Blogging for Profit
Blogging is becoming an increasingly popular way for
entrepreneurs to earn a living online while doing something they really enjoy.
In many cases bloggers can profit with very little effort. There may be quite a
bit of work involved in the beginning with designing a method of gaining
revenue and promoting the website but once this is established simply
maintaining the blog with regular postings may be enough to keep the revenue
rolling in. Two of the most popular methods for generating a profit from
blogging include advertising methods. This includes advertising with AdSense
and securing independent advertisers. This article will discuss these two methods
of advertising on a blog.
Using AdSense to Generate Revenue
Using AdSense is one of the most popular ways for bloggers
to generate revenue from their blog. This method is so popular because it is
also very simple. AdSense is a program offered by Google where bloggers agree
to have advertisements on their website and are compensated when users click on
these advertisements. Bloggers simply have to create a blog and submit the
website address of the blog as well as some other information to apply for
participation in AdSense. Once a blog is approved the owner is given code they
can simply copy and paste to have advertisements displayed on their blog.
Google then serves appropriate advertisements each time the blog is accessed.
Whenever possible, the advertisements served on the blog are closely related to
the content of the blog because Google crawls the website ahead of time to determine
which advertisements are relevant to the content. Blog owners do have some
ability to place restrictions on the types of advertisements which may appear
on the blog. For example the blog owner can specify adult advertisements are
not to appear on the blog and Google will filter these out.
How Advertisements on a Blog Generate Revenue
Many bloggers use advertisements on their blogs to generate
a profit. This method of advertising is more difficult than using AdSense but
it can be significantly more financially beneficial to the blogger. This method
of advertising is similar to the type of targeted advertising often seen in
magazines. For example magazines for parents often feature advertisements which
will appeal to parents such as advertisements for toys, children’s clothing or
foods popular with children. Likewise a magazine for runners may feature
advertisements for shoes, athletic clothing, races or training equipment. In
these cases the advertisers pay for advertising space in the magazine in the
hopes that the magazine’s audience will be enticed to purchase products or
services after seeing these advertisements.
Blog owners can use this type of advertising but it can be
hard to find willing advertisers. However, there are some factors which may
make an advertiser more willing to have an advertisement appear on a blog. One
of the most important factors for advertisers is the amount of traffic the blog
receives. This is important because advertisers who are paying for ad space are
more likely to invest in a blog with high traffic than one with very little
traffic.
Another important factor for advertisers is the focus of the
blog. Advertisers are more likely to purchase advertising space from a blog with
a specific focus of interest to the advertiser’s target audience. Like the
examples listed previously of magazines for parents and runners, advertisers
want to advertise on a blog which is already reaching the same target audience.
Bloggers who utilize advertising on their website may be
compensated in a number of different ways. Some advertisers may pay a set fee
for the advertisement to run on the website for either a set amount of time or
for a set number of page views. This means the advertiser may purchase space
for a set number of days, weeks or months or may purchase space for a set
number of times the advertisement is served to website visitors.
Alternately the advertiser may choose to compensate the
blogger according to the number of times specific actions occur. This may
include users clicking through the advertisement or users making a purchase
after clicking through the advertisement. The type of compensation offered will
have to be worked out between the blogger and advertiser beforehand to
determine a fair method of payment.
PPPPP
Word count 714