Monetize your blog with in-text advertising

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Monetize your blog with in-text advertising

This is part of an occasional series about blogging. I'm hoping to share some of what I've learned from running Frugal Follies for the past two years, for those of you who are new bloggers.

There are lots of ways to monetize your blog. I've mostly used advertising and affiliate marketing. Right now I'm trying something new - in-text advertising.

I avoid monetizing methods that readers find annoying - like pop-up ads - but I'm finding in-text links are an unobtrusive monetizing method. Since I already have links in my posts to other sites and to some of my previous articles, the text links just blend in, only showing the ad when the user moves their mouse to the link. And I've configured it so that the links are the same color as my regular links, so they blend in better with the rest of my content.

Right now I'm trying out INTENTclick, a ppc advertising (that's pay-per-click advertising) company which specializes in ads for frugality, personal finance, and business blogs and websites. So I feel comfortable that the ads presented will be appropriate for my readers, and won't be completely off-topic.

I found it easy to install - I just had to add a small code block into my site's code. The directions given were very easy to follow, and the service so far has been great. I also really like that there are tags the blogger can use to stop the text links from appearing in certain blocks of text. That's a feature I really appreciate and definitely use.

INTENTclick says that their in-text links, combined with Google Adsense ads, will create the best payout in their field, with a 25% increase over Adsense-only sites. Since I just started using it, I don't know if this is accurate, but I'm giving it a one-month test. I'll update you later to tell you how this test has gone.

Give in-text advertising a try!