Everyone wants to make money with there blog, but sticking a big ugly “Advertise Here” 125×125 block on your web site isn’t always the best method. Once you establish your blog and have your own brand, you’d be amazed at how much of a demand for advertising you soon may have. There is nothing wrong with placing advertising on your web site or blog, just make sure it’s done right.

Before you go ahead and stick a big “ADVERTISE HERE” box on your blog, here are a few reasons why you should reconsider, and instead how to approach your blog advertising from a different perspective.

1.) It’s Just Ugly
Right off the bat, most of these “advertise here” ad blocks are pretty ugly. If they aren’t just a white section with a text link inside, they are usually a hideous design. Your blog is important, and if you’ve spent a lot of time and money building it, why mess it up with a nasty ad box. Remember, the majority of people to your web site are not interested in advertising, and if you have something like the atrocious ad block to the right on the design, that’s pulling their eyes away from your real content.

2.) It’s Doesn’t Look Professional
Depending on your blog type, you may be trying to establish creditability or a brand for yourself. It’s one thing to have one ad block, looking for advertisers, but if you have 2 or 3 of the same ad block, it just doesn’t look professional and maybe even desperate. You don’t want to look like you are begging for advertisers, or that dependent on trying to make a buck. If you are using a plugin to manage your ad spots, this can usually be fixed by limiting your open ad spots available. Another option is to temporarily add your own banners to other sites or offers til you sell out.

3.) No One Wants to be the First Advertiser
In most cases, no one wants to be the first advertiser on a blog or web site. If you are searching out a place to advertise your product or site, you want to be where others are advertising, which gives you the feeling they are seeing results. Think of this just like your RSS feed. No one really shows their RSS count until it’s in the hundreds. People like to join, flock and participate where others are.

4.) CPA Over Nothing
Why are you wasting time and money with open ad space on your blog? Instead of that ugly “Advertise Here” button, you can simply replace it with a link to one of your own sites, or find a CPA offer that’s relevant to your audience. If an advertiser is that interested in advertising on your web site, they will contact you directly. It’s likely you won’t lose much business if you remove your “Advertise Here” 125×125, just make sure you always have a text link for advertising on the site.

5.) Non-Creative Blank Ad Spots
If you just have to have an “Advertise Here” button on your web site, you might as well make it look good. Not only will it blend in with your web site, but it shows creativity and may actually draw in more advertiser attention vs. not. TutorialBlog has a few great examples of what you should and shouldn’t do with your “advertise here” ad spots. The banner ad designs below blend in much better than your average “Advertise Here” button.

For anyone looking for a better ad management solution, or currently without one, I use both UBD Block Ad Settings plugin (free) and OIOPublisher (great for selling ad space, $47) on multiple web sites and blog themes.

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