So You’re Looking to Advertise…..

Ok, so your blog is coming along nicely. You have some good quality content, a fairly steady stream of visitors and you are even making a little dosh here and there. And now you’re looking to reach out to new readers and grow your audience. So you decide to purchase some advertising.

Trying to find the right advertising for your blog can be a minefield, but lucky for you I have pretty tried out the majority of common advertising concepts for you…and here they are.

Adwords – Google’s contextual advertising platform, Adwords is extremely popular and often a starting point for many new advertisers. It works great for selling stuff – but not so good for blogs. In my experience, it didn’t deliver quality click-throughs, and most of the visitors left as quickly as they came. If you are looking at this option definitely look at the site targeting feature.

Sponsored Posts – I have bought both sponsored posts directly from blog owners and with networks such as PayPerPost. Sponsored posts can often drive a lot of targeted visitors to your blog but only if you do your homework and find the right blogs. My tip, if you find a site through say PayPerPost, contact the blogger directly. They often will be happy to give you a discount if you don’t go through the network thus avoiding the large commissions PPP takes.

Text Links – Minimal traffic but could be good for SEO. But be a douche and spam the net with the same anchor text – ever wondered why John Chow doesn’t rank in Google? TextLinkAds always have discount coupons available and they shouldn’t be hard to find. Remember Text Links really isn’t all that good for traffic.

Banners – These can waste a lot of time and money! 90% of bloggers overcharge for banner advertising and from my experience (I have purchase banners on over 200 blogs), 90% aren’t worth it. My tip, try Project Wonderful, they have an automated system which is cheap! But if you have the cash, banners on the big blogs are often very well priced and deliver good click-throughs.

Traffic – no, no, no, no, no! You know the ones im talking about. The sites that sell “guaranteed” visitors, often in lots of 1000+. Even though they claim these are targeted visitors – there not! As soon as they come they go! Don’t be tempted to go the easy option. I tested it out in my early days and know just how much it can fail!

Have I missed anything? Chances are, if I have its probably obscure and not worth the time or money. What do you use?

Ok so it looks pretty bleak. All the advertising methods I have listed seem to have faults. I’m not saying they don’t work – I still spend lots on advertising, yet be careful and spend your dollars very wisely. My number referrer on my blogs is Google. I don’t use SEO tricks, I don’t place backlinks and I don’t submit my sites to directories – yet I rank in the top 10 for many popular keywords. My big tip – content!

Want more? Then follow me on Twitter and hit me up with your questions!

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