Blog Monetization: Soup to Nuts
Stephan Spencer,
Founder & President, Netconcepts
Monetization Options
• Google AdSense • Yahoo Publisher Network • SearchFeed • Kontera • ClickBank • LookSmart • LookQuick • PeakClick • Affiliate Programs • Text link ad brokers (e.g. Text-Link-Ads.com, LinkExperts) • Chitika • Swickis (Eurekster) • Video ads (Revver) • RSS feed ads (e.g. Pheedo) • Donations / tip jar • Information products • Email newsletter advertising • Banner ads • Pay per lead programs (e.g. ModernClick, Copeac, Pay-Per-Lead Power Ads System) • XY7 • CPAEmpire • Azoogle Ads • etc. etc.
• Your mileage will vary. What works for some may not work for you.
Most Common Ways to Monetize
• Affiliate links
• Google AdSense / Yahoo Publisher Network
• Advertising / sponsorships– Text links– Banners
• Donations / “Tip Jar”
• Direct sales (hard products, information products)
Affiliate Links
• Affiliate networks like Commission Junction offer hundreds of merchants
• Datafeeds are best (e.g. cardoffers.com)
• Some of the smaller networks can provide better offers with higher payouts than CJ (e.g. CX Digital, neverblueads)
What Are the Levers?
• Turn the dial up on…– traffic (through SEO & SEM)– clickthrough rate on the ads– ad prices– number of ad units (AdSense allows 3, and 1 link
unit)– venues (videos, RSS feeds, emails, etc.)
• Content based ads and search ads
Don’t Make It Look Like an Ad
• Text ads good; image ads bad
• Which ad formats work best?– Good: Leaderboard, large rectangle, wide skyscraper– Bad: 468x60 banner– Experiment because it varies for each site
• No border
• Match your site’s background, font color, link color
• Make use of the Link Unit too
Attract better ads
• Make the ads more relevant– Use Section Targeting <!-- google_ad_section_start --> <!--
google_ad_section_end -->– Ignore reader comments and navigation <!--
google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) --> <!-- google_ad_section_end -->
• Target more expensive keywords– Check bids and revise content accordingly – e.g. house painting vs.
home improvement
• Put competitors and low CTR advertisers on your block list• Dispense with Flash-based or graphics-rich approach.
Content!• Keywords! in URL, H1 tag, body copy, title tag, etc.
Optimize Placement
• Where are your visitors most likely to look? https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html
• Use a heat map clickthrough tool like CrazyEgg to see where people tend to click
• Definitely “above the fold” is best• Wrap content around it• Place near the search box, a “Submit” button,
or other things that get looked at a lot
Public Service Ads
• For when there isn’t a good paying ad to display
• You can choose to display your own house ads instead– Google Backfill (allfeeds.com)– Google AdSense Plus (googleadsenseplus.com)
Not All Visitors Are Created Equal
• Crank up the ads for…– Lookie-loos who aren’t converting– Overseas visitors who aren’t your target audience
Channels
• Up to 200 allowed
• Group ads by format, by keyword, by location on the page, etc.
• Two types– URL channels– Custom channels
What’s Going Too Far
• Ads adjacent to images
• Wrapping keywords or small bits of text within google_ad_section tags
AdSense + YPN?
• “publishers may now display other contextual ads on the same site or page as Google ads as long as they don’t have the same look and feel as our ads” -- Brian Axe of Google
YPN Optimization
• http://ypnblog.com/blog/2007/01/03/optimizing-for-relevancy-part-i/
• http://ypnblog.com/blog/2007/01/11/the-robot-ate-my-web-page…/
• http://ypnblog.com/blog/2007/02/27/optimizing-for-relevancy-part-iii/
Making Money While You Sleep
• It’s child’s play!
• If a 15 year old (now 17) cando it, why not you too?
• Case in point: NeopetsFanatic
• Passive income: ~$1000/mo.from Google AdSense
• Effort required: 1 hr/month
• Thank you, Google! My daughter,SEO-in-training
More Examples…
• Innsite.com
• Writers.net
• Lockergnome.com
Thank You!
• For a 60 minute screencast on how to optimize your blog, drop me your business card or e-mail your request to [email protected]
• To contact me: [email protected]