Blog Advertising: How Do You Know If You’ve Done Too Much and Gone Too Far?

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.