Popular Advertisement Options
Banner Ads
Banner Ads are a visual form of advertisements that contain colourful
picture advertisements coupled with text. They can be flash files,
animated GIFs or simple JPG images. Banners are the most popular form of
advertisements, since they are attractive and known for drawing
customers.
Advantages - Banner advertisements have a lot of
advantages. First of all, banners are easier to make than some other
types of ads, such as video ads etc. Secondly, banners can go anywhere
on your size, since they come in different sizes. Banner ads attract
more people due to all the colours and animations etc. They provide the
‘eye candy’ to visitors, and hence provide more click through rate than
most other type of ads. Banner ads have become an important part of most
websites, without which the site seem sort of empty.
Bad practices - Publishers need to be careful
about their banners though. Banners with annoying animations can irk the
visitors. Moreover, the heavier the animation, the larger the file
size, making the website load slower. This is perhaps one of the
greatest drawback of using large-sized banners. And if there is anything
more annoying than a site loading slowly, it’s the sounds that suddenly
start to come from god knows where! It is recommended that you do not
use sounds with animations, unless the visitor chooses to click on a
banner.
Contextual Ads
Recent trends have shown that contextual ads are the need of the
hour! Contextual ads are becoming more and more popular, since they are
highly relevant to the blog. Contextual ads use your website information
such as meta keywords etc and decide what ads are best for you. These
are dynamic ads that change according to the advertiser’s wishes. Mos
such ads usually pay on a PPC (Pay Per Click) basis.
Like I said, these ads are quite relevant to your website, which
means a higher click through rate, since most of your visitors are
interested in exactly the kind of things displayed on these ads. Such
ads need to be handled carefully though. Blogs may need to redesigned
slightly to optimize them for such ads.
In-line Text Ads
In-line text ads are another popular form of advertisement. In-line
text ads are a form of contextual ads, and are embedded into the text
on your blog. Whenever a reader hovers over the specified text, a small
pop-up appears containing more information about the product.
In-line text ads have the advantage that they are not obtrusive and
don’t come in the way of those who don’t want to look at ads. But they
are highly efficient for those who are interested in some particular
product.
Keep in mind, however, that in-line text ads mostly work on large
blogs/websites, usually where there are a lot of daily visitors, and
they tend to read between the lines. For small blogs, this strategy
isn’t very effective, mainly due to the low traffic.
Video Ads
Although Video Ads are not as popular as the above, the average
revenue per conversion is generally higher. Videos also give exposure to
your ads since they can shared on multiple social media networks. But
unfortunately, the conversion rate for video ads is low. Not many people
will click on a video to play it. Remember; do not make the
mistake of starting videos automatically! Believe me, it’s really
annoying to the visitors, who don’t want anything to bog down their
loading speed.
Pop-up Ads
Readers get ads on separate browser windows, tabs etc. These are the
most controversial form of advertisements. On the one hand, they are
very effective in terms of cost-per-click. Users don’t have an option to
simply ignore the ads. Ads are presented to them no matter what. They
can either choose to click on them, or close the windows. Indeed, some
websites have pop ups that don’t close when you click on the close
button. Rather, they open further pop ups. Hence, this ensures a high
click through rate.
On the other hand though, pop ups are very annoying to the reader.
When an ad obstructs my reading of an article, I simply leave that
website. Hence, expect a high bounce rate if you are using pop up ads.
And don’t let the inflated click through rates fool you. Your conversion
rate will still be low, perhaps lower than other forms of
advertisements. Browsers nowadays have the option of blocking pop ups
entirely. In that case, all your efforts will go to vain.
Therefore, pop ups should be used very wisely. Use them rarely, if at
all. If used correctly, they can also contribute a lot towards a decent
income.
Interstitial Ads
Interstitial
Ads can be considered as a form of pop ups. But they appear on
transitions. Meaning that they appear between user requests. For example
if your website has a movie review with an excerpt at the main page,
then such ads can appear after someone clicks on the excerpt to see the
whole thing. Since such ads do not interfere much with the users’
browsing, this form of advertising is preferred to pop up advertising.
Donations
If
you have a blog that provides quality information that readers really
need, then you might ask for donations. For this, you will need to build
interactions with your audience, and resolve any troubles they have
relating to the expertise you offer. Small and new websites don’t
benefit from this. Instead, they are seen as frauds. So if your blog /
website has authority, only then should you go for donations.
And one thing more. Please don’t claim that you will be giving the
money for charity unless you are really doing so. Falsely claiming
donations for charity is not only unfair and against social ethics, it
is also a crime. Charity funding comes under a certain legal
jurisprudence, with its own rules and regulations. If you claim that the
money is for charity, some organization might approach you and ask for
all invoices and audits etc. You could be tried in court then and there!
So please just ask for donations for supporting your own business
and/or your team.
There are a lot of advertisements types you can opt for. But only
choose one that’s right for your blog. Wrongly used ads can seriously
effect your blog’s reputation, while well configured ads can add meaning
to your life
That is it for now. Thanks for all the support guys. See ya soon in the next post
Cheers
Affiliate marketing is the term used to describe a revenue-sharing plan where an online automated marketing program lets Webmasters place an advertiser's banner ads or buttons on their own Web site. 
