Blog Advertising – Understand Your Blog’s Real Estate
Not all space on your blog is created equal. How much you understand about your blog’s real estate will ultimately influence the results you get.
That being said, which parts of your blog are more valuable? Where should you put your main money-making ad, link or Aweber optin form?
I’ve broken down a typical 3-column blog layout (like the one we use here) into a few profitable areas:
- Content Area – No matter which type of layout you use, the content area is by far the more valuable spot. People visit your blog to read content, not to look at your ads or design. Sure, a jaw-dropping design is cool the first time, but it will not get people to stick. Ads, links and optin forms within your content is the most valuable, as it is guaranteed to reach the eyeball of your visitor. It’s even more effective if your ads are tightly related to the content itself.
- Left Navigation – If your blog has a left-column navigation (like ours), then this is the second most valuable spot. People in most countries read from left to right, and on the way to your content their eyeballs have to pay at least some attention to the navigation area.
- Right Navigation – Unlike the left navigation, your visitors don’t have to pay attention to the anything after the actual content area. Since they don’t have to, they rarely will. People are quite accustomed to grid-based website layouts and they know (almost instinctively) where to look for content, and what to ignore.
- Header Area – Although the header area comes before everything else, it’s too detached from the actual content, which makes it the second least valuable spot on your blog. I will almost never pay an advertiser for placing banner ads in the header area. The more frequent someone visits your blog, the most invisible the header area gets.
- Footer Area – It’s almost worthless to even consider the footer area as a possible most maker. Detached from content and navigation, and too far from eyeballs, the footer is best left for things than don’t really require attention.
Yeah i know; your results may be different. However, in most cases this simple grid-based logic works well. The real question though, is what should you do with this information?
If you want to squeeze more money from your blog, you need to reorganize certain elements to work for you, instead of against you. Here are a few ideas:
- In-Content Ads – If you’re selling banner ads on your blog, create a spot in the content area itself. Savvy advertisers are willing to pay much more for an in-content ad, and you can easily increase your advertising dollars overnight.
- Affiliate Links vs Affiliate Banners – If you’re promoting an affiliate product, forget banner ads. It’s much better to use affiliate links weaved into the content. Plus, having less ads frees up important real estate for other purposes.
- Reorganize Your Navigation – Are your navigation links eating up valuable advertising space? Move them away to non-profitable areas like the right sidebar, header of footer so you can make more money from the profitable ones.
- Footer Dump – Anything else that your readers don’t really need, but which is essential for your blog (privacy policy, disclaimers etc), has to be moved to the footer. The footer area is the universal dumping ground for all non-profitable stuff.
The next time you decided to get a new theme for your blog, ask yourself an important question- “What do I want to achieve with my blog?”
Always put function above form. Understand the main objective of your blog.
Is it to communicate your ideas? Then move your content to the left, followed by navigation, and use minimal ads. Is your objective to build a mailing list or get more subscribers? Then put your optin form in the profitable areas instead of hiding it beneath meaningless ads.
No matter how popular your blog is, or how much traffic you get, there is always room for optimization. I hope this guide will help you improve yours, and I’d like to hear your comments.
32 Responses to “Blog Advertising – Understand Your Blog’s Real Estate”
Thanks for the really great tips on organizing a blog for profit and affiliate marketing. Some of this I would not have thought of. I even copied and pasted the content of this article on a Microsoft Word document for later referral. Once again thank you a lot for your helpful information…
Respectfully request permission to reprint this post on my blog of course I would link to you
Excellent tips for optimizing the space for monetization purpose. You’ve broken the section into several parts which will make the reader understand.
I’m trying my best to optimize blog advertizing. However, no matter how great our blog monetization, it is useless if traffic is poor.
Yes really informative and helpful for a blogger who can earn some money from the blog. Thanks
great tips, thanks!
btw, found the link from my email =)
Awesome article, I am going to implement some of the advertising placement strategies you talk about in this article.
affiliate banner? I will never forget that. I still earn from that way. But i admit that affiliate link always boast my affiliate earning.
Thanks for the great sharing bro.
Hi Gobala,
Thanks a lot for the great info. I will experiment this to my blog.
You are right about the hot spots on a page. I have been playing around with locations on the home page. Thanks for the re-information. I will have to reorganize my home page.
Thanks for the tips Gobala. Can you also give an example for using only one sidebar? I know you show that most people read from right to left, but doesn’t it also follow if your content starts on the left-to-right grid, people’s eyes will naturally follow the text to a right sidebar – which is at the end of your content?
Thought I’d ask because of all the ‘eye tracking’ information floating around.
Gobala Krishnan Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 1:35 am
People will not look at the sidebar unless they are specifically searching for something. If the sidebar is on the right after the content, they will no actively look at it. Especially returning / regular readers.
Ooops, meant left to right when they read:)
Gobala,
You have a great way of getting to the point. This is excellent for new as well as established bloggers. I liked what you said about using links instead of banners for your affilate programs, feels better and takes up less space. Putting function above form really does make you understand your main objective.
Thanks for the information and your willingness to share.
Fred Villareal
Wow this is great topic, but Gobala…i have seen many top bloggers, they only use simple 2 column lay out..yes some put banner at the header, and most of them use 125×125 ads at the side bar…i think the reason they use this lay out because it simple and the content is focus.
Gobala Krishnan Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 1:32 am
You will realize a lot of those banners are not really by advertisers. They are mostly affiliate banners by the blog owner.
Very well written. I try to explain this stuff when designing, but some people just don’t understand the importance of location. Thanks for helping me explain it.
Great info. I hadn’t really ever thought of my blog “real estate” in the ways you described. I especially like the suggestion of using more affiliate links in my content rather than so many banner ads. I am definitely going to implement some of your suggestions and see how it works out!
Gobala Krishnan Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 1:30 am
@ Dianna – You should definitely reduce affiliate banners, they are the least effective.
Wow, that is very informative. Love to have tips like this. thanks alot.
I really appreciate all your info…I primarily do Adsense right now & have the adds in the content of the first 3 post…with Adsense do you think that Link style ads are better than banner style ads…Again thanx for all you help…Kenney
Banner ads really clutter up the blog. I like it and i am going to apply it in my blog.
thanks for sharing wonderfull ideas!
I have never actually thought about this, well, before now. I am selling banners on my right sidebar, and text links via Text Link Ads.
My readers hardly click on the banners, and now I understand why
I should probably switch to in-content ads then.
Thanks a lot.
Solid tips, especially weaving your aff links inside your content. Banner ads are so 1990 and I’m sure most people just ignore that kind of stuff when placed in the sidebars.
Mike
Actually, I am considering changing the theme for my blog, so this is very timely information. After reading it, it’s clear my blog layout is all wrong! Thanks for passing on your expertise!
Very nice post…. not all people realize this. They just made it based on their own taste … including me.
Never over advertise in your blog! Otherwise your blog readers will be distracted by the ads!
To your success,
Bryan Hee
This is an AHA moment! Thanks for sharing! I am going to revamp some of my sites ASAP. It seems like it is the little things that truly make a difference.
Never thought any of these tips before. You know what, you are really my main man Gobala. Thanks!
Great advice about working money links into the content. Placement is so crucial, now that ad blindness has pretty much become the norm among surfers. You need to blend those links into the content wherever you can. I also think cloaking affiliate links is smart, as long as you choose URL language wisely. PHP redirects are great for that.
Great topic…..I also feel the 2nd most valuable part of your site is the left sidebar. Just look up Google heat maps to see where people click the most. Then put ads right there!
Thanks for the information. Looks like it’s time for me to do some mods to my website