Advertising is usually the main source of revenue for a blog, but the timing of when ads are added can have a significant impact on the growth and authority of the blog. Common forms of advertising used by blogs include PPC, affiliate marketing, CPM, private ads, and sponsored posts.
What is the ideal timing to introduce advertisements on a blog?
If a publisher cannot attract a minimum number of potential customers for advertisers, they will not be interested in paying for the advertisement. For instance, if your blog is only a month old and you are receiving a small number of daily visitors, mostly friends or other bloggers, it will not be worthwhile for advertisers. Let us now analyze how various ad methods will perform on a blog that receives 100 to 200 daily visitors.
1.PPC
The most effective PPC option is AdSense, which compensates you when someone clicks on the ads you display. Typically, you can expect to earn between €0.05 and €0.20 per click, with a minimum payout of €0.01. If you have 100 daily visitors and a 336×280 ad slot above your content, you can anticipate a 3% click-through rate (assuming that you are being realistic). As a result, you can expect to receive three clicks per day, generating roughly €0.60 in daily revenue, or approximately €18 per month. It’s worth noting that when starting a blog, you’ll mostly have readers who already know you, and they may find your ads irritating or choose not to click on them.
2. CPM
CPM ads pay based on the number of times the ads appear on your website, regardless of whether your readers click on them or not. Some networks claim to pay up to $3 per 1000 impressions, but the average pay for CPM ads is around $0.50 per thousand impressions, and this also depends on the country of your viewers. Unless you have a highly popular blog with hundreds of thousands of monthly views, you are unlikely to earn significant money from CPM ads. In fact, having too many irrelevant ads can even repel potential subscribers. CPM ads are best suited for high-traffic websites.
Private Ads
Private ads have the advantage of no commission involved as you negotiate directly with the advertiser and get paid for the duration of the ads. However, the amount an advertiser is willing to spend on your site per month depends on the niche of your blog. A smaller niche can attract advertisers even with 100 daily visitors, while a more competitive niche may struggle to get advertisers with such low traffic. A private advertiser will only advertise on a blog if it has the potential to send a good amount of potential customers. Therefore, it is advisable to focus on building your blog and content before considering monetization. The main aim should always be to provide useful content for readers first, and then think about monetization later.
Conclusion
Once you have built a loyal readership and are consistently receiving a decent amount of traffic, you can start considering adding ads to your blog. However, it’s important to carefully consider the types of ads you want to display and their placement on your site. It’s also important to keep your readers’ experience in mind and not overdo it with ads, as this can be a major turnoff for many readers.
In summary, the ideal timing to introduce advertisements on a blog is once you have established a loyal readership and consistent traffic. By waiting until this point, you can ensure that your blog is more attractive to potential advertisers and that you don’t alienate your readership with too many ads.