To follow up on my last post which talked about easy ways to get traffic flowing to your blog after each article you post, I wanted to also touch on the benefits of advertising your blog, on other blogs.

Advertising on other blogs is a winning situation, because if you pick the placement of your ads carefully, you stand a chance at gaining the same readers as the blog your advertising on, especially if it’s in a related niche. That’s why picking the blogs you advertise on may be worth taking a closer look at, rather than just slapping your ad on every blog you can afford. Making wise choices will give you a better return on investment.

Let’s take this blog for example. If we’re wanting to advertise this blog on other blogs, the first thing I would do is start doing some light research and finding blogs that post at least somewhat similar content as this one. I wouldn’t target “A-lister” blogs unless I had a massive budget, rather, I would look for decently established blogs that are offering good advertising rates, specials, or promos.

I recently came across a great deal over at MixedMarketArts.Com, who offered a 125 x 125 banner at a monthly cost of $10. I knew of the blog (which was a good sign), and I know many others do. So purchasing an ad spot on this blog was a real no brainer. The people reading that blog are some of the same types of readers that I would want to read this blog - so even if only a few people clicked through my ad, I know that there is probably a good chance they would turn into long term readers of my blog.

Point being - I would much rather pay $10 for an ad that brings me 25 visitors who turn into RSS subscribers, then pay $10 for an ad that brings hundreds of visits, but none of them return. Make sense?

If you just take some time to do the research, look around other blogs that are related to your niche, you’re bound to come across some that are having advertising specials, or just cheap ad rates in general. I always keep my eyes open for a good deal, because not only can you reap the benefits talked about above, but it’s also a good way to build your brand name to your target audience.

Advertising On The Cheap

I would be less than helpful if I didn’t mention a couple of hot new ways to advertise your blog for next to nothing. I’m talking about getting banners on other blogs for low cost to nothing.

Two places I can think of off the top of my head are:

1. EntreCard

2. Project Wonderful

EntreCard (if you haven’t heard) is a pretty hot service that allows you to drop virtual “business cards” off to other bloggers when you come across a blog that has the Entrecard widget enabled. Whenever you make a “drop” you earn an EntreCard credit. The same goes for when someone drops a card onto your EntreCard enabled blog - you get a credit each time. Additionally, whenever someone buys advertising space in your EntreCard widget, you get paid on a scale a certain amount of Entrecard credits. So once you build up a decent amount of credits, you can then start shopping for ad space on other blogs. I’ve found many great deals using Entrecard for advertising, and if you’re not yet on the EC wagon, you need to get on it quick! You can find advertising on other blogs for as little as 8 credits per day (depending on certain circumstances), and there are plenty more details about how all of this works over at the EntreCard site. Check it out as soon as you get a chance.

Project Wonderful is exactly what the name says - wonderful. PW is a service that lets bloggers auction off ad space that they might otherwise be able to sell privately, and just by performing a few quick searches with their search tool, you can find decent blogs to advertise on for as little as .05 cents per day! I currently have about 10 ads running on other blogs for around that rate, and I’ve seen a nice response on clickthroughs already. They require that you make an upfront deposit if you want to buy advertising, which I really like - that way you don’t end up with any surprise bills at the end of the month. Once the money runs out of your account, then you either recharge or not advertise until you add funds again. Easy enough. It’s definitely worth taking a look if you’re in the market to find cheap advertising for your blog.

In closing, here are some good advertising deals I found just by performing a few quick searches:

1. DotComMogul is auctioning off ad space for a starting bid of .25 cents with a BIN of $5.00

2. GarryConn.Com has an awesome advertising program, with ads as little as $5.95/month!

3. I’ll let you do the shopping - check out a long list of advertising specials at this forum.

Have fun!