It’s no secret that AdHustler.com has grown significantly in terms of content and following over the past couple of years. I get affiliate networks asking all the time to advertise on the blog. I deny every one of them. I’ve done a couple of paid posts (my actual opinions, but paid nonetheless, and disclosed) quite a long time ago and decided that’s not the road I want to go down. The only banners running here are one for Yep Revenue (which is unpaid) and one for Wickedfire (which is also unpaid).
My intention is not to make money off of my readers. I’ll leave that to the gurus. However, there is a demand for advertising here. If I am going to let an advertiser in, i want it to benefit all of you.
My question is, what can an advertiser offer (in exchange for an ad spot), that can help all of YOU?
Please comment to chime in…
Its very nice that, you are asking this question to your readers.I think your knowledge that you brings in your post is helping all your readers including me so i cant really answer this question beacuse i am already getting the value from your blog now its the time that you should also make some money from your blog.
Adhustler, the knowledge you drop on this blog does more than enough for your readers. You have posted about your charitable endeavours before. I’d look in that direction.
Offer the paid advertising for networks that you at least think are quality & take the money and sponsor a family for dinner every month.
That way you’re not pimping out your readers but the money earned goes to deserving families instead of rich affs trying to get richer!
@Sarafina – That is a pretty solid idea.
Everyone else, keep them coming 🙂
Take the money. You provide a service for us by adding in posts etc. If you dont want to be seen as a sellout etc, just donate it to charity then.
Id follow Sarafina and say that if you only accepted advertising from products and partners that you use personally, then you could offer a much more valuable service to those that are advertising as well, as you would be able to add your $.02 to the marketing message and tell us all why it is great and maybe some tips on how you use it.
Well, I glimpsed at your blog a few times, but this post definitely caught my attention.
To answer your question, I would say that something offering free traffic is great.
I am a member of a system which offers free traffic (it’s not surf exchange or any type of that artificial type of traffic) which offers all of it’s services for free. Of course, benefits of paid option are much higher, but this free part of the program is more than appealing. Oh, yes, it is about SEO actually. It’s totally free, and I am already on page 1, just have to get a few positions up to have nice base traffic to my blog.
So, if you know some kind of that system, which enables you to get some free traffic without any cost, but of course has paid membership (it’s logical that they want you to buy, and that is fine, we all make money somehow), I would personally be glad to see it.
After all, traffic, targeted traffic, is a lifeblood of any type of business site.
What I wouldn’t like is some kind of “make money online” program. I guess some people make money from these companies, but most of us have their own ways of doing things.
Still, traffic is something we all need, no matter in what niche we are and what is the monetization type of our site/blog.
nice post by the way
Set a price that your ad spots are worth and make the advertisers give something of that value away to readers here.
Use money generated from your ads to fund outrageous case study ideas 😀
I mean come on who doesnt like a case study from left field?
I personally don’t mind if a blogger advertises on their site. After all, given the industry we are all in, it would be kind of hypocritical to oppose it all together. But there is good and bad advertising. If you were to throw up shitty MMO ads, crap membership programs like PPC-Coach ads, or half assed fly-by-night networks ads all over the place, then yes, I think that would detract from what I consider a very valuable blog.
In my opinion ads that would be most benificial to your reader base would be from companies that can provide quality converting traffic. To me, that is a keystone of our work and as such I wouldn’t mind seeing ads from companies who have decent traffic to offer. Maybe sites who have respectable self serve platforms, something along those lines. Simply put, advertisers who offer potential sales would be the way to go in my opinion.
To take what Lorenzo said one step further…
You could have your readers submit ideas for what case studies they would like to see, then vote on them to determine which case study is ran. You would always retain the right to decide what case studies are done in the end, but at least you get your readers involved.
This will do a few things for your readers. Essentially, the advertisers will be funding case studies your readers may not have the money to do on their own. Also, your readers will possibly learn a lot about case studies – how to perform them, how to structure them, what to do with the data collected from the case studies, etc.
Any financial gains that result from these case studies can be used to fund more case studies, donated to charity, or whatever you want. The point is you’re not taking the money from ad space on your site and pocketing it. You’re using it to help people…potentially a lot of people.
What do you think?
I second for Sarafina’s idea.
And LOL to the post by Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks
Like Lorenzo said: give you money to sponsor a public case study for you to gamble with & post your results
Sponsor a contest. but a fun one not one thats based on jumping through hoops or a publisher sales challenge
Sponsor an event. The adhusler night out. compliments of X
Its ok to sell out if your still giving value and believe in what your pimping
If you advertise what you use, or sincerely think can help your readers (i.e. you’ve used, reviewed and have good feedback from), I wouldn’t mind clicking on them.
What’s more, if your ads said something like “we recommend, because we really like this sponsors”, I would surely check them out.
How about sponsored posts this sponsors write that have to pass your editorial eye for whether it is actually useful or just a weak attempt at selling us on their product or service? I like the blogs that some of the networks maintain *cough*C2M*cough* and think that sort of stuff would translate well into guest posts.
For example, Ubot has done a good job of gaining exposure on industry blogs. It’s probably not paid, other than using affiliate links. But what’s been put out there is useful and not just empty cheer leading for the product.
You might try letting your readers select the advertising you accept. I’m not quite sure whether or not advertisers would opt-in to such scrutiny, but I’m intrigued by the idea of businesses vying for (and having to earn) acceptance. Maybe “Accepted by Ad Hustler” could become a badge of honor.
I think ads for badass tools are always good. Cheapass hosting with cpanel, networks and anything that you trust.
I’m interested in ideas that will help me with my business. I like links that provide ideas that make me think, I am always looking for new technology, training ideas–again anything that will help me grow my business. Not interested in a coupon from Starbucks although that isn’t all bad.
More sponsored cases from you