Black Friday is Starting Early - BOGO on Ad Rates

The Holiday season is becoming more and more focused on Money.  Stores have sales starting as soon as the Turkey hits the table, and it goes all the way to (and through) Christmas.

Spending money, making money, getting money as a present, etc.  Cash is King.

Which is why I have decided to do my little part in the mix.  I would like to offer a discount on ad rates from now until Christmas.

Purchase an ad on My Own Private Idaho, and I'll double the amount of weeks.  In other words, if you by ad space for a 4 week period, I'll leave the ad up for 8 weeks total.

Think of it as one more BOGO deal for the holidays.  But this one will draw more eyes to your website.

For more information on ad spaces, please go to the advertising page.  In order to qualify, the transaction needs to be completed by 11:59pm (Mountain time) on Christmas Eve.  Once I hear Santa's sleigh hit my roof, the sale is over.

Merry Christmas!  Happy Thanksgiving!  And enjoy the cold weather!

So you blog to make money, eh?

If so, you have probably heard of (or used) Google's Adsense Program.

Well, there are good and bad experiences with it, if you ask the blogging masses...

If you're new to the whole "I'm gonna use ADSENSE and blog to make MILLIONS!  YAAAY!" I have news for you.  If you don't do your homework, you're not going to make any money.

And if you are too good, and make too much too soon, google will END YOU, like they did me (more on that below).

Here is an awesome infographic I found from Wordstream:

Source

If you're going to do it, do it right.  Optimize your site for maximum search traffic.  Advertise on blogs (like mine) to gain more viewers and followers.  And if you're blogging purely for the money, pick a topic that will yield a high cost-per-click (see above graphic).  Use social media to your advantage (remember my Stumbleupon post??  Yeah, like that) and keep growing as much as you can.

If you blog about everything, your ads are going to be about everything.  Google has tools that let you focus your ad material on more relevant topics, but be careful:  If they think you're playing their system, they can shut you off without notice.

I started blogging in January.  By the end of February, I had enough traffic to net me $10-20 a day via adsense.  About 1.5% of my viewers were clicking ads, and I was making roughly $0.78 per click.  It added up, and my first check from Google was almost $200.  They eventually cut me off (without reason, just "we decided to end your account") but it was fun while it lasted.

Most other advertising sites don't have the same monetary yield as google, so focus on adsense if you can.  Blogher's ads look like they may be decent, but I'm not going to go down that pathway again.  (and I hear Blogher is very VERY picky about who they let in...)

For those of you with adsense success stories, feel free to share them by commenting below.  I'm sure newer people to the game would appreciate it...

...oh, and have I mentioned you can advertise on my blog?  You know, just in case I hadn't already...

Not ashamed to admit: I'm for sale

When I first started blogging, I was out of work and looking for fun ways to make a buck.  I found some information online saying "ROMG YOU CAN MAKE LIEK BAZILLIONS WITH ADSENSE AND BLOGS!1!!1!" so I tried it out.  I made a little bit (not bazillions) but adsense is a fickle friend.

So I looked around at other sources.  Most caused pop-ups or the "Congratulations!  Click here and win an iPad (and a ton of viruses)" messages.

So I finally gave up and said "Fuck it.  I'm doing my own thing."

And so far, I like being my own boss.

I'm sure you've seen the 'advertise here' buttons placed strategically around my blog.  You may have been so bold as to look at my advertising page.   Well, I'm happy to report that these are slowly but surely getting filled.  Hopefully I'll be adding some testimonials soon from happy customers (hint hint...).

I currently have 2 bloggers advertising on my site:

The first is Zombies Everywhere, an awesome site dedicated to the undead.  Here you can learn fun zombie facts, what to do if found in a gaggle of zombies, and what you need to do to prepare yourself for Z-Day (which is coming soon, you better go there and read up...).

The next blogger is a slight contrast from Z.E.  It is Beyond the Borderline Personality, a blog which discusses Borderline Personality Disorder, Passive-Aggressive behaviors, and, well, a lot.  Reading about the anxiety of getting a tattoo done coupled with the pride and confidence when the initial sitting was done is absolutely amazing.  This wordsmith paints pictures in your mind that will leave you breathless.

And since I follow both blogs, it's that extra little stamp of awesomeness.

Now, I can't guarantee results.  Z has been running an ad for nearly 2 weeks, so hopefully he has some kind words to share (dude, that's your cue).  Those in the blogging world know, however, that the key to growing your blog is marketing your site in as many ways as possible.

And that's exactly what I want to help you do.   Market yourself to an audience that you can tap.  I'm currently at 650 followers, 400-600 pageviews a day (depending on the post) and I've amassed about 5100 comments in only 5 1/2 months.  The interaction on this site is bumpin.

Scan it.  You know you want to.

Sizes available are 140x140 buttons, 280x100 rectangles, and one 480x60 banner on the header of the site.  For more information, please go to the advertising page and see what would work best for you.  QR codes, graphic ads, text, whatever you decide to do.

As always with marketing, the more you stand out, the more you're going to attract people.

And if you don't have a creative bone in your body, fret not.  I can help you design an ad (for a fee, of course), re-size graphics, or customize space to fit your needs.

After all... when whoring yourself out, the flexible whores tend to get more customers....