Setting Your Advertising Prices
Advertising on my blog is getting more and more popular and as I browse around other blogs I try and see what ad pricing looks like and so far I’ve been impressed with some of the deals you can get but some blogs, I’m just not even sure how to describe it. The point is that, you cannot set your advertising prices at a level that is beyond what its worth. Same thing goes for any kind of commodity in your daily life. Example, if cereal was now $20 a box for something that originally cost $3-$5 a box, you’d either be really desperate to buy it or you’d stay away from it completely. Thats how advertising works. Maybe I can help you in setting your advertising prices:
1) Don’t Start Too Early - Sometimes, its not bad to advertise ads for 1 cent or $1 but you have to realize that it makes for a bad impression. Most advertisers may think that you perceive your ad to be worth nothing at all to be charging a dollar or less for it. Don’t start too early. Wait till the time is right.
2) Dont Start Too High - Problem is, that you don’t know what the right value is so you start off too high in the hopes that it might make advertisers believe that the benefit derived from buying adspace must be because of some great statistics. Don’t set your price at a certain level just because you think the ad is worth that much. Base it on actual statistics.
3) Look At Statistics - Look at what your statistics are and make sure that your statistics match the price. Think about whether the price is fair per subscriber or for your alexa and technorati ranks. I base it upon subscribers and unless I’m 250 and over, I won’t change the price of my ads. Even still they won’t increase by more than 20% if anything but even that is debatable. You want to entice your advertisers into realizing that the ad is a good value for the money.
4) Compare with Similar Blogs - Another idea is to see blogs that you believe are your competitors or are on the same level as you are. See their prices and compare them to what you had in mind. If your price is above average then you need to reconsider the pricing. If its below average then consider whether you want to sell it for that price or raise it to the average of other comparable blogs.
5) Would You Buy It? - The best way to see if your price is right is to decide (leaving your bias out) whether you’d be willing to pay that price for the ad. If you think that its a good deal then the price is right. If you think its over priced then its time to re-think the pricing. Its just that simple.
Is The Price Right For You?
So hopefully those of you, who don’t have your ads priced as yet or are re-thinking why advertisers are not sticking around, its time to re-evaluate your pricing based on my list. Have you seen overpriced ads? Do you think your advertising prices are worth it? Let me see!
I have yet to do advertising on my blog. I really need to change my template so its better to add advertising on my blog.
Good information though Thank
And What do you think how many traffic is enough to for adversiting on you blog?
These are all very valuable tips for pricing advertising. Asking yourself if you would buy the ad is a great way to evaluate the worth of the ad space. Also, looking at statistics will give you an idea of an ad’s worth. Maybe you could post a second part to this that explains the process for deciding when you’re ready to sell ads. Thanks for posting!
Very well said
nice article, nice blog
These are some very good tips! Although, I think the best way to truely discover the value of your ad space is to let the advertisers decide with some sort of auction format! Another thing I’ve heard of doing is providing a place for the advertiser to contact you with an offer if they want to advertise and you can then negotiate from there.
Good tips, I love how you lay stuff out in easy to read lists lol, very good for folks like me who like to speed read ( or skim, whatever you want to call it lol)
I can’t use the “would I buy it” because I don’t purchase many ads lol, so that would be fair. I just put a price on it, yeah I look around at others, but still only put what I think it’s worth or what I want to charge…folks can take it or leave it lol.
Advertising on my blog isn’t my cash cow, so…it’s not too much of a hassle deciding on a price.
Yeah, as someone who doesn’t make a ton of money from their website and doesn’t need to depend on blog income for survival, it’s not such a big deal to find the maximum acceptable price because people can “take it or leave it” without affecting you too much!
This is good information for someone like me who is thinking of adversting on his blog and is thinking if its the right time to start
PS How can I get that little cloud before the comment link on the blog? Is that Haloscan and Blog template?
So tell me is the method you’re using as described reasonably accurate to see many people buying your ads?
Peter Lee
Hey Peter, yes, when i first started blogging I didn’t have these tips but as time went on I put these tips into practice and its worked out great for me. All my ad spots are sold!