… by Scott Fox, ClickMillionaires.com

How to Start Making Money from Ads on your Blog

By Scott Fox, ClickMillionaires.com

Don’t make the mistake of starting a new website expecting the “big boys” of Fortune 500 company advertisers to show up and advertise. As discussed in my previous post, “Why Big Advertisers Avoid Your Blog… (The Ugly Truth)”, you need to earn their attention by building an audience and traffic appropriate to their brands first.

How to Start Making Money from Ads on a New Blog
If you want to start making money today, here are 4 levels of online advertising you can use even if your blog’s traffic is small or you have just launched a new niche web site:

1. Advertising Network Ads: Your site can start attracting ad dollars today by installing ad code from services like Google’s Adwords or Adbrite. These networks are free to join and will be happy to populate your site with advertising from relevant advertisers immediately.

2. Affiliate Advertising: The next level is to promote products for others in exchange for a sales commission. If you can find products/services that match the needs of your audience, this can be profitable. It is also a revenue strategy that you can start immediately.

Visit Amazon.com, CJ.com, Linkshare.com, Shareasale.com, or find individual companies that offer affiliate programs for products that your audience would like. This can also be a good way to get pro-level “big name” advertisers’ ads on your site because many major companies offer affiliate programs today online.

(TIP: Be sure to disclose your affiliation with these products/companies so that you don’t run afoul of FTC advertising guidelines for bloggers.)

3. Directly Negotiated Ads: If you can find products that are a “perfect” match for your audience, you may be able to recruit your first advertisers even when your blog’s audience is small.

Photo editing software for a digital photography blog or ebooks on weight loss for your weight loss blog are good examples.

A favorite ad target of mine is to look for industry-specific conferences. If your audience is from a particular industry, conference organizers are likely to want to advertise even if your audience is small because it is so targeted.

4. Your Own Products: The most profitable advertising is often for your own products. As a new blogger, you may not have your own products yet. But when you are ready, using your own ad space to promote your own products can be highly profitable. (Plus, there’s no negotiation required!).

5. Fortune 500 Ads: As discussed in my previous post, it’s tough to get major brand-name advertisers to buy advertising on a small website or new blog. But if you work your way through the four levels of advertising above, you can grow your audience and revenues together to reach the point where even the “big boys” are likely to direct their media buying agencies to advertise with you.

All of these advertising sales strategies can help you create a revenue model for a new blog early in its development. As your audience grows, you can work your way through these four levels of advertising strategies. They will help you make money at each step, and eventually
position you for level 5, which is the placement of ads from Fortune 500 corporations with the truly big advertising budgets we all dream about.

What questions or suggestions do you have about this approach?
Which ad strategies have you found most profitable for new blogs?

Scott Fox is the host of the online marketing success coaching community ClickMillionaires.com. He is a serial startup executive, podcaster, and author whose e-business strategy coaching helps solopreneurs, small business owners, and corporations make more money online. He is the best-selling author of two books: Internet Riches and e-Riches 2.0: Next Generation Online Marketing Strategies. Visit http://www.ScottFox.com for free email newsletters and http://www.ClickMillionaires.com for a free trial of his personalized coaching community.