One of the ways that a lot of blogs make money online (and regular websites too) is by selling ads directly to other blogs and companies. Depending on the blog, prices can vary, as well as the size and location of the ad. It does seem like many blogs have adopted the 125 x 125 banner ad as the new “web standard” though.

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?

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