Chrispian at Web Dev Source has a good, simple tip on how to find private advertisers for your blog. Here’s the crux of it:
‘The bottom line is that people are out there advertising already, find them and get them to spend some of their advertising dollars with you! ‘
It’s a good tip and one that I’ve used from time to time. The key is to find advertisers advertising on websites, magazines, newspapers etc that are similar to the niche you’re blogging about and to develop a relationship with them. This often takes time and energy – I know that some of the bigger campaigns that I’ve negotiated directly with Advertisers or their Ad Agencies have take a lot of work and negotiation.
Also keep in mind that in many cases advertisers set budgets well in advance of their actual campaigns – you may have to wait a while before it pays off – but its definitely worth making enquiries with such potential advertisers.
Read more of Chrispian’s tip at Making money beyond adsense by selling ads directly
I would assume this would work out well as you are cutting out the middle man (Google, Overture/Yahoo!, etc).
This model has worked well for many websites for a while (and now blogs) the biggest consideration though is the time you’d take to manage it. If you have a highly visible A-list blog advertisers will be seeking you out. If you don’t, you’ll have to put in a little more elbow grease in getting that ‘sale’
No link love for me :( Anyway, yeah, selling ads directly really can work.
Yes, way before AdSense came and domainated the web, the best way to get earn from your blog/site is by getting direct advertisers. In the last 5 years that I’ve been doing local web advertising, I realized that though it may be hard to attract advertisers, it is still possible to get them. It’s harder at first but once you get your first couple of adverts, the rest will just follow.
Unlike AdSense which depend on clicks for revenues, direct advertising is more inclined to higher traffic and exposure.
I’ve just successfully sold 1 ads directly to a BlogAds advertiser. I found that my blog matches his niche. Since I have no BlogAds account, I contact the advertiser through his website and he agreed to put an ad on my blog. Even though I gave him a very low rate, at least it can save me 1 year of hosting fee. :-D