If you want to make money from your blog by selling ad space to advertisers, then you need to create a rate sheet that tells advertisers how much ad space costs on your blog and why it's worth it for them to invest their money on your blog. In other words, you need to sell your blog's audience and merits to them in order to convince them to purchase ad space on your blog. However, don't stretch the truth. If an advertiser doesn't get adequate returns on their advertising investment, they won't advertise again. You need to set reasonable expectations. Follow the 10 tips below to create your blog advertising rate sheet.
1. Blog description
Your advertising rate sheet needs to tell potential advertisers not just what your blog is about but also what sets your blog apart from any other site on the Web. They need to understand why your blog is the place for them to place an ad and reach an interested audience. Describe what makes your blog great, and be sure to include information about yourself and any contributors to show what you bring to the blog to add value and attract an audience that advertisers want to connect with.
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| How to Create a Blog Advertising Rate Sheet |
2. Audience description
Advertisers want to know who is reading your blog to ensure the people who will see the ads they place on your blog match their target audiences. You can gather some demographic information from your blog analytics tool as well as through some of the sites mentioned in the "Statistics and Rankings" section below. You can also publish polls on your blog using a tool like PollDaddy to gather information about your reader demographics. For example, advertisers are typically interested in demographics like gender, age, marital status, number of children, education level, and so on.
3. Statistics and Rankings
Online advertisers want to know how much traffic your blog gets each month to ensure their ads will get adequate exposure. Many advertisers expect to see your blog's monthly page views and Compete and Alexa ranks as a way to compare apples to apples when considering online advertising opportunities. You might also want to include the number of incoming links your blog has, which you can get from Alexa or by typing link:www.sitename.com into the Google search bar (replace sitename.com with your blog domain name). Also, although Google claims not to use page rank as part of its search algorithm anymore, many advertisers still expect to see it on your rate sheet. Visit a site like Prchecker.info to find out what your blog's page rank is.
4. Additional Exposure
If your blog content is available in any other way, such as through feed subscriptions, a syndication service, or your blog is promoted in any manner that exposes it to a broader audience, include that information in your rate sheet. If you can quantify that exposure in any way (for example, the number of subscribers to your blog's feed), include those figures in your rate sheet.
5. Awards and Recognition
Has your blog won any awards? Been included in any "Top Blogs" lists? Received any other kind of recognition? If so, include that in your rate sheet. Any kind of recognition that gives your blog added credibility and exposure can add value to it.
6. Ad Specifications
Your rate sheet should specifically state the ad sizes and formats you're willing to accept and publish on your blog. Also, be sure to describe ad run times (how long ads in each ad space on your blog will be published on your blog before they are removed), and if you're willing to discuss custom advertising opportunities, include that information as well.
7. Ad Prices
Your rate sheet should clearly state the prices for each individual ad space available for sale on your blog.
8. Ad Restrictions
This is your chance to tell potential advertisers up front about the types of ads you will not publish on your blog before they contact you. For example, you might not want to publish text link ads, ads without the NoFollow tag, ads that link to pornographic sites, and so on.
9. Payment Options
Explain the methods that advertisers can use to pay you and when payment is due. For example, you might only accept payment via PayPal prior to publishing the ad. The choice is yours, and you should spell it out in your rate sheet.
10. Contact Information
Don't forget to include your contact information so advertisers can follow up with questions and to purchase ad space.
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