There are many ways to obtain direct ad sales. You can contact people to see if they are interested in advertising on your blog. You can try giving away some ads, and have those people blog about the results that they have out of clicks coming from your blog. There is obviously the most direct way, where people come to you and look to advertise on your blog. This is probably what would make you the most money in the end.

If you are trying for direct ad sales, here are some tips:

• Make sure that your blog becomes relatively well known in its niche.
• Set up an Advertising page, and let people know what is available.
• Make sure that the ads available are above the fold, in desirable locations.
• Don’t leave too many empty locations. What good is it to have a ton of spots on your blog for advertising if they are all empty? At least fill in some of the spaces that are available.

Once you have established yourself and are starting to get the ad sales in, make sure that you manage your ads well. One way to do this is with the OiOPublisher plugin. It’s a plugin that I learned about from John Cow, and while this blog isn’t big enough to need it yet, I’m hoping that one day soon we’ll get there. For anyone looking to purchase this plugin, you can currently obtain a free copy from Ian Fernando’s blog. He’s giving away 3 copies of the plugin to people who blog about direct ad sales on their blog. Since I was going to blog about it anyway, I figure why not do it now and enter the contest at the same time?

If I win, I might be convinced to start a contest and give away something here!

Anyway, remember to consider the content when you are selling direct ads, and make sure that whatever banner or links the site provides is appropriate to your blog. If not, it could end up hurting you more than the money will benefit you.

What sort of tips do you have with Direct Ad Sales?

So first off, what is an e-mini mall? Well, its an ad unit (obviously) that comes in various sizes. There is one displayed below. Various products are displayed on the unit, depending on which category you choose to promote, as well as several tabs. I have selected mp3 players. On each tab, it will give more information on the currently highlighted product, and where to find the best price for it. You also have an option to include a tab for searching for additional products directly on the ad unit.

So how do you optimize the amount of money you can make from the e-mini malls? Well, here are several suggestions:

• Choose the right category - Make sure that the products are somewhat relevant to your blog. For example, if you have a blog about digital cameras, it would be in your best interest to have the ad unit display digital cameras or digital camera accessories.
• Blend the colors - This is important with any ad unit. While having contrasting colors will make it stand out more, it will make it seem as if you are all about advertising, and actually drive down your click through rate. You want the ad to fit in with your blog.
• Placement - There are several good locations for the e-mini mall. First, you want it to be in a prominent location, where there is high visibility. Another good place for it is after a relevant blog post. If someone just gets through reading a great article about computer monitors, include an e-mini mall for computer monitors. This should increase your click thru rate.

Another thing to consider is how to integrate it into your blog. There is a wordpress plugin that allows for integration of the e-mini mall into your wordpress editor, so you can easily add in the code. Adsense Manager will also allow you to integrate e-mini malls into your blog posts or sidebars, using the direct code option.

Hopefully I’ve provided a bit of insight into the Chitika program. Please let me know if you have any questions, and also feel free to share your experiences. How much have you earned from this program?