One question that really annoys me as a CMF Ads admin is “Why doesn’t anyone advertise on my blog?” The same reason people don’t hire you for a job. You still don’t get it, do you? You showed up for the interview and the company hired another person. Blogging, like life, isn’t always fair. Getting your foot into the door and acquiring some advertisers is a lot like hiring a blog for a job. Let’s look at why your blog is still unemployed.
Does your blog have enough experience? Just as a resume shows your work history, so do your blog stats represent your blog history. Pagerank, Alexa Rank, RSS Subscribers, age of the blog, # of comments, number of articles all affect potential advertisers judgement.
Does your blog look respectable, or is it full of spelling and grammar mistakes. Sometimes you read a resume and wonder if the person ever proofread it, same goes for blogs. You don’t show up for an interview wearing mismatched socks I hope. So too your blog’s sidebar should not look like a tossed salad. So don’t be a salad tosser!
Where are your priorities? Do you show up late for an interview and say “sorry, but I just interviewed at a much bigger company?” I hope not. If you run a widget at the bottom of a page, don’t expect advertisers to jump at that ad spot. Give each ad spot it’s proper respect above the fold if you want advertisers to pay for it.
Do you use your social contacts to look for potential job openings? In the same way advertisers like to run ads on the sites they socialize with. If people like your personality, they are more likely to run an ad on your site. Be active on various social networks. Send traffic to other sites, and soon you may find traffic and advertisers sent your way. I notice most of the sites in CMF Ads that have no advertisers have also made zero posts in the forum.
Does the interviewer think your resume is full of lies? Just as a potential advertiser won’t appreciate a blog made to deceive the public. Hidden redirects, pop-ups, and worse. Is your blog really a blog, or a pathetic attempt for you to generate Google AdSense income from keywords and your few paid posts?
If you don’t have the experience, are you demanding too high a salary? So too, a blog without the numbers can’t demand a high price per ad. Try dropping your price from the default 5cr to 2cr. Once you prove the traffic has value to advertisers, raise your price.
If all else fails, negotiate. A little hustle goes a long way in impressing people. If anyone ever said to me “I see you have a pepperjam ad on your site. If you buy a 5cr ad on my site, I’ll sign up using your link”. Hell yeah I’d advertise on that person’s site. In fact, I’d probably be contacting them with more opportunities. Look for contests on blogs and in the forums. I know turnipofpower.com will be holding a contest come March, with the winner receiving a pile of CMF Ads credits.
Use your imagination, but never beg or scam. We are all bloggers, and we know spam when we see it. Posting on the forums “Gee, why don’t I have any advertisers?” will not change the situation in most cases. After all, you don’t want to hear those horrible words “Your fired!”
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Great post with loads of important information. The one that jumped out for me was this:
“I notice most of the sites in CMF Ads that have no advertisers have also made zero posts in the forum.”
We’ve often suggested using the forums – but it’s the first time I’ve seen proof of why it’s important. People need to get their name out there
Content, content, content. Good content attracts the visitors, visitors attract the advertisers. As far as I am concerned that is the bottom line.
A blogger has no direct control over who is going to advertise on their site or not. They do control the content. Concentrate on this and the rest will fall into place, some or other time.
Great post. Telling it like it is.
Lyndi: Content is always the starting point. When people like your content, they will bookmark your site, comment, and return again and again. BTW: your turnip t-shirt should be arriving any day now. They told me about 2 weeks travel time.
Agree! I’ve seen some blogs with the widget all the way at the bottom! One of them was five credits and I almost bought a spot on it and changed my mind the second I saw ad placement.
I wrote a little thing about how to succeed on CMFAds if anyone wants to check it out:
http://melbel.com/
Agree! I’ve seen some blogs with the widget all the way at the bottom! One of them was five credits and I almost bought a spot on it and changed my mind the second I saw ad placement.
I wrote a little thing about how to succeed on CMFAds if anyone wants to check it out:
http://melbel.com/2009/02/how-to-succeed-on-cmfads-as-blogger.html
Great post mel, I’ll see if we can add it to our FAQ at http://www.cmfads.com/help/
@Turnip: Good points there. I specially like the analogy with ‘job interviews’
I have tried the ‘reducing’ price in the beginning trick and when I increased my prices later same advertisers have stayed when they saw value.
Jeet: Glad you appreciate the attempt. Reviews have been mixed, ranging from “great” to “we don’t need your sarcasm”. Many of my previous posts simply quote facts and numbers, so I figured I’d spice this one up a bit.
You made some very good points here. I have already taken one to heart and lowered my price until more users get to my blog at CMF.
I think you did a great job here on this post. I took your advice and already have quite a few ads waiting to run.
Today is only my 2nd day to officially have the widget up too.
And I totally agree about widget placement. I go nuts when I hit a page and have to search and search to find it.
I hope you have a good week!
This is great blog
Great point… Good thing I have advertisers still on my blog
I think, “So too your blog’s sidebar should not look like a tossed salad,” has its exceptions on Recipe blogs. I keed!
My new signature for my comments:
This is great blog.
Well, this IS great blog!
Maybe my new signature should be “Nice post”.
I liked your first point on experience. In the blogging world, patience combined with persistence will yield a great long term harvest. Both the patience and persistence are key ingredients for a recipe for success!