I just had someone contact me inquiring as to the price of a box ad in my right-hand sidebar.  I have no idea what is a reasonable price.  What would be a reasonable amount?

Most advertisers interested in banner advertising are want to get eyeballs on their banner to improve brand recognition, and potentially increase conversions.  For this reason, they are primarily interested in traffic.  You may want to consider providing statistics from a stat tracking service such as Google Analytics.

Typically, the 125×125 banner ads fetch anywhere from 0.75-1.5 CPM.  Where your particular price point falls on that scale depends on a number of factors.  Will the ad appear above or below the fold?  How strong is your own brand?  How closely aligned is the product or service being advertised with your particular message?

The higher above the fold, the stronger your own brand, and the more aligned the product or service is with your own brand, the easier it will be to price banner ads at higher CPM factors.

How To Come Up with A Number

I’ve often had success shooting for somewhere in the middle of that range as a starting point. Let’s put some real numbers to this example.  You run a blog averaging 50,000 page views per month over the last 3-6 months.  Using that low-end CPM factor of 0.75 you could offer the spot for $37.50.  But, this particular ad would be at the very top of your sidebar, a prime piece of real estate on your blog.  Using the high-end factor of 1.5 CPM, the ad spot would run $75 per month.

Unless you are #1 in your particular niche, or receive a ton of traffic, it will probably be hard to land a deal at the top end of that CPM scale.  Settle for somewhere in the middle, maybe around 1.2 CPM ($60 per month, in this example) and be willing to negotiate if you receive a decent counter offer.

A final word about advertising.  New bloggers, or bloggers just beginning to receive interest from advertisers, have a tendency to sell themselves short in order to get that first deal in place.  Resist doing this, but remember not to be too proud of your brand either.  Look at the deal from an advertiser’s point of view.  Ask yourself what you would be willing to pay to place an ad for your blog on another site with identical statistics, clout, etc.  Keeping this perspective throughout the negotiation should help you arrive at a number that both you and the advertiser can agree on.

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The post does reinforce a couple things I have learned being in and around blogging for the last couple years.  Some small sites do a great job of monetizing and make more money than sites with significantly higher traffic. This could be because the smaller site is better optimized to attract search engine traffic, or because it focuses on a tighter niche, which allows advertisers to target their specific audience.

Some topics convert beter than others, too, so no matter how many visitors a blog about organic gardening gets, it just may not convert to much money earned for the blogger (my apologies to anyone blogging about organic gardening).

If you are blogging for a side hustle it is important to consider which topics monetize well, and which topics you are passionate about.  When selecting a topic it is probably a good idea to list all the things you are really passionate about, and then research which ones have the most potential to earn money through affiliates, Adsense, etc. Pick the highest ranking topic that interests you the most, and start writing.

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This does provide a good opportunity to share with you a couple places to get updates regarding the Adsense service.  When I suspect there is a problem, I immediately check out Adsense Help Forum.  A quick view of the recent activity (bottom half of the screen) should reveal whether or not there is a global problem, or what you are experiencing is an isolated incident.  I rest a little easier if I see others reporting the same problem (as is the case with this latest issue).

Another place to check is Twitter.  Chances are someone you are following is chatting about the problem, and you can follow their discussion to learn more.  Tonight, I checked Twitter and saw Jenstar was already chasing down an explanation.

I suspect your stats will be updated tonight, or early in the morning for us East Coast bloggers.  Check back in tomorrow to see if things look normal.

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Since my last post on monetization, several of you have commented or emailed asking for more information on earning money via advertisers. One question especially stood out because it was a challenge I faced early on, and by not addressing it early I feel like I may have left some “debt snowball” money on the table.

How Do I Sell Ads On a New Blog?

That’s the question I received from a Side Hustle Blogger reader.  The short answer is, you can’t.  Think about this scenario from the advertiser’s perspective–you have little to no traffic, no rank in search engines, and very few subscribers.  Would you spend your advertising dollars to advertise on a similar site? Probably not.  However, that doesn’t mean you can’t look for ways to monetize your site early on.

Affiliate networks.  Early on, affiliate networks might be a quick way to earn some money through your site.  I belong to four networks, and can vouch for the quality of their programs, payment system, etc.  Commission Junction and LinkShare.com have been around a while, but upstarts like Pepper Jam Network and FlexOffers.com are giving them a run for their money.  I’ve found each network offers partnerships with a variety of advertisers that will likely fit the niche you are blogging in.

While affiliate banners might add some color to your site, banners do not typically convert well, so don’t have high expectations of ten people signing up for eBay through your banner.  Still, there is some value in adding aesthetically pleasing banners to your site as it does improve the look of the site, and it adds some validity in the eyes of search visitors.

Google Adsense.  Google Adsense is probably the most widely used advertising network by bloggers, and even larger scale sites.  Advertisers use Google’s Adword program to bid on keyword-relevant links that appear on member blogs.  When a visitor clicks one of those links, the advertiser agrees to pay the publisher a certain amount based on each click.

There are two schools of thought on early implementation of Google Adsense.  Some believe you should wait until you have significant search traffic before adding Adsense.  I say why not add it now and be earning some money while your traffic grows.  After all, even $20-$30 a month would be enough to cover many started hosting plans.  You won’t see a payout until you reach $100, which might take a few months from the time you launch.  But don’t despair; it adds up eventually and that first $100 payment feels awfully rewarding!

Amazon Associates.  This is one that I have yet to really figure out. Some months I do quite well ($100+), but others I don’t earn enough to buy a used book.  I do like the program itself, and I imagine for some niches it would do quite well.  Darren Rowse has made thousands of dollars through his Digital Photography School blog by making product recommendations and linking to relevant products at Amazon.

One of the best things about the program is that you earn commissions on everything a visitor buys, not just the things you link to from your blog.  I once earned $30 from a single sale because someone clicked on a book review link and bought a laptop, plus a few peripherals.

Affiliate networks, Adsense and Amazon Associates are my top three recommendations for making money with a new blog.  If you are fortunate enough to attract some serious traffic in those early months you may also be able to attract private advertisers interested in displaying their banner on your site, as a way to increase brand awareness for their product, or in the hopes you will drive traffic to their own site.

However, banner advertisers are interested in eyeballs; that is, how many eyeballs look at your site in a given month. From that perspective, blog advertising is much like any other format–billboards, print media, television spots, etc.  The more eyeballs you attract, the more opportunities to sell screen real estate.  If you continue to write quality content, interact with readers, and engage in social media, those eyeballs will come.

Photo by Rich Moffitt*

*By the way, the billboard in the photo depicts one of my favorite inspirational stories–Team Hoyt.

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Hi.  My name is Jason, and I am addicted to stats.  This was my mantra for the first several months of blogging.  I could not pass up a computer without checking out Sitemeter, Google Adsense and my affiliate network.  Sad, I know, but true.  I distinctly remember when my primary blog took off and starting earning serious money–it was my fifth month of blogging.  It was the best of things, and the worst of things.

From that point forward I was borderline obsessed with earning money on my blog.  Up to that point I saw blogging more as a hobby, something I took up to help make myself more accountable with my own financial life, and as a way to help others from repeating the same mistake.  Little did I know the blog itself would contribute to my bottom line and help us pay off debt while supplementing my income.

My enthusiasm for earning money through blogging almost became a liability, as I was soon tempted to link to services that I had not fully tested, or to products that did not line up with what I was writing about.  For the most part, I resisted that temptation, but it wasn’t easy.

Earning money from blogging has a way of spoiling you. When I first started blogging, I would have been thrilled if I earned a couple dollars a day.  Now, I would consider $50 a “down day.”  Nothing about my financial life has changed, only my expectations, which I have to manage constantly.  Here are a few techniques I use to keep things in perspective.

1. Set small earnings goals, initially.  I think a great first goal would be to earn enough from advertising to pay for your hosting, domain registration, and any other administrative costs you might have.

2. Multiply daily earnings by 30.  Instead of being bummed about earning $7 yesterday, convert that to a monthly earnings of $210.  Further convert that to some other expense you pay, such as car insurance, or the utility bill, that you can now pay for via blogging.

3. Consider the working capital required to make same earnings from a bank.  ING Direct recently dropped their interest rates to 2.40% APY.  At that rate, it would take $50,000 to generate about $3 a day.  Most bloggers can easily make that with Google Adsense after a few months of writing.

And now my take on making money via blogging.  Some bloggers take the position of remaining ad-free, and provide their content free of advertising.  To them I say, “Good for you.”  I wish I was in a position to do that, but I have a family to feed, and I spend a great deal of time writing content and administering my blogs.  Pardon me if I place a few ads to compensate me for that time.

We expect no less from magazines, newspapers and media websites.  Why should bloggers be held to a different standard?  Having said that, try to keep ads tasteful, relevant, and present them in a way that minimally interferes with your content.

Photo by sciondriver

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For the first ten posts or so here I mostly ignored the topic of monetization.  This was by design. While I understand there are benefits of monetizing your blog early on in the process, I didn’t want to focus on the money-making aspects of blogging until the fundamentals were nailed down.

People begin blogging for a variety of reasons–some for money, some for love, and some for the love of money.  I started my blog for three reasons:

• As a creative outlet.  My full time job does not require much creativity in terms of writing, so I thought blogging would appeal to the entrepreneurial writer bottled up inside me for over 30 years.

• To be a source of inspiration for others.  Sometimes I think I irritate more people than I inspire, but because the ones who are irritated are the loudest, I hope it is only a skewed perception.  Here lately the number of supportive comments and emails I receive are proof that I’m on the right track.  A few weeks ago I received an email from a young college student who opened her first emergency fund inspired by one of my posts.  Knowing that you have a real impact on people’s lives through writing is very motivating.

• It beats mowing lawns.  To help the debt snowball along I mowed lawns on the weekends last summer, something I had also done during one summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college.  I quickly discovered two things:  ten years is plenty of time to get grossly out of shape and to become spoiled by air conditioning.  Since I was doing this on top of my full time job I stayed pretty worn out.  It was time to find an easier side hustle (physically).

That’s Great, but What About the Money?

Let’s face it–if you want to make money blogging you have to treat it as a business.  Or at least, you have to think like a business person.  Blogging has opened my eyes to the world of online marketing in ways I never knew existed prior to last December, and I thought I was pretty business savvy.  Many advertisers are finding out that the internet has more potential for reaching eyeballs than traditional advertising, and blogs are a fresh way to deliver their message.  Obviously, you have to balance monetization with having a user-friendly presentation, and it is something most bloggers struggle with.

“But I’m Only Making $5 a Day!”–Is This Worth It?

I remember after only a couple months of blogging I became glued to my blog stats and advertising accounts like a nervous senior waiting outside his professor’s office for grades to be posted.  I was addicted to the numbers, but disappointed by them constantly.  In March I figured out that from all my efforts I was making $5.00 a day–not even enough for a value meal at McDonalds.  However, after applying some quick math I realized I wasn’t doing so bad after all.

At 3% interest, my $3,000 emergency fund was spinning off about $0.25 a day at ING Direct (what’s a post about monetization without an affiliate link?).  I wondered how much money I’d have to have in there to generate $5.00 a day in interest.  $60,000!  That’s right; it would take $60,000 at 3% interest to generate $5.00 a day.  I felt much better about my online earnings from that point forward.  The income from blogging is not totally passive, because I do still work a number of hours each day writing, editing, commenting, emailing, etc, but I still get a kick out of going to sleep at night and waking up to find you’ve earned money.

Time To Quit the Day Job?

Not quite, but it is certainly feasible.  Many well-known bloggers are now probloggers and make writing their full time gig.  Of course many of them have safety nets in place (a large emergency fund, a working spouse, etc.), so it isn’t for everyone, and requires some thorough planning.  I doubt I will ever earn enough to completely replace my full time income, but once my debts are paid off and I have a one-year emergency fund in place, I wouldn’t need that much income to live comfortably.  Yes my friends, the wheels are turning.

Photo courtesy of iChaz

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