightly. It is important to make sure that you delegate a specific section of your site for direct advertisements (as I have done with Dosh Dosh)…and that should be fine.
Many thanks Maki!
That’s terrific counsel. I’m going to continue to keep Adsense up on my site which is not uber-filled with ads.
Please help me to make money through my website.
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