Advertising Revenue are Dead as an Income Stream?

Earlier this week I saw a conversation between two Internet marketing bloggers on Twitter, that caught my attention.

The topic of conversation? Monetizing blogs by selling advertising directly to advertisers.

His conclusion on the subject? It is a dead and obsolete method of making money.

It was a fascinating conversation to watch. They gave some compelling reasons for his conclusions sound, including:

There has been a decrease in budgets that are being marketing companies (due to the economy).
Not much more money than you did in selling their own products and services.
Advertising, by its very nature, sent the people away from their blog sites to advertisers.
The online ads are not converted into a flag and only distract people from what you're talking about.
Sell ​​ads directly to advertisers takes time and administration.

While watching the conversation unfold, I found myself in agreement with some of these points, however, also wondered whether it might also be the cancellation of a revenue stream that does not have to be mutually exclusive of other forms of income.

In my own experience making money online, advertising has always been a part of my revenue mix. In the early days, took 95% of the mixture (too much, in my opinion), but still remains an important element for me. (Audience of about 24% of my income in December whether to include the direct ad sales and revenue ad network).

I will explain the reasons why it pays to keep advertising in the mix.

The economy: strong rebound in online advertising?

When talking with a number of bloggers who depend heavily on advertising revenue, I agree with the assessment that in many niches appear to have been a contraction in the amount companies are spending on advertising. However, I know bloggers who have seen an increase in spending in some niches.

Moreover, as we see the economy improves, I suspect we will see the money returned to advertising budgets, especially in the online space. Companies are realizing the potential of online media to reach the target audience and getting conversions. I suspect we'll see online advertising recover larger than it was before the global financial crisis.

Their own products and services

I completely agree that bloggers should be looking for ways to develop their own products and services. I wrote about how I made myself on numerous occasions during the two years, however I think it's possible to do this in conjunction with the performance of ads on your blog.

In my own experience of blogging, especially in the Digital Photography School, I found that there is a limit to the amount of your own product / s that you can promote your blog.

Although sometimes speak of "ad blindness" by readers of the ad to run, I suspect that the same can be said about the blindness of their own products. If all you do is promote their own products, readers can turn off these messages. Mixing things up with messages from other people (whether or affiliate advertising campaigns) can really keep things fresh (so far).
Be creative with what they offer to advertisers

I also think there are a variety of other advertising creative ways to weave in what you do as a blogger, without a flag, just slap ads all over. For example, a couple of things we've experienced with the supply of advertisers in DPS are:

Sponsored Contests: Here, an advertiser sponsors a contest on his blog. Offer a prize, to highlight their products and generate advertising revenue for them

Newsletter advertising: one of the surprises for me in the past year is that we have found advertisers willing to pay more for ads in the newsletters that banner ads

Sponsored by the content: I do not mean to sell the space on our corporate blog to actually write their own content, or for us to review your messages. Rather, we are studying, with companies is that sponsor certain positions. For example, a company can sponsor a series of messages on a topic related to the industry. Would have no influence on the actual content, they'd just be mentioned in the introduction to the role as the sponsor of this post.

Posted in: Advertising