Advertising strategy for a new blogger

 

This is a part of the “Getting Started with Blog Advertising” blog series.

Advertising on your blog is an exciting new prospect that nearly every blogger considers at one point or another.

Getting to Know the Advertising Options

Direct Advertising Sales is, without question, the first place that you should invest any type of energy and time as you jump into the waters of blog advertising and here’s why:

1. You can set your own rules and be completely in control of how you want to advertise, what you want to advertise, what opportunities you want to offer sponsors, and ultimately the price.
2. It’ll need you to engage with your blogging platform, challenge you to use sidebar “Widgets”. Don’t think of this as a bad thing! The more you know about your blogging platform the better you are in the long term!
3. It helps you understand the entire advertising cycle as you solicit sponsors, build relationships and manage the advertisement process
4. It opens up the opportunities long-term partnership with selected buyers. This is crucial for your long-term success!
5. You make the most money.

Here’s the bottom line: I have learned so much more about myself, advertising, and my blog as a result of starting with Direct Advertising Sales.  This directly impacted the amount of money that I began to make as well as the swiftness in which I began to make it.

What Direct Advertising Sales is Not

Many new bloggers confuse Direct Advertising Sales with Advertising Networks and it’s not the same thing!

You forfeit valuable learning experiences which provide a framework for growth in the long run by going the “easy route” with Advertising Networks.

You also give up a few dollars by using some of those systems. Learn to care a lot about the fees you pay and the money you put into other people’s pockets. Your goal as a new blogger is to keep 100% of all income coming in. Period.

Ad Networks make you lazy. You also forfeit lessons on how to price correctly.

Finally, you become lazy too and end up simply waiting for someone to casually purchase an advertising spot – Direct Advertising Sales is anything but passive! There’s more to it:

1. Blogging isn’t a get rich quick fix. You need to actively work on building your blog to ensure that advertisers view it as a potential advertising source.
2. You need to learn how to “market your blog” and not make any mistakes that might be holding your blog back from even being a strong candidate for advertising and sponsors.
3. You need to actively participate in soliciting advertisers, provide them with a healthy return on their investment.
4. You need to actively participate in managing the system and process.
5. You need to actively work on building these relationships.
6. You need to learn the art of pricing and how it relates to your blog, your content, and your brand

You will grow so much faster as a blogger that’s actively seeking advertisers, as you have the passion to market your blog.  You will make money faster than those sitting in some of those very lifeless marketplaces.

When do you start using an Advertising Networks?

This depends on a number of factors, but the biggest challenge is balancing income generation with the time it takes to manage those sales.

If you find that you are taking far too much time searching for advertisers/sponsors rather than when time for content creation this could be a problem, then it is time to re-assess whether switching to an ad network would be more beneficial.

And that’s the formula and equation that you’ll eventually have to balance:

Service Fees of Ad Network vs Time Saved

Again, you’ll have to decide where that falls in your strategy.  But certainly at the beginning  you should stick to Direct Sales and save all the money you can!

So if you have the time, and want to keep as much money as possible. Put a pause on the Advertising Networks and start using Direct Sales exclusively. Start learning the “business” of blog advertising and make it work!

If you’re more of a seasoned blogger then you can venture into the other ways that bloggers make money but do so with care and with wisdom! Do your homework and it’ll pay off in abundance. I’ll cover this more in depth in the coming days, so stay tuned and make sure to subscribe to this blog.

This is a part of the “Getting Started with Blog Advertising” blog series.

 

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