# Blog - Online Advertising



## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

I am in the process of starting a blog where I hope to sell advertising. Is anyone willing to share their experience with online ads (like Amazon, Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, etc). 

I know people are reluctant to say how much they make, but I read of people making $100,000/yr off their blog(s). Can you make money with as few as 10,000 hits/month? What types of ads work best for you? I am willing to put in the work if I can bring in a minimum $2k per month. I also understand that it can take months to get enough traffic to make any money at all.

I get about 5,000 hits/month on a blog that I haven't promoted at all. This is not one where I plan to sell advertising, but functions more as a practice blog. It is amazing what gets hits and what doesn't. I get the most hits from a year old post I did where I linked to a picture of a cob house. Also get a lots of hits on link to a picture of Amy Winehouse and her tattoos.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

Depends on the topic.

However, if you figure a CPM (pay per thousand views) of $.50 to $3 on a well-optimized site that's about right. 

Can you make money at it?

Yes, but it's not immediate, and you need lots of traffic to do it.

Also, the more lucrative advertisers are not interested in small sites that only get a few hundred views a day. You generally need to be getting thousands a day to qualify for their programs.

(I get around 200,000-300,000 views a month and was just turned down by an advertiser for not enough traffic.)

-- Leva


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## furholler (Feb 1, 2005)

Alright, how in the world do y'all get that many hits per month? I can only seem to get aroung 30 per day. 

I use Amazon affiliate program, and have gotten only a few clicks with no purchases. I also use Google adsense, again, with only a few clicks. What gives?


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

Furholler, in my case? Dumb luck, coupled with lots and lots of hard work. (Look at my domain in my sig line ... I registered it in 1997, before Mozilla ever existed.)


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

furholler said:


> Alright, how in the world do y'all get that many hits per month? I can only seem to get around 30 per day.


There is an art to getting traffic on your web site. Do a search on search engine optimization (SEO) for ideas on how to get higher listings in the search engines. 

Put titles on pictures, use keywords in titles, use keywords in articles, post on related sites and hope people will follow link back to your site, try to find other sites that will link to your site (in return for you doing the same), and most importantly - content, content, content. Give them something that makes them (not you) feel good. 

Change the point of view to be about the reader. What would make them want to read your site every day? Humor, recipes, knowledge, etc? To have a successful web site you have to wear many hats - designer, author, expert, graphic artist, marketer, salesperson, and on and on.

You already have a really good start with your site. Check out http://headrush.typepad.com/. She (Kathy) is not updating the site any more, but I think it is one of the best blogs I have seen. See if you can figure out what she did that attracted so many readers (Technorati Top 100). Note things like the types of pictures she uses, the titles, font size, spacing, sentence structure, organization, colors, headings, etc. See how many comments she would get for each article and read some of her responses (in the comments).

We certainly can widen the scope of the original post to share ideas on how to create a successful blog.


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## furholler (Feb 1, 2005)

Good points. I'll check it out.


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

We don't try to make $ on a blog, but do have websites that bring in money for us. We don't pay any attention to "hits", you need to pay more attention to unique visitors. Hits can be one person doing a lot of viewing. I would hazard a guess that at 5000 it may be just you and a few others. If you sign up for google adwords (not adsense) they have a really good tracking mechanism that will give you some wonderful info on who is visiting your site and when. You don't need to be running a google ad campaign for it to be running. There is a small piece of html code you'll need to embed.


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## snoman774 (Apr 10, 2008)

i have recently started trying this out http://macsdeerblinds.blogspot.com/
with adsense made just a few dollars so far but only advertise... well really just announced my presense in 4 0r 5 places.
ran across this blog http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/2007/02/blogger-basics-making-money-online.html and learned a llittle but its really kinda confusing for me. i guess if i had several different blogs bringing in a few dollars a day could turn into good part time money


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

A side note..
if I am blog surfing and I do search around because I love farming/gardening blogs.. they are great for ideas and the pics help me visualize my garden..
If I come across one that is loaded with all of those ads.. I skip it. It takes to long to load (even with dsl) and I dislike having things blinking at me etc...
just saying...


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## OrganicCat (Sep 23, 2008)

Online advertising is not very profitable. You will earn somewhere around $100 a month for 10k hits (a month) using something like Google AdSense. The big money is in monetizing your site towards the people who are already prone to visiting your site. On gaming sites you don't see advertisements for baby clothes, you see gamer oriented ads. Do the same for garden sites and become an affiliate (get a share of the change people spend if they click on the ad and then spend money). Stay at home bloggers are still pretty rare these days, few people make it to the point where they can just sit at home and type, and those people do a LOT of research to make sure they stay that way. It's not as easy as you'd think.

Overall, the setup time and profit recovery is so long, you may as well set up a farm, as you'll have faster income, steadier profit and more reliability. If you still really want to go into blogging, remember that it takes about 1-3 years to get a steady stream of traffic going just to get you off the ground (unless you happen to do something sensational and get on the news).


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## YounGrey (Jun 7, 2007)

I have many blogs that I do decently well with. I don't update them all of the time - and I use Google adsense. Has worked for me and been easiest. I don't make 2k a month and have yet to even make that much total for 2 years of work. See below for my examples and let me know if you would be interested in doing a link trade.


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## denaliguide (Aug 30, 2008)

I stress Objectivity as part of my uniqueness, and I also wish to avoid as much exploitative behavior on the part of anyone I am associated with, so I DONT want Google slapping some ads on my blog with whom I dont agree or feel are inappropriate. I can run my KIVA Ad cause its something I both believe in, give to, and think I give a good audience for.

However in targeting my audience for ads, I think that I will investigate GOOGLE "ADWORDS" to see how I can better track the traffic coming and going from that site. Right now I am using FEEDJIT and Free Blog Stats, but feel I could use some closer pin-pointing of my readers to see how to best target my ads.

http://denaliguidesummit.blogspot.com/

DG


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## RFD America (Oct 13, 2008)

It can take some time to build up traffic, unless you blog for a site that has already established traffic. To learn more about blogging visit:

What The Blog Are You Doing?

Also, if you are looking for blogging or other freelance writing jobs check out these sites:

http://www.thewrittensage.com
http://www.rfdamerica.com


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