Targeted

This type of advertising is the most lucrative option. Advertisers will directly deal with you offering to pay premium rates for ad spots on your blog. This can either be text based ads or even image or video ads. The revenue from the ad will be all yours.


In targeted advertising, the ad is usually displayed for a fixed period at a specific price as in traditional media like newspapers and magazines. CPC and CPM are usually not important. However, unlike newspapers or magazines the price you charge for the ad spot can be at a superlative premium. To reach this position of being able to command such prices will require a lot of hard work but the effort may be well worth it.


To understand this better, consider the following facts. The world's most popular blog currently is Perez Hilton (perezhilton.com). This blog keeps track of celebrity news and gossip. It has a daily traffic of over 2 million unique visitors.
A 150x200 pixel ad spot on Perez Hilton will cost you $9000 per week. In comparison an 125x125 pixel ad spot on BoingBoing, another popular site, only costs $350! This is an extreme example but illustrates the importance of traffic to Web site revenue.
Even if you do not have a large traffic base you can still sell targeted ads on your blog if you take a little bit of time and effort. The crucial points that you need to keep in mind are:

• Have a blog that is authority or an expert in a specific topic. This will attract both an audience of visitors who have interest in your subject and also advertisers who want to reach that specific audience.



• Put up a Media Kit on your blog. A media kit contains information about certain key elements that all advertising customers look for:



• The type of users that visit your site with some demographic details. If you are not able to give demographics you can get an educated guess by using the demographics prediction tool at Microsoft adCenter: http://adlab.msn.com/DPUI/DPUI.aspx.



• Rates—what will be the rates you charge and whether it is negotiable



• Types of ads that you will accept and what you will not accept (adult content etc)



• Testimonials from anyone who has advertised with you describing their experience and satisfaction with the results



• Contact details where you can be reached



• Be ready to discuss and negotiate with advertisers. Offer the first few customers free or very low-cost ad spots so that others can realize that you are open to direct advertising too.



• Provide statistics and results to your advertisers. You can use Google Analytics to manage your campaigns.

Seek out smaller companies that cater to your topic area. Working with smaller companies will be much easier as they will be more amenable to work with you than larger companies. Building a solid base of advertisers will be hard work initially but in the end, it will provide with you with a solid source of income.

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