They have now been added to main page underneath the names of each speaker. Mine is here (pdf) – I hope you can make some sense of it! Here’s a short (ish) summary of what I said for each slide:
1. Title Slide – made a few excuses for my terrible flu-ish voice.
2. Dating Tips – I get asked by bloggers how to find advertisers for their blogs and get asked by advertisers how to interact with bloggers. Sometimes I feel like a dating consultant – hence the title of my presentation – dating tips for bloggers and advertisers.
3. How Much do Bloggers Earn? – to put the talk in context I thought it worth sharing this graph of how much bloggers earn (taken from a survey of ProBlogger readers)
4. Direct Methods vs Indirect Methods of Earning Money from Blogs – another slide to help put the tips that I share in context. Selling advertising on a blog is just one of many methods of monetizing a blog. Bloggers need to know that they have a variety of options open to them. Advertisers need to know that they’re not bloggers only option and that they might need to compete to get their attention.
5. Tips for Bloggers Looking to ‘pickup’ Advertisers – subtitle page
6. Tips for Bloggers:
- Build a Brilliant Blog – the best way to attract advertisers is to build a blog that they’d be proud to associate their brand with
- Be Contactable – I am still amazed by how many bloggers don’t have a way to contact them. It’s hard to ‘pickup’ when you’re not contactable
- Get Your ‘About Page’ in Order – many advertisers will do a little research of you and your blog before advertising with you. Make sure your About page has good information and consider making one specifically for Advertisers with relevant demographics and metrics of readership.
- Know your Metrics – you need to have basic information on your blog’s traffic on hand so that you can quickly provide it to advertisers. Many are working last minute on campaigns so to have a document that you can sent them quickly on hand is worth preparing.
- Be Selective – don’t clutter your blog with irrelevant or ‘cheap’ looking ads. Everything that goes on your blog will help sell it to advertisers – including the other ads that you have. Less ads on your blog helps ‘sell it’ to advertisers.
- Go with a Niche Approach – the more targeted the topic of your blog the more attractive it will be to advertisers in that niche.
- Know How Your Ads Convert – do a little testing to see how ads in different positions on your blog will perform (more on how I do this in the next slides).
7 – 10. CrazyEgg – one of the tools that can help you to analyse how ads work (or don’t work) in different positions on your blog is CrazyEgg. This tool tracks where people click on your blog. Not only that – the new ‘confetti’ tracking tool identifies where different types of traffic click (based upon where they come from, what browsers people are using, their window size etc). It’s a really useful tool not only for testing ad positions but anything design related (PS: Crazy Egg currently have some special prices for ProBlogger Readers).
11. Full list of tips for Bloggers – There were a few more tips for bloggers here:
- Position Position Position – key factors to consider with regards to positioning of ads include that above the fold is best – but other hotspots are often around comments at the end of posts.
- Offer Package Deals – sometimes advertisers will up their spend if you offer RSS ads, posts announcing campaigns, ads in newsletters, text ads etc.
- Start with Small Advertisers – while it’s worth approaching the big advertisers in your niche I find that it takes a while to grow a blog to the kind of level that will attract them. In the mean time approach smaller advertisers. This will help you monetize your blog earlier, get your readers used to ads and could even attract larger advertisers.
- Collaborate with Other Bloggers – if you don’t have enough traffic on your own, why not get together with a few other bloggers in your niche to approach advertisers.
12. Tips for Advertisers looking for Bloggers – Subtitle page
13. Why your next ‘date’ should be with a Blogger – a few reasons why advertisers should consider advertising on blogs:
- bloggers are connected, trusted and influential
- blogs are targeted
- blogs are conversational spaces
- blogs are read by bloggers – viral in
- nature bloggers are early adopters
14. Tips for Advertisers looking to advertise on Blogs
- Consider Blogs – for the above reasons
- Make it Easy for bloggers – some advertisers make bloggers jump through too many hoops to get ads up on their blogs. Advertisers need to keep in mind that most bloggers are working alone, don’t have backgrounds in advertising or marketing and are working part time. Consider the language you use and the demands you place on them.
- Add to the conversation – blogs are conversational and interactive spaces. Consider how to engage in this conversation rather than just slapping up a banner ad above it.
- Be Relational with Bloggers – bloggers will be much more open to interacting with you if you engage with them in a friendly, honest, transparent and open way.
- Be Relational with Readers – develop campaigns that are personal and engaging rather than ‘spin’
- Be Transparent – allow bloggers to disclose their involvement with you. Be open and honest with bloggers and their readers.
- Be Relevant, Honest and that Connects – (oops – bad grammar there) – in the ads that you run, don’t go for the ‘spin’/marketing/overly produced ads – but develop ads that fit with the blogging style on a blog. The more relevant you can make it to readers the better.
- Test the Trust Factor – not all bloggers are trusted and not all bloggers will have a voice that you’ll want to associate your brand with. Dig in their archives, check their comments section (comments are a great barometer of a blog) and research their reputation a little before slapping your ads on their blog.
- Think Outside the ‘banner’ – While banner ads can work on a blog perhaps there are more creative and effective ways to interact with blogs. Sponsor a series of posts, put up a prize for a competition, give some readers a product etc
- Be Playful – blogs are places that you can experiment, push the boundaries and get a little creative.
- Involve the Blogger – Personalize – Bloggers know their readers best. Involve them in the designing of your campaign.
15. Contact Details
I hope that that has conveyed something of my presentation. It’s always hard to write up something that you’ve said a few weeks back but that was the main gist of what I covered.
