I don't like advertising.
No, I said it. I hate it! And I don't mean hate the whole process of trying to sell things to people, nor even necessarily mean I hate small boxes in the sidebars.No, I do not like the use of advertising agencies as a way of trying to get an entry in your blog.
Do you know why? DOES NOT WORK.
What used. In the days of childhood Internet, when the idea of the banner ads was new and fun, people used to click them. They began to find out, so companies began making sneakier, and started working again. But these days, we have become so good at telling ads at a glance that not only our eyes barely notice them on a page, we even fell in love with the Super Sneaky more.Worst of all, are not only highly dependent ads a high number of traffic (lots of eyes is needed on the page before you start seeing any benefits), several of the largest advertising agencies (I'm looking at you, Google AdSense) have a minimum paid up to $ 100.
I used Google AdSense for over a year in the early days of Jill of all trades and barely broke $ 5've never seen a dime of that before giving up.
Besides all that, they're ugly. They make your site look rough and shoddy. You also do not have a lot of control over what kind of ads will be shown, so you might end advertising Shell Oil in a green blog, or Hot Pockets in a vegan blog, or even just Pampers on a blog backpacking (less tragic, but equally annoying).
I gave up on advertising agencies after trying 5 or 6 different and not seeing any results. I decided to keep my sidebar only things I wanted there. Even I'll put the marketing of any kind there unless I chose to accept the mark and the flag itself (most of mine are the ones I've picked by hand).
I'm picky. Sometimes I miss about money making opportunities because of it, but ultimately I think actually do more than anything else would. My readers know I'm picky, so when I share something that is more likely to trust me and through me buy it, even if they know I'm making an income from it. They do not think I'm just out to make money off of them, and they are right. I am not.
It is probably the biggest untapped potential to make money from a small blog:
be someone your readers can trust. People are smart. They can smell the greed of a mile away, so do not be that person and you will find that people are much more likely to hear your recommendations!
If you look super advertising still, I would start with Chitika or Bidvertiser. Both are a little better than AdSense in my opinion, and have a significantly lower minimum payment.
