Do’s and Don’ts in Blogging for Money
“Monetization” – it is often associated with ugly, advertisement-filled websites. But this need not be the case for your online endeavors. There are many classy and effective ways you can generate significant revenue from the internet without turning off readers. Advertisements come in a variety of forms including Google Adsense, affiliate ads, and contextual ads. Whatever you decide to place on your pages, here are some do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:
Do’s:
- Concentrate your efforts in gaining solid readership. Don’t focus on monetizing the site at first. Start off with building a consistent, loyal audience for your content (articles, videos, etc.) and then go from there. You’ll find that your efforts will be a lot more profitable this way as well.
- Advertise related products or services. By promoting only offers that are related to your blog/website, your business will look at lot more professional. For example, if your blog is about weight loss, then advertising weight loss programs, dieting ebooks, and supplements may be a good idea. If you’re unsure whether a certain product is good for your target audience, go with your gut and look for a better product instead.
- Mix and match products. Make it a point to join several affiliate programs (if you’re into affiliate marketing) because this gives you a good selection of products/services to promote. This increases the chance that someone will buy from your site.
Don’ts:
- Place flashy ads on your site. Advertisements that have neon colors, blinking lights, and all that jazz can do more harm than good. It’s a turn off for most people and it harms your reputation if you’re not careful.
- Put the ads between the blog title and article. While this can improve the conversion rate of sites (depending on how attractive the lay-out is), this can irritate some loyal readers. They might think that your site is nothing more than an ad-laden page that’s trying to trick them into clicking. So the ads should ideally be placed in a discreet but still visible location.
- Write fake reviews. It may be tempting to write about your “personal” experience with certain tools that promises high payout. Avoid this temptation because you’ll pay for it. When you lose the customer’s trust, they will no longer buy other offers you’re promoting. You’ll end up with a lot of missed opportunities because you became too greedy.
Rosanne
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great tips! i just started my blog awhile back & found this post to be very insightful thanks!
I find that if you post ads inbetween the header of the site and the title of the article it’s okay, as long as it’s a banner or leader board ad, and the site is well laid out. I try to make sure that only one advertisement is visiable on my site at any one time. For example, there would be the header one, and then when the reader scrolls down far enough that that they can’t see the header, a new ad is visible in the sidebar.