Is advertisement a viable revenue for your blog?

You might think that when you invest in your blog, it would do good if it gave you something in return. We all do. But what do you do when the advertisers make more than your blog? You devise a game-plan!

Bloggers’ income is seeing a rough patch along with the world economy. According to Northcliffe Media (the regional newspaper division of Daily Mail and General Trust) recorded a 12% year-on-year slouch in advertising revenue till March 2011. But, this does not mean much for the ever-changing online industry. With tens of thousands of bloggers and millions of readers, there can never be too many or too little.

The only change to be made is how you sell your product. A few of the problems being faced by the blogosphere are -

• A decrease in the investment of companies into marketing.
• A rise in the thinking that it pays more to sell your product yourself than through some third source.
• The over-attractiveness of advertisements that steal attention away from your blog.
• Online banner ads take the readers away from your writing onto a series of endless window shopping explorations.
• Directly selling ads to advertisers is time and effort consuming.

But for each of these reasons, there are counter-reasons for not giving up hope.

The economy is starting to improve and there is no reason to think that money will not return to online advertising budgets. The potential of online media is under explored, and it is only a matter of time before another Mark Zuckerberg or Reid Hoffman turn heads by becoming overnight millionaires.

Developing and selling your own products is the safest mode of ensuring revenue. Even though there might be a limit to how you can sell your products on your blog, like in a blog called Digital Photography School. Some people might not notice your blogs over your products, while some will ignore your products and hence ignore your blog altogether, finding it rather confusing. The solution is to keep things raw and simple. Don’t complicate the blog with too much information about the product, the focus is your blog, and once people regularly visit it; your products are bound to sell.

There are other viable options for advertising, like sponsored competitions where advertisers sponsor a competition on your blog and you advertise their products; Newsletter advertising, people take the printed word very seriously; Sponsored content, where companies sponsor particular posts by you without influencing the content.

There are many ways to obtain the balance of advertising and blogging, and if you have more, please do chip in.