How Do You Determine Rates for Advertising on Your Blog?

At some point, almost all bloggers toy with the idea of selling advertising space on their blog. This is a good way for bloggers to earn more money for their blogging efforts, helping to create recurring income each month.

But any time the subject of blog advertising comes up, it’s immediately followed with the question “How much should I charge for advertising space on my blog?” And “What pricing platform should I use?”

The problem is there isn’t really a clear answer or pricing structure for blog advertising. There are a number of factors that determine acceptable advertising rates, and it seems like many bloggers are just using guesswork to set their rates.

Having said all of that, the good news is you don’t have to pull these rates out of thin air. There are some guiding factors and resources you can use to set fair advertising rates.

Tips for Including Ads on Your Blog

Before we discuss setting your advertising rates, let’s first go over some general tips for placing ads on your blog. These simple tips will ensure your ads don’t take away from your content and create a bad user experience while also making sure your advertisers get a good value.

• Separate ads from content—There’s nothing worse than landing on a blog that’s just one big advertisement. Remember, the reason people come to your blog is to read your posts, not to look at your ads. So, always have a clear divider between your ads and content. Keep the ads in a sidebar and at banners along the top or bottom of your page.
• Don’t advertise junk products—You can sit there and say you aren’t responsible for the content or quality of the products or services advertised on your blog, but the simple truth is by advertising these products, your readers get the impression that you endorse them. If they end up buying junk through an ad on your website, they’ll hold it against you.
• Advertise relevant products— People don’t come to your web design blog to see ads for Viagra. They don’t visit your gardening blog to look at weight loss ads. You need to keep your ads relevant to the subject of your blog and the needs and interests of your readers. If you don’t, the ads will quickly become an annoyance to readers, causing them to see your blog as an outlet for spam.
• Don’t cram every available space with an ad—The more ads you sell, the more money you make. But you have to be careful that your quest for more ad revenue doesn’t get out of control and ruin the user experience. Keep the ads to a reasonable number, and leave some whitespace on your blog so it’s not overcrowded.
• Good blog content matters—If you want advertisers to keep paying, you need to keep attracting quality traffic and readers who click through on these ads. To get loyal readers, you need to have quality content. If your content sucks, everything else will fall apart, and the advertisers will start disappearing.

Factors that Influence Advertising Rates

Blog advertising rates are based on a number of factors. The most important factors include:

• Traffic—There are many different definitions of web traffic, but when it comes to advertising, most seem to care about page views. Many websites set their advertising rates based on cost per 1,000 page views (CPM—cost per mille). Advertisers will likely compare the CPM on your blog to other blogs in your niche to find the best value.
• Size and location of the ad—Obviously, a bigger ad is going to cost more than a smaller ad that’s hidden at the bottom of the page. Common ad sizes include 125×125, 120×240, 120×90, 468×60, and 728×90 to name just a few.
• Subject of blog—Blog advertising rates vary greatly from one category to the next. If you’re blogging in a very small niche (e.g. wood carving), you probably won’t be able to charge as much as a blog covering something popular like gadgets and tech news. Your best bet is to seek out other blogs in your niche to see what their ad rates are.
• Audience—This goes hand in hand with the subject of your blog. Your advertisers want to make sure the people reading your blog are interested in their products, will click on the ads, and hopefully take action once they get to their page. The more information you have on your readers, the better.

Attracting Advertisers

How can you get private advertisers on your blog? There are a few things you can do to bring them in.

• Give away a couple of ads—When you have a bunch of empty advertising spots on your blog, it doesn’t look good to potential advertisers. That’s why giving away a couple of ad spaces in the beginning (try holding a special contest to build excitement) for a certain number of days can be beneficial. Once companies see that others are advertising successfully, they’re much likelier to have interest in buying ad space from you.
• Put blank spaces for ads for sale—Advertisers aren’t psychic. They can’t know you have space for sale unless you promote it. Put blank spaces with a call to action (e.g. Buy this space), and always make it easy for advertisers to find out how to buy space.
• Create a page with statistics and ad rates—You should also have a page on your blog that details your most important statistics, including traffic, page views, unique page views, average length of visit, etc. Additionally, your rates should be laid out clearly so advertisers can decide if your blog is a good fit for their needs.
• Don’t just take any advertiser you can find—In the beginning, it can be tempting to take on any advertiser, just so you can get that first sale. But don’t give in. Advertising shoddy, irrelevant products is a surefire way to alienate your reader base.

So, how do you determine rates for advertising on your blog?