If you want to make money with your blog eventually you will likely consider joining an ad network. They basically act as a broker for advertising and their large reach and network of bloggers makes it easier for them to contract with big name advertisers. You devote a spot on your blog, usually a top position for their ad code and whenever they sign new advertisers they automatically show up on your blog and you get paid on a CPM basis. The ad network does all the work finding advertisers and collecting the money. This makes it easier for YOU to make money selling ads. But is it always peachy working with ad networks? In one word, NO.
Foe one thing, joining an ad network typically changes the way you blog. Many bloggers start out using full RSS feeds where their readers can read all the content in their feed readers. But no money can be made from ad impressions by doing that so bloggers will usually opt to use summary feeds and make their readers click on over to the actual web site. Readers may get annoyed and they may stop reading. At the very least you may have fewer actual readers since you only have a title and a short summary to catch their attention.
Ad networks may also contract with advertisers you and your audience do not approve of. While most networks allow you to opt out of certain campaigns some can get by you and it is highly embarrassing to have junk food ads displaying on a healthy eating blog, for instance.
Ad networks are also getting more and more picky about your content. A large network that I use recently added a bunch of new rules for their bloggers. You have to post at least once a week, you cannot review products given to you by a company that are valued at over $40, and you cannot do a company sponsored giveaway of any kind. Another ad network disqualifies any social media traffic, like referrals from Stumbleupon or Digg.
More and more it seems that companies wanting to buy ad space on blogs do not want compete with your other money making ventures. They do not want their ad next to giveaway for another company or a review of another product. They want their ad next to a rant about potty training or your latest garden produce…safe posts that will not detract from their banner ad. Frankly it is getting rather annoying.
The network I mentioned earlier decided that you could do reviews and giveaways if you put them on a page that had none of their ads. This required you to make a custom template and relegate your content to a static page where it would not appear with your other posts or be picked up in your RSS feed.
Thanks to help from the lovely Lynette at Mom Masterminds I was able to create a custom “post” template so that I could post giveaways and sponsored reviews in a special category that would not display ads. It is a great solution for me and allowed me to keep working with this ad network. Otherwise I would have kicked them to the curb for trying to dictate the terms under which I run my business…blogging IS a business for me and the other ways I make money are none of their concern.
So if you are considering joining and ad network look closely at their policies and see if the advantages are truly worth it. And if you do decide that the money is worth the aggravation, join up with Mom Masterminds as they ALWAYS help me find tech solutions when I need them and it is all part of the membership!
I was amazed this month to read over at Problogger how much money bloggers are making. What amazed me was that according to his chart I am making quite a bit more than the average blogger. I am making more than 88% of those that read Problogger and participated in the poll. I still can’t believe that 57% of bloggers make less than $100 a month. Maybe I have forgotten what the early days of blogging were like.