CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING: Five Top Blog Advertising Options

Contextual Advertising

Contextual Advertising is a relatively new form of advertising on the web that will consider the context of the site, a page or a search query, to display ads from advertisers that correspond to the topic. Its usual form is text-based, using regular hyperlinks, sometimes small graphics and brief descriptions to attract users that may be interested. It is usually highly targetted and is better accepted by users because it is less obstrusive, less bandwith hungry and more relevant than the classic graphical banners. For example, a web page about photography will automatically draw advertisers selling cameras and other photo related accessories. It also has the benefits of making the job of a web publisher easier to find sponsors, as the contextual advertising company acts as an automatic middle man between publishers and advertisers, who bid for specific keywords using an auction system. The same can be said for advertisers, since they now have access to thousands of possible web sites to automatically advertise on. It usually works as Pay per Click, meaning the publisher only generate revenues when a user actively click on an ad, as opposed to Pay per Impressions, an older system that generates revenue based on the number of time the ad is displayed.

Google was on the forefront of this innovation when they created Google Adsense, the first major contextual advertising program. In the beginning, these new ads appeared with their search engine, but they soon expanded it to include webmasters and their web sites, which they named their "Content Network". Using a few ligns of Javascript code, publishers could insert Adsense on their web pages and it would then automatically serve relevant ads using Google's search algorithm. Google also considers other factors such as the geographical location of visitors and their languages, so ads can actually be different for each visitor. Other companies followed with similar programs, but they lacked the sophistication of Adsense since they demanded specific keywords from webmasters instead of detecting them on their pages. Other big players on the web are now slowly embracing this terrific new marketing technology, such as the Yahoo! Publisher Network and MSN adCenter. Contextual Advertising is making it now possible for smaller webmasters and publishers who own small hobby sites to monetize their efforts without spending all their time dealing with appropriate sponsors that may not necessarly be interested with smaller sites when taken on an individual level.

Contextual advertising programs and Google Adsense Alternatives

Here we list companies that offer this marketing solution to webmasters. Google Adsense is often considered the prime choice, but they do have restrictions and some people may be refused to their program.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Five Top Blog Advertising Options

I’ve been in this game for a while, but I’m relatively new to blogging. I understand that a lot of people get into this industry because they think they can make a quick buck. I have no illusions. I am sure that this blog will be my least profitable web site. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t make money with this blog. I will review several options available to bloggers. I currently use all of the following methods, though not all of them are used on this blog.

Affiliate Marketing - Some of the big networks in affiliate marketing include Commission Junction, Linkshare, ShareASale, among many others. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you can throw up a page full of banners and generate an income. Having too many ads is a sure way to drive away your visitors. Tailor your ads to your posts and you can not only provide a service, but make more money than having random, un-related ads on your blog. For more information on affiliate marketing, I strongly suggest you join ABestWeb.
Paid Posting - There are several options available for bloggers who wish to get paid to post. One of which is the recently redesigned PayingPost.com which will, if approved, present opportunities to you that you can choose to accept and blog about. If your post meets the requirements, you can earn a few bucks per post. Keep in mind that your blog will need to be somewhat established first. What’s great about this option is that you can earn while doing something that you’d be doing anyway, blogging.
In-house Ad Sales - Many people overlook this option, opting only for affiliate ads or adsense for banner and link advertising. By offering site sponsorship directly (see 125×125 ads to the right and the advertising page), you can control the price, the ads and it can be a much more guaranteed form of income. Some advertisers can also help you by sponsoring, or providing prizes for contests. If you think it’s too hard, look into OpenX, formerly phpAdsNew, to serve the ads and PayPal to handle subscriptions. It can be fairly automated. If that’s still too hands-on, check out Bidvertiser.
Contextual CPC Ads - Contextual ads are those that display depending on the content of they page of your site on which they reside. There are many pros and cons of using Google Adsense (see sponsors ads to the left) or Yahoo! Publisher Network to serve contextual CPC (cost per click) ads. If done correctly, they can generate substantial revenue. But there are many marketers out there looking to swindle new bloggers out of their money by offering them the road to quick cash. Your success with contextual CPC advertising generally depends on the traffic to your blog, whether or not they have a high level of ad blindness, and the content of your blog.
Contextual Links - Rather than having CPC banners and ad blocks on your blog, you can have CPC links directly in your posts. These ads are usually set to appear differently (i.e. two underlines) so as to not confuse the visitor. Once the link is moused over, an ad bubble pops up. One such network is Kontera - you can run this in addition to Adsense and not be in breach of terms.

1 comments:

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