Hosting ads and what to charge for them

Here is more info that I have gleaned about hosting ads on your site. I think this will make some good income. I have gotten so many great comments about it, I think I might actually succeed at it. I have another idea about ad placement but will hold that thought for another time.

Please feel free to add to the conversation in the comment section if you want to.

What can I charge for ad space?

The next question, what’s a reasonable price? What’s fair for advertiser and host? Before I get into the money part, I want to discuss types of ads. That will determine price as well. You have to know what you have to offer before you can consider what to charge, right?

Since I own my domain, I have the ability to sell whatever kind of space I want on my website. It can be any sized banner in any portion of my website, as long as I can place an ad there (ie. 200 pixel sized ad for sidebar because anything bigger will make my blog posts get all squeezed).

The usual places viewers are familiar with are: 1. at the top of the site or 2. in the sidebars.

Types of Ad Space

This will kind of let you know what ad spaces are sized and what they look like. This is not a complete guide, however, and if you need more info check out the guide to ad sizes on google adsense pages.

• Banner ads

HORIZONTAL
the 728×90 standard leaderboard which according to Google has more value to an advertiser because it is usually placed at the top of the site and is the first thing a visitor might see
the 468×60 is called a “banner” and can fit in an area that the typical leaderboard can’t. But because it is smaller it might have less ‘oomph’

VERTICAL
the 160×600 wide skyscraper is usually found in the sidebars and is popular with advertisers as it takes up a pretty good piece of space
the 120×600 is called a “skyscraper” and is more narrow and fits in sidebars a little better but won’t hold the amount of info that a bigger one would

• Sidebar ads

SQUARE
the large squares are sized 400×400, 300×250 or 250×250 and are oftentimes found inside a blog post, or in the midst of a page on a website.
the small sized squares are generally 200×200 and are found in the sidebar

BUTTON
The button ad is 125×125 and is a good size to start out with when you are a first-time ad buyer. It is a small size, but usually gets positioned in some good placements in the sidebar.

TEXT AD
Google ads are usually like this. You can see an example in my sidebar. These are usually fairly inexpensive if someone wanted to try one for their advertisement.

WHAT SHOULD I CHARGE?

A good way to offer pricing for ads is to let the advertiser know they can get multiple periods of time and offer it to them cheaper than one block. For example, Nora Roberts wanted to host a 125×125 ad in my sidebar for a month. I would offer it to her for $150 for the month of May. She could also get it for $275 for May and June or $350 for May, June, and July. (hypothetically speaking of course-I WISH Nora was interested!). That way the advertiser gets more exposure for their $$ at a better cost.

I am going to be offering ad spots on Writer Groupie too, by the way. The site has available real estate for ads and the podcast itself has room. Like Pre-roll and mid-roll would be excellent choices for someone who wanted their book, or business, or service to be advertised.

Well, this has been sort of fun. If you want to advertise on Kim Smith, author or Writer Groupie — let me know! Prices are totally negotiable for authors!