Day 4: Blogging For Profit
Blogs are an increasingly attractive platform for advertisers. The majority of bloggers we surveyed have advertising on their blogs. Marketers realize that bloggers are creating high quality content and attracting growing, loyal audiences.
Bloggers with advertising are more sophisticated in terms of their use of tools, advertising platforms and even events to build reader loyalty. They also invest more resources (both time and money) in their blogs. We also analyzed the differences between the top 10% of bloggers in terms of ad revenue compared to the average blogger. Overall, this group exhibits the above behaviors but to a much higher degree.
Among the bloggers who currently do not have advertising on their site, the most common reason is lack of interest. Very few said that not knowing how to set up advertising was a barrier to accepting ads on their blog. Bloggers are savvy and self sufficient, so when they are ready to accept advertising they will have no problems figuring out how to best approach it for their blog.
“Chuckmonster”
-
Blogs:
VegasTripping.com, AtlanticCityTripping.com, RenoTripping.com, MacauTripping.com, FeltJungle -
Age:
39 -
What I do:
Blogger / 15 North Inc. Travel & Tourism -
Me at home:
Married (not by Elvis) -
Launching new blogs:
I live-blogged an extensive research trip to Macau in September 2007, after which we launched MacauTripping.com, the first English language travel guide to Asia’s Las Vegas. -
On the blogging lifestyle:
I have become financially and spiritually independent, made friends all over the world, and lived life on my own terms.
Blog-bit:
Monthly Visitors*:
12,600 (vegastripping.com)Types of Advertising:
Contextual ads, affiliate advertisingNumber tools used on site:
: 8*Source: Quantcast, July 2008
The majority of bloggers have advertising or another method of revenue generation on their blogs. On average, professional and corporate bloggers are more likely to include search ads, display ads, and affiliate marketing. One in four bloggers uses three or more means of advertising.
Do you have advertising on your site, or receive cash or products through the following means?
Among bloggers who have advertising on their blogs, two in three have contextual ads (such as Google AdSense). One-third of bloggers have affiliate advertising on their blog. One in five negotiate directly with advertisers and one in ten sell advertising through a blog ad network.
How Bloggers Manage Advertising
Ad clutter, lack of interest, and low traffic numbers are the top reasons why bloggers do not have advertising on their blogs. Among the 48% of bloggers who currently do not have advertising on their site, the most common reason is lack of interest. One in five bloggers don’t feel like they have a critical mass of traffic to their blog. Other reasons that bloggers do not have any advertising on their blogs include:
Reasons why Bloggers do not have Advertising on their Blog
-
Other (12%) reasons why bloggers did not have any advertising on their blogs included:
- “I could only endorse something I was really passionate about that might benefit one of my causes.”
- “I haven't made much from it in the past.”
- “I live in a country which has impossible tax rules.”
Average Annual Revenue is more than $6,000
The average annual blogger revenue is more than $6,000. However, this is skewed by the top 1% of bloggers who earn $200k+. Among active bloggers that we surveyed, the average income was $75,000 for those who had 100,000 or more unique visitors per month (some of whom had more than one million visitors each month). The median annual income for this group is significantly lower — $22,000. Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati