Blog Posting Tutorial

When you decide to start a blog the most important thing you need to do is post to your blog and often it requires daily posts in order to keep up with readers needs. Most people who blog feel that they can skip a few things when posting blog posts in order to make the process quicker, but in fact it only hurts your content if you don’t spend the time posting it properly. It can take a mere ten minutes to post to your blog once you’ve gotten the article written and you should make sure you spend the time it takes to post effectively. Posting effectively means taking the time to add features that most people don’t spend the time doing. Some are simple and you may already do them which would be great, but if you don’t already utilize these options then you should implement them immediately.

There are a few things you should always do when posting new blog posts and I’m going to discuss those with you right now in case you don’t already know what needs done. The first thing and most obvious thing are to make unique descriptions and use unique keywords for every post. I know the option is available on the newest update of Wordpress to simply use old keywords and descriptions but then the SE will read it as the same as other posts and will hurt your rankings. This is obvious and most people already do use unique titles, descriptions and keywords so I won’t stay in this one too long just make sure you take the time to make your blog posts including the titles, keywords and descriptions.

Apart from the obvious that was stated above you should also make your blog posts attractive and do this you simply need to make some minor adjustments to the formatting of your post. Millions of people use default formatting and font which is fine, but if you want to stand out then make sure you do by creating attractive posts. Begin by making sure your content flows well and that there aren’t too many big paragraphs. People prefer reading through smaller paragraphs then longer ones so it’s clear that you should make sure your paragraphs aren’t too long. You should also use sub-headings for your posts and make them in bold so they pop, also take time thinking of the sub-headings because since there in bold it’ll be some of the first text read by everyone who visits the page. The next thing you need to do is change the font so that it’s more attractive then the default font. Also enlarge the font depending on how your theme displays the font because if it’s too small your posts will be harder to read as well as look smaller. Finally you should add a picture or two and incorporate them into the post, meaning make them aligned so that they fit with the content. Don’t just post two pictures at the bottom of the posts because that just makes it look rushed and doesn’t really add any real value to the post.

If you can manage to do this every time you make a post on your blog then I have no doubts in my mind that you will have a great blog filled with visitors. Content is also preached to be king and well if that’s the case then you need to make sure you’re doing your part to make sure your content is the best it can be. If you follow the steps above then sometimes poor writing can even become more attractive and therefore popular. I suggest taking time to write the content so that it’s not poor, but nonetheless if you follow the tips above you’ll have much more success at blogging and you’ll stand out more to the crowd.

 

Benefits of Having More Then One Blog in the Same Niche

There are many people who have blogs in the same niche and many people own multiple blogs in the same niche and there is a reason for this. The most obvious reason is that you’ll make more money from having more blogs, and this is true but it takes more work. You need to be prepared to spend a lot of time on your blogs and once you start opening multiple blogs your workload starts doubling and tripling. The advantage of making your blogs in the same niche is that you’ll be able to write content and do your promotion at the same time for every blog. If you had blogs spread across different niches then your marketing and promotion would need to be different for each niche most likely which means you wouldn’t have enough time to properly run the blogs and make them successful. If you run the blogs in the same niche then the promotion and marketing can be done at the same time for the blogs and although it will take a bit longer to submit everything each day it could really boost your revenue. Ideally you’d target different keywords for each blog because there is no point competing with yourself for keywords, and there are enough keywords in every niche that it should never come down to you needing to optimize a blog for keywords that you’ve already optimized on another blog. Having multiple blogs can have many benefits down the road and we’ll talk about some of them throughout the rest of this article.

More Blogs = More Profit

It’s simple to say that multiple blogs can earn more money, there is an argument that one big blog could earn more, but more webmasters say multiple blogs makes more profit and also makes promotion easier. You should build one blog at first though and let it get traffic going before making other blogs, if you do this then you should be able to send traffic from the flagship blog to the new blogs you create over time.

Interlinking

Pending you’ve spent the few bucks it costs for dedicated IP’s you can interlink your blogs. Make sure the blogs are on their on IP though and if possible own hosting plan. I say this because if you’re caught interlinking blogs on the same IP then you may get de-indexed from Google which would be horrible. Interlinking your blogs is what makes it a network though and traffic can flow from one blog to the next. Ideally that is what you want and why you should target different areas of the niche with each new blog you create in the network.

Owning the Niche

Although you’ve already gotten a niche blog for one topic you could always start creating blogs in the same general niche but using different niches in that general niche. For instance you could blogs for all the celebrities you like and then interlink them together and make a niche network. You’ll begin to own the niche with many powerful blogs and can make a lot of money through this method.

Having blogs in the same niche is very beneficial and it can also lead to more money down the road. If you have ten decent blogs compared to one good blog you’ll usually make more revenue on the multiple blogs and when it comes time to sell them you’ll make more typically as well. Unless you have a blog that is a complete authority in the topic then going with multiple niche blogs is a wiser decision. You can then also sell only apart of your niche blog network and you have the option then to keep some of the revenue coming in monthly and also selling a piece of the network for quick cash. Niche blogs I feel dominate general blogs, especially nowadays with there being millions of blogs on the internet now.

 

Become an Active Member in the Blogosphere

You’d actually probably be surprised but if you’re an active member in the blogosphere then it will bring you countless amounts of free traffic, and can make your blog more mainstream. There are tons of blogs created and many more created on a daily basis and you need to make sure that if you plan on blogging that you make yourself stand out from the crowd. There are tons of social networking sites for bloggers that can help create a name for yourself and your blog, and the more time you spend on working on networking the better results you’ll see.

Don’t expect to get thousands of visitors overnight from a couple conversations, but over time if you consistently use the social networking sites for bloggers then you can gain a following of people, especially if your blog is half-decent. Twitter is probably the most popular network for bloggers right now and it allows bloggers to follow the daily internet lives of other bloggers. Anyone can use the site though and you don’t need to be a blogger which means that many blog readers also use the site to follow the popular bloggers. If you make yourself noticeable on Twitter then chances are more and more people will begin to follow you which simply means they can see whenever you post something new to Twitter.

This means you can post a new blog post and then notify everyone on your Twitter about it within seconds which will help gain you a readership. If your knowledge is useful and not just regurgitated nonsense then you will stand a much better shot at retaining the readers that come from the social networking sites.

Another way to become active in the blogosphere to benefit your blog is by commenting regularly on different blogs. I always make sure I comment on certain blogs, as then you begin to gain a friendship with the other blogger which can be great for your blog. This can lead into link exchanges, blog post exchanges and even traffic exchanges through numerous methods. The possibilities are endless and the fact is most bloggers like networking with other bloggers to help each other out. All you need to do is make yourself noticeable by commenting on blogs, and obviously you might not be noticed on a blog with hundreds of comments a day but if you comment on semi popular blogs you can become noticed quickly.

You can also link to other blogs in your blog posts and they will then notice that they’ve been linked to from your blog. This could end up getting you a link in return and depending on which blog links you back it could bring in huge amounts of traffic.

Your best friends are other bloggers when you’re a blogger yourself so make sure you remember that and always be network with other bloggers. Also if you’re asked for help from a fellow blogger you should help them out because you never know what it could lead too. You may end up getting a link from them or even a review from them and it could lead to more traffic. If it’s a service you offer on your blog then you may even get more business from it. Sometimes doing free work leads to higher paying jobs which mean you should always consider doing freebies for some people. If it gets you advertising out of the deal then it’s not working for free anyways, so you need to think of it like this.

There is nothing more important I find then becoming friends with other bloggers in your niche, because although there sort of your competition you can still benefit from helping them out. Blog commenting also builds your backlinks so this is the most important thing to do, because even if it leads nowhere you’ll at least be getting some backlinks. The do-follow backlinks help your search engine placements as well, but most bloggers don’t use do-follow. If you find a do-follow blog then you should bookmark it and comment there at least once a day because then you’re guaranteed to be increasing your backlinks everyday which is something that Google and the other search engines love to see.
 

Also known as extensions, are used to extend Wordpress functionality and give your site more oomph. In this article, I will list a few basic plugins that will improve your Wordpress in, well, basic ways.

    First up is the Bad Behaviour plugin by Michael Hampton, which blocks automated spam. It is at heart an anti-spam program that uses a different method of tackling the problem, which is to scrutinise the messenger and delivery method of a message, instead of looking at the message itself. Interestingly, almost all comment spam are delivered by automated bots; so if you use this plugin, you would be virtually free from comment spam!

    Have you ever gotten frustrated that the search capability of your Wordpress is limited to the boundaries of your posts? Download the Search Everything plugin! Dan Cameron and other contributors have come up with a plugin that extends Wordpress’ search capability to pages, tags, excerpts, comments, etc. Best of all, you can adjust the defaults and get a tailored search, just by clicking a few check boxes.

    Do you have a lot of pictures on your site? Shutter Reloaded is a plugin that uses the Lightbox effect – a script that is used to overlay images (pictures, etc) on the existing page – for your images and picture galleries. Shutter is unique because it doesn’t use an external JavaScript framework (MooTools, Prototype), and therefore is very light – read: fast!

    Imagine if you’re at a certain page, say a page on gardening and would like to read other similar pages. Instead of having to exit that page and Google ‘gardening’, you could actually use Similar Posts, a plugin by Rob Marsh, SJ, which is a list that displays similar posts and/or pages. ‘How?’ you may ask. Answer: It calculates similarity based on a page’s content, title and tags.

    Subscribe To Comments is a plugin by Mark Jaquith that allows your commenters to decide if they would like to be notified of new comments on your Wordpress page. When you install this plugin, commenters will see a check box that they can tick if they wish to be notified via email of new comments on the page.  Do it; your commenters would be pleased!

    Last but not least, backing up your database is extremely important, if a bit of a hassle. Wordpress Database Backup by Austin Matzko, is an automated and on-demand backup program that saves you the hassle of doing it manually all the time, as it’ll send copies of your database to your inbox at regular intervals. However, it must be noted that Database Backup does not save files (pictures, videos, etc), only database (posts, comments, etc).

    These basic plugins will make a lot of difference to your Wordpress page, convenience and safety-wise. All of them are plug-and-play, work well with Wordpress 2.7, and most importantly are licensed under the GNU GPL. Oh, and they’re free! What are you waiting for?

advertising-blog

Advertising Your Blog: 4 Ways to Do It at Little Expense

During your initial foray into web logging, you’ll

find that it will take some conscious effort on your

part to promote your blog. Of course, you could just

simply write feverishly and hope that your blog takes

on a life of its own.

But that’s putting your hopes on randomness which

might not work in your favor. If the thought of

advertising your blog has never crossed your mind,

it’s time that you gave it some consideration,

especially if you’ve only begun blogging.

Here are ways you can start advertising your blog at

little or no cost:

Share information for free. Don?t expect or demand to

be paid for information just yet. You’re still trying

to build your reputation and nobody knows you. Focus

on putting out excellent quality entries or posts in

your blog. Good content, coupled with enough

promotional activity, will put you in the blog

universe’s map.

The way to do it is to write articles about your

specific topic, articles that are related to your

chosen content. Include a short introduction about

yourself and your blog and place a link back to your

site. Writing articles helps establish your reputation

as a reliable source of information and makes you

recognizable.

Take article writing a bit further and send it out to

article databases or social bookmarking sites where it

can generate more buzz and get free promotion. Social

bookmarking sites allow visitors to vote for your

article, so the more it gains in popularity, the more

exposure your blog will receive.

Target online forums Online forums are today’s

bulletin boards, the equivalent of the office water

cooler. These are sites or pages on the internet that

people frequent to ask or answer questions, share

their opinions, tell a story, rant, rave or just

simply say something.

Seek out online forums where topics related to your

blog are found. Forums offer free advertising

opportunities for your blog and let you network at the

same time.

Link up with other blogs Never underestimate the power

of a good connection. Many bloggers form associations

with other bloggers and reap the rewards of a

symbiotic relationship in the process. They do this by

swapping links, allowing themselves to share their

audience with other bloggers like you.

Bloggers can also actively promote your blog by

mentioning it in their posts while at the same time

providing links back to your site.

Frequently, blog owners will often allow you to guest

write an article or post for a day or a week. This

helps expose you and your blog to that blog’s

visitors.

Give your two cents’ worth Don’t always treat other

blogs with content similar to yours as bitter

competitors. Sometimes, they could work as silent

partners to help you promote your blog. It may sound

sneaky or unacceptable to your idea of good ethics but

if you look closely, it’s not only practical, it’s

also legit.

Each time you visit another guy’s blog, consider the

niche market it targets. Simply take a look at the

prevailing topics and sentiment and you’ll have an

idea whether it’s a match to your needs or not. Leave

a short but meaty comment on a relevant article that

you truly found interesting. Then leave your name and

a link to the blog page where a related topic can be

found.

What this does is simply promoting your blog to a

market that already exists. You’re not exactly

stealing another blogger’s audience – you’re simply

providing them an alternative. And that’s not so bad

for advertising your blog.

advertising-blog-free-site-web

Advertising Your Blog on Other Websites for Free: How

You Can Take Advantage of a No-Cost Strategy

There are several ways you can advertise your blog on

other websites without paying a single cent. The trick

is to find these channels and determine which ones

will work for you. Here are just a few techniques you

can use:

Advertise on other blogs. You could build a reciprocal

relationship with other bloggers, particularly those

whose content are related (but not necessarily

similar) to yours. If your blog is about gadget and

industry news, for example, you could advertise it for

free on another blog that offers gadget reviews.

By becoming partners with a non-competitor, you take

advantage of his market for the right type of exposure

without alienating anyone. It’s fair, it works and

it’s for free.

Use social media. Social media revolutionized many

aspects of the Internet, particularly because it

presents a new way of communicating and sharing

information. It broke many barriers, allowing people

from across the globe to build and join networks, both

for personal and business purposes.

Social media are sites that can be used to advertise

your blogs for free. Nearly all types of businesses

that exist on the Internet use social media for

promotional activities. The demographics here are

clearly defined, people can communicate in a more

personal manner and since social media is an accepted

platform for marketing, people who read your ads

regarding your blog are more likely to be receptive to

it. Best of all, advertising your blog on these

websites is free.

Use a network. To build buzz and gain momentum in the

blog universe, you need support from likeminded

individuals. Bloggers don’t really advertise

themselves actively against other bloggers. Instead,

they compete with one another by ensuring they have

better content and easier to use sites.

Although simply maintaining a good blog will help

attract other blogs wishing to link up with you, you

might also want to actively pursue associations with

other popular blogs. Many of the best bloggers around

are generous enough to give you a bit of support and

will gladly mention your blog in one of their posts.

Best of all, a network helps you increase your reach

for the same amount of effort.

Use article databases. Article databases are

repositories of write-ups that bloggers and site

owners use. If you choose this route, know that this

is a rather indirect way of promoting your blog. It is

quite effective nonetheless, particularly if you want

to build buzz regarding your ability to provide useful

information.

Try to search out a specific topic online and chances

are, you will find an article written by blogger in an

article database. Read this article. At the end, you

will notice that the blogger had included his/her

name, a short description of himself, what he does,

the name of his company and a link back to his site.

Sometimes, a blogger might even include a few links to

some of his write-ups within the text of the article.

This is to entice the reader to click on the link and

find related information on the writer’s blog. Using

links in this manner allows you to advertise your blog

for free on a separate website.

There’s no cost involved here, particularly if you

wrote the article and performed the submission

yourself. If you prefer to spend a little bit, you

could also use copywriting and submission services for

a reasonable cost. While this isn?t free advertising

for your blog, you still get to expand your presence

using another website.

blog-advertising

Blog Advertising: How Do You Know If You’ve Done Too

Much and Gone Too Far?

Advertising is good. It offers information, gives you

access to a product or service you otherwise won’t

know about, it earns people money and fuels several

different industries. But you know how anything

excessive breeds discontent and greed and neither one

is pretty. The wrong use of advertising on your blog

could send your traffic south – not exactly the

direction you want it to take. So when is blog

advertising bad and when is it just right?

Is your blog succeeding? The key indicator that you’re

probably doing something right with your blog

advertising is when you’re actually succeeding. You

get the traffic you want, you earn for a few simple

efforts you made and keep your advertisers happy.

But don’t get carried away by your success. You might

think that placing many ads on your blog can help you

earn exponentially. What it will do is earn you a spot

on your advertiser’s black list. Advertisers have

guidelines about how many ads you can place on one web

page. Generally, this can range from 3 to 5, depending

on the sponsor.

If you don’t want to break the good will that exists

between you and your affiliate or advertising program,

learn what the policies are and respect them.

Is that a blog or a splog? One of the worst labels

your blog can be slapped with is ’splog’. That’s a

blog that contains spam. If your blog is nothing more

than just pages upon pages of advertising and little

content, you’d probably be better off publishing a

fashion magazine.

Too many ads on a blog can bury your content, distract

your visitors and even frustrate them. Some, such as

the very wary ones, will leave your blog in a hurry.

If your blog resembles an infomercial, forget it. It

will look annoying and take away from the good

reputation you’re trying to build.

Too many choices Another challenge you will be facing

when it comes to blog advertising is persuading your

visitors to pay attention to the ads long enough to

actually do something with them. Otherwise, these ads

will be useless.

The problem with a blog that has too many advertising

units is that it can confuse the visitor. When they’re

confused, they’re less likely to click on an ad, much

less subscribe or buy anything. That leaves your

advertisers – and you – empty-handed.

Managing your advertising A blog page can easily

handle an average of three ads, which is something

most advertising and affiliate programs will allow.

Placed strategically, these ads can easily catch the

attention of your visitors. Since there are only a few

ads to look at, your visitors can easily decide which

one to click on.

Now imagine if there were 10 to 15 ads running on the

same page at the same time. You’ve probably seen blogs

like these before, with ads splattered all over,

rivaling a NASCAR race car.

To use blog advertising correctly, first consider the

type of programs you will be running. If you will be

an affiliate to a brand or company, there are certain

restrictions you have to work with. Some companies,

for example, prefer not to have a competing brand’s ad

placed in the same blog.

Second, placement and aesthetics matter. Consider some

of the highest-rated blogs and study their ad

placements. Where are these ads placed on a page, what

are their sizes relative to one another and to the

content box and what do these ads contain? If you’ve

seen enough of these successful blogs, you’ll have

picked up enough lessons to know how to use blog

advertising to your advantage.

blog-advertising-rates

Setting Your Own Blog Advertising Rates

Sooner or later, you will be faced with the decision

of whether to use advertising on your blog or not.

Advertising isn?t mandatory for keeping your blog

interesting; in fact, it’s merely an optional tool you

can use in case you want to take advantage of your

blog’s popularity. But once you’ve decided on placing

ads on your site, there’s one more issue you need to

consider: setting your blog’s advertising rates. So

how much can you expect to charge or be charged?

With blog advertising, there are no set rates. It is

up to the blogger to design the correct ad payment

scheme that attracts advertisers and allow him to

generate a reasonable income at the same time.

To help you determine the right advertising rates for

your blog, it’s important to consider doing some

research first, particularly about similar blogs and

to consider your traffic and perform some simple

experimentation using your site.

Playing with figures If you think that setting your ad

rates at low prices will attract more advertisers, you

couldn?t be more mistaken. Your $300 a month rate may

not stand against another blogger’s $600 a month rate

if you only have 50,000 page views monthly and he

enjoys 600,000 page views.

An advertiser will look at the ratio between the cost

of advertising on your blog against the amount of

traffic that your site generates, the same traffic

that will potentially click on the ads.

A good ‘constant’ to consider when determining ad

rates is the CPM or Cost-Per-Mille – mille being

equivalent to 1,000. Let’s say a blog receives 150,000

page views monthly. For a 125×125 sidebar ad (usually

the most common), the blog charges $250 monthly.

Divide $250 by 150 (that’s 150,000 divided by 1,000 to

come up with the CPM) and you’ll get $1.66 CPM.

The same arithmetic is used by some of the most

popular blogs, including JohnChow and Copyblogger. For

your blog, you might want to consider how much traffic

you generate and the number of genuine page views you

get. These figures will help you evaluate your blog

and come up with the appropriate ad rate.

Since these blogs are well established, you could

start at far lower rates if you’re still building

traffic. Consider a starting figure of about $0.5 CPM,

which is friendly enough to your advertisers and good

enough for you. Raise this rate gradually as your blog

becomes more popular and as more advertisers and

sponsors buy ad space from you.

Size and location Advertising rates also vary

depending on the size of the ad and where it will

appear. Larger ads and those that will be placed in

prime locations or ‘hotspots’ will cost more. Ads will

also be more expensive if they will appear along with

content or on your blog’s header. Cheaper locations

will be those found on the page’s footer and the area

located after the fold.

Factors that influence ad rates Not every blog can

enjoy strong advertising support. That’s mainly

because not every blog has the right amount of site

traffic, the right visitors, market demographics or

niche. These are just some of the factors that affect

your eligibility for ad placement and the rate you can

charge on your blog.

Blogs, by the way, do not pass through the same

channels as traditional print media. The cost of

providing information in blogs is low enough that

bloggers can offer low advertising rates and still

earn a profit.

how-advertising-works-on-a-blog

Your Site, His Marketing: How Advertising Works On A Blog

Web logs or blogs, began as someone’s online journal,

a way to express opinions and thoughts and communicate

with others on a more personal level. It became such a

successful platform that it wasn’t long until

marketers, online business owners and professionals

took note of its potential. These days, blogs are used

for marketing, putting out news, sharing information,

building a business network, teaching, etc. It also

doesn?t hurt that once in a while, you get to use your

blog to make money as well through ad placements. So

how does advertising work on a blog?

Popularity means income It’s a sad fact and rather

prejudiced against blogs that are just starting out

but to make advertising work on a blog, that blog has

to have enough traffic. Without sufficient traffic,

the ads found on that blog will just not find an

audience and therefore will not earn.

Now to build traffic, your blog has to have a strong

niche and targeted content. Finding a niche for your

blog can be tricky, especially if the topic you’re

offering is obscure and not that easily relatable in

terms of advertising. Tricky, of course but not

entirely impossible. You’d be surprised at the number

of targeted ads some little known topics generate.

However, your best bet and the surest way to make

advertising work on your blog is to promote a topic

that is highly targeted or one that speaks to a niche

audience. By building a following, your blog will gain

enough popularity to be trusted by advertisers.

Advertising on your blog The way advertising works on

a blog is simple: advertisers want to promote their

products and services, your blog provides the platform

with which their ads can gain exposure, mainly by

being the site where their target market frequents. If

your blog is about shoes, the people who visit your

blog are those who want to know more about shoes. From

the shoe advertisers’ point of view, these people are

a gold mine, more likely to buy their shoes based on

the interest they have shown.

There are two ways you can make advertising work on

your blog: by providing ad space on your own or by

relying on an advertising server to do the work for

you. Selling ad space on a blog is fairly common,

particularly on blogs that target a niche market. You

simply set the rates, actively contact advertisers and

agree on the terms. Or, the advertisers can contact

you, after seeing the potential of your blog.

How you get paid is simple enough: once the ad has

been placed on your blog, your visitors will click on

it. Depending on your agreement with the advertiser,

you could earn either through the number of clicks the

ad receives or the type of action solicited by the ad,

such as a purchase or a subscription.

If you’re fairly new to the blog universe and would

rather build your reputation slowly by providing

quality content, you might find yourself too busy to

actively negotiate and communicate with advertisers.

If this is the case you can choose to work with an

advertising server. One such is Google’sAdsense,

although there are others that work just as well.

An ad server looks at your blog and determines the

best ads that relate to your content. You simply take

the code, put it on your blog and let it go to work.

You simply have to collect your earnings using your

account. This is a rather passive approach to letting

advertising work on your blog but it can earn you a

little. Of course, if you want higher earnings, you

need to actively put in more effort and seek out

higher paying ads with the right combination of

keywords that work best for your blog.

how-much-it-costs-to-advertise-on-blogs

How Much Would It Cost You to Advertise on Blogs?

Advertising costs money, even online where the cost of

promoting a brand can set you back by a few hundred

dollars to a few thousand. John Chow’s blog, for

example, one of the most popular blogs currently

active, sells 125 x 125 sidebar ad spots at $500 a

month. The same ad placement will cost around $1,500

with Copyblogger. If you’re wondering how much it

would cost you to advertise on blogs, consider the

following:

Traffic and popularity Blogs thrive on the number of

traffic that visits their sites and on the subsequent

popularity this generates. This is also a major

consideration for advertisers. More traffic simply

means better exposure. Targeted traffic means you’ll

be selling to more people who are likely to buy.

Between a blog that has only 50,000 page views and

another that has 100,000, who would you choose? The

latter obviously offers a wider market and more

potential buyers.

The mille matters. Traffic or the number of page views

a blog page receives also determines the cost of

advertising on a particular blog. If a blog generates

about 100,000 page views monthly, for example and it’s

fairly new, you might have to pay as little as $50 a

month for a 125 x 125 sidebar ad.

To understand how the price of ad spots is computed,

consider the mille. Bloggers will generally use the

unit cost-per-mille or CPM. One mille is equivalent to

1,000, a unit you will be able to use later to compute

for the cost of placing an ad based on the number of

page views it generates.

Bloggers will consider the number of page views their

blogs receive and use that as a basis for coming up

with the cost of advertising. As a result, a blog with

a higher amount of traffic will charge you a higher

price than a blog with a lower number. That means

placing your ad on blogs with sufficient traffic can

range in cost from about $50 to a whopping $10,000 a

month. The bigger number, of course, means your ad

will receive millions of page views.

In conclusion, remember that to determine whether a

particular ad space is worth paying for, consider the

cost of the space versus the traffic it will receive.

Size of the ad The bigger the ad spot you require, the

higher the cost of advertising on a blog. A 125 x 125

ad spot, for example, will be cheaper than a larger

300 x 250 ad. Placement will also affect the ad price.

Header ads, for example, will cost more than sidebar

ads or footer ads. Below the fold ads will cost

considerably less than those that will appear above

the fold or integrated with the blog’s content.

Test periods You might want to consider saving a few

bucks by asking the blog owner if he/she is offering a

test period of ad runs. If your ad will be placed on

test period, that means the blog will display it for a

limited time but won’t charge you for it.

After a specific period, you can then decide whether

to continue with the placement (at which point you’ll

have to start paying) or to pull your ad, depending on

how well it performed in the blog. This usually works

on blogs that are relatively new and are still

building momentum.

Look for blogs that offer renewable ad placements you

can pay for on a month-to-month basis. This will help

you manage the cost of advertising on blogs and help

your bottomline in the process.