Attracting Advertisers to your Blog

Almost everyone wants to find a way to make money from their blog, whether they admit it or not. One of the best ways of doing that is to get direct advertisers on your site. What’s the first step to attracting those advertisers and getting them to reach out to you?

Billboard: Wikimedia Commons

Create a media kit for your blog.

Your blog media kit should contain similar information to what the magazines and newspapers use to sell advertisers. It needs to give potential sponsors an opportunity to learn some behind-the-scenes facts and stories which will supplement the content on your site. It’s almost like a resume for your blog.

Before you can entice advertisers to contact you, you need to answer several questions upfront, including advertising rates, key demographics, blog traffic information and your contact details. You also want to make sure that you include the possible ad sizes available so they know what they can do with your site.

Also, do you have any specific products or services you do not want to advertise for? Develop a strong, effective advertising policies for your site.

Make sure your blog media kit information is accurate, consistent and up to date. Check your kit monthly, to make sure that it is updated as your site grows.

The things that you need to be sure to include in your media kit are:

Blog profile

Start simple by tailoring your kit to describe your blog, define your blog values, describe your blog content and you personally.

Blog target audience/traffic

It is important to show the potential sponsor what they are buying. Your blog traffic and your blog target audience are two primary motivators for the advertiser. Keep working to build your blog traffic and be ready to share your blog traffic stats, number of RSS subscribers, and number of email newsletter subscribers.

External references

Add credibility to your blog by including external, third-party references. Include links from popular blogs to your content and also include links of your guest articles on other popular blogs. Also include third party rankings of your blog like Google PageRank and Alexa Ranking.

Be prepared to back up your blog traffic stats with graphics from your Google Analytics account. You may also need to grant the potential advertiser the access to your Analytics report. Google Analytics features a very safe option to do that without giving away your username and password.

Search engine rankings

When people search the Internet for keywords relevant to your potential advertiser and they end up on your blog, you have a key selling point. One of the most powerful strategies of selling advertisements is to show the potential sponsor how you rank in search engines for their product / service related keywords. Compile a list of keywords that you rank for that you can include in your blog media kit.

Advertising options / rates

Let the potential advertiser know what kind of advertising options you offer on your blog. Include the position of ads, the size of ads, show it by including a screenshot which has the potential ad position marked. Do not forget to include pricing for each of these ads.

Contact details

This is vital! Make sure to include all the contact details needed to get in touch with you.

When you’ve compiled all of this, create an attractive PDF that you can send to advertisers. Create an “Advertise” page within your site that gives advertisers a fast overview and some key points from your media kit to entice them to request your full kit!