Options for Selling Ads on Your Mom Blog

By Wendy Piersall from Mom Blogging For Dummies

You basically have two ways to sells ads on your blog: selling the ads yourself or using an ad network. Ad networks sell the ads for your blog in exchange for a portion of the revenue. But if you want to be highly specific about the kinds of companies that advertise on your blog, then your best option is to sell the ads yourself.

Ad networks sell the ads for your blog in exchange for a portion of the revenue. While at first blush, it seems better to get 100 percent of your advertising revenue than 40 percent to 60 percent of it, you may find that the ad network will earn you more money.

For example, selling your own ads, you’ll get 100 percent of an ad’s $500 revenue, but that doesn’t come close to getting 60 percent of the $5,000 revenue (that’s $3,000) from the ad network. While you do have to share ad revenue when working with an ad network, that’s not always a bad thing.

Not only can it usually sell more ads than you can, but it also takes care of all the administrative work that comes with dealing with advertisers. That administrative work can be significant. Large brands expect to be able to have sophisticated ad-serving technology, which means that they want a lot of control over how and when their ads are viewed.

They may want to only show an ad once per visit, or only to people in southern California. To be able to sell to large brands, you need an ad server that allows you to give your advertisers that kind of control.

On the flip side, it may seem easier to work with small companies instead. Often, small companies don’t have the experience to run a successful advertising campaign, so may need more hand-holding on your part. Or they may have set up a very ineffective campaign and hold you accountable for results that are outside your control.

There are several bloggers who only sell their own advertising and do so very well. Many of these people tend to want to be extremely selective about the advertising they display on their blogs.

All bloggers should be selective about which advertisers they choose to work with, because the ads will reflect positively or poorly on you. But if your blog is in a highly specialized niche in which there are fewer advertisers to be found, or if you want to be highly specific about the kinds of companies that advertise on your blog, then your best option is to sell the ads yourself.