Guest post by Alexis Bonari

If you aren’t on Facebook by now, you are probably the only one who isn’t. My grandmother has a Facebook page and anyone who can type, is able to start their own page with no problem. Most everyone uses Facebook as a social meeting place, but did you know that you could easily make money on Facebook as well? I’ve compiled a Top 5 list of the best ways to make a buck on Facebook without leaving your living room:

1. If you are a musician and would like to sell your music, but don’t have the money for a website or to make top of the CD’s, check out flametunes.com, where you can sell your music from your Facebook profile.

2. Garage Sale, in association with buy.com, allows you to sell your unwanted “stuff” to your Facebook friends.

3. Zazzle.com is one of my favorites! You can create your own products and design your own t-shirts, hats, etc. The cool part is that they walk you through and post your items on their site as well as your Facebook profile.

4. Sites such as Shopit.com help you easily create your own store, allowing you to sell your old CD’s, electronics, DVD players and more via this simple application.

5. Lemonade.com allows you to pick items from a selection of sites, add the icon to your profile and sell it for a commission.

About the Author:

Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She spends much of her days blogging about Education and CollegeScholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Online Profits includes lessons and case studies that cover topics related to making money online in a variety of different ways. Daniel will also be launching a new site and Online Profit members will get to watch and follow the progress as he builds the site and makes money with it.

A few years ago when I started blogging I worked with Daniel on a regular basis writing posts for Daily Blog Tips. I have a lot of respect for Daniel and his work and I highly recommend that you consider joining Online Profits if you’re looking to make money online. Daniel has a lot of experience and he’s developed a great program that includes information and teaching from a lot of other experts in the field as well.

Note: This post includes affiliate links to Online Profits.

Gone are the days when Internet marketing was perceived as the bold, new and innovative way to market and publicize your products and services. Today, email marketing and other forms of pushing your products on the web are passé. The Internet is growing faster than leaps and bounds, and most marketers find that they’re being left behind because they’re not able to keep up or change pace accordingly. They’re sticking to tried and tested methods that have worked for them so far without realizing that for a medium that changes as fast as the Internet, you must continue to hone and revamp your marketing strategies if you wish to ensure continued success. Just as you took the step and crossed the chasm between traditional marketing and Internet marketing a decade or so ago, it’s time to start bridging the smaller chasms between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 and any future avatars that are sure to follow. So with these basic principles in mind, here’s what marketers need to do to ensure that their tactics continue to work:

1. Monitor and research future trends

If you’re going to take advantage of technology, you must go the whole hog. It’s no use getting on the Internet to market your products and services just because everyone else is doing it. Rather, you must use this medium to the fullest and extract all the benefits that it can provide your business. To this, it is necessary to keep up with future trends that will affect the way people use the Internet. For example, today, most people don’t use their traditional email addresses for personal or even professional email. They’ve moved most of their communication to Facebook, Twitter and other social media. So if you want to gain the marketing edge, you need to be where it’s all happening before it starts to happen or soon after. And when it does happen, you have an advantage over your competitors.

2. Go where the crowd is

Most marketers fail because they don’t differentiate between the general population and the population that is likely to be interested in their products and services. And so they jump on the bandwagon that everyone else is keen on and start their sales pitch. What they fail to understand is that a shout that is directed at all and sundry is much weaker than one that is targeted at a certain, select crowd. For example, if your target is the older crowd of baby boomers, sure, some of them are active users of social media. But you’re more likely to find most of them playing Scrabble or Bingo online. So if you place your ads in these communities rather than on the general pages, you’re likely to taste more success. Go not just where the crowd is, but where the crowd who is most likely to patronize your business is.

3. Understand what customers want

This is one time-honored rule that most marketers still don’t get – don’t market what you have to customers; rather, sell them what they want. No, you don’t have to change your products and services; all you need to do is make the customer perceive that they need what you’re selling. Previous buying patterns, lifestyles and interests, and other random data can help you identify what customers want, and sell to them accordingly.

When you change with the times, you don’t have to worry about being left behind.

About the Author:

This article is contributed by Susan White, who regularly writes on the subject of High Speed Internet Service. She invites your questions, comments at her email address: susan.white33@gmail.com.

ViperChill

ViperChill is run by Glen Allsopp, who is a young but proven marketer. Glen has worked as a social media manager with some very large companies, and he’s also built several of his own websites that now allow him to travel the world and work on his own terms.

This year Glen has some lofty goals for his business and he is documenting everything on ViperChill. His goal is to build a million dollar website (one that earns $30,000 profit per month and could be sold for $1 million) in 2010. This provides a very interesting and helpful case study for anyone who is looking to learn more about building a successful business online.

The Smart Passive Income Blog

I first came across The Smart Passive Income Blog a few months ago through a comment on ViperChill and I subscribed after quickly checking out the blog. Pat writes about his own strategies and experience in passive marketing, something I need to learn more about. I’ve been able to increase my blogging income significantly over the past two years, however it is anything but passive.

Each month Pat shares his income report which breaks down how much money he has made from various projects and how it compares to the previous month. I’ve found the content here to be of excellent quality and usefulness.

The Keyword Academy

Courtney Tuttle is a very successful internet marketer and he shares a lot of great content at The Keyword Academy. The site is a mixture of a blog and a membership-based site, but the free content on the blog is something that every internet marketer can learn from. Courtney will frequently issue a challenge to himself and to his readers and then he’ll report on his own progress and reveal some of the strategies that he’s used.

What I appreciate the most about The Keyword Academy is that there is no fluff. Court is very straightforward and he tells it like it is, without the hype. The content focus on subjects like keyword research, SEO, AdSense, affiliate marketing and more.

Any Suggestions?

What marketing blogs do you follow?

Since advertising revenue is a goal for many who are just getting started, I thought it might be helpful to share some things I have learned along the way.

1. Don’t Plan on Advertising as Your Only Monetization Method

You may have read articles like Blogging for Ads is Dead. The truth is that making a significant income from advertising is difficult. It is possible, as others have proven, but there are other ways that are probably more lucrative, such as selling your own products, membership sites, and in some cases even affiliate marketing. Personally, I use ads as a way to supplement the income that I make from services. However, running multiple blogs takes a lot of time and effort on a regular basis to keep the advertising revenue coming in, and that means less time to work on other things that I would like to pursue. If you’re going to use advertising as a way to monetize your site, plan other methods as well because it’s difficult to support yourself exclusively on advertising revenue.

2. Expect to Work for at Least a Few Months Before Making Any Ad Revenue

If you’re starting from scratch with no existing blog and no reputation in your industry, it will take some time to get to the point where advertisers will want to pay to advertise on your blog. Most new blogs take at least a few months before the really start making anything significant, and in some cases it takes even longer. There are exceptions, such as blogs that are part of an existing network, but for the average person there will be a lot of work that has to be put in before any money is made.

Most people aren’t willing to put in a consistent effort while no money is coming in, so it’s important that you be willing to do so if ad sales is one of your primary monetization methods.

3. Launch the Blog Without Ads

I have gone back and forth on this one and I have sold ad spots on brand new blogs before, but never very effectively for the first few months. On DesignM.ag it took about five months before the ad sales amounted to anything significant (at least a few hundred dollars every month). From my experience I think it is best to launch a new blog without attempting to sell ads, and there are a few reasons for this. First, you won’t be able to charge very much for ads on a new blog because advertisers won’t know what to expect, and they won’t usually have much confidence in the blog and that it’s audience will grow very quickly. You may be able to find some willing advertisers if you track them down and offer enticing prices, but you’ll probably spend more time than it is worth. Additionally, if your blog does grow pretty quickly you may need to increase your rates just as fast, and that could chase some advertisers away.

By waiting a few months for the blog to establish itself you’ll have a better idea of how much traffic you are getting and how much you should be able to charge for ads. By the time you introduce ads you will be more prepared and advertisers will be more interested. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have ads on the site from the start. You can always use affiliate ads or internal ads for other content or products of your own. This can actually be a good way to get an idea of how many people are clicking on the ads before you determine how much you should charge for the spot, plus it will help to avoid any shock on your readers when ads are introduced (although I have not known this to be much of a problem with the vast majority of readers/visitors).

On the Vandelay Design blog I didn’t start selling ads until I had in excess of 100,000 visitors per month, and at that time I had a number of advertisers who were interested in buying spots.

4. Plan for Ads in the Design or Theme Choice

If you plan to sell advertising space at some point, make sure this is considered when you are having your blog designed or when you are choosing a theme. The reason for this is that if you choose a particular design and then decide to include ads later, there may be no good place for them and the result will be a cluttered, awkward look that turns off readers.

5. Focus On Content, That’s What Gets Results

If you want to make money through ads the most important thing you need to do is work on publishing the highest quality content possible. Great content will be easier to promote, it will encourage subscribers and repeat visitors, and it will attract links. All of these things lead to a successful blog that advertisers will want to be a part of. Managing a successful blog includes a wide variety of tasks, such as ad sales, but the most important will always be content creation. That is what keeps the people coming back for more.

6. Work On Building Links

Regardless of how you want to monetize your blog, link building should be part of the equation. Getting quality inbound links to your blog will result in increased click through traffic, improved search engine rankings, as well as better visibility and reputation. If your goal is to make a significant amount of money in the long-term, link building should be a priority.

Search engine traffic is generally better for getting ad clicks as compared to some other types of traffic, like social media and regular readers. More ad clicks means more valuable ad space for advertisers and more income for you.

7. Charge Fair Prices That Will Result In High Renewal Rates

I’ve learned through my experience that selling an ad spot for the highest amount possible isn’t always the best idea. You may be able to get advertisers to bite on an overpriced ad spot, but once they don’t get the results that they feel they’re paying for, they will cancel and you’ll have to sell the spot again. Long-term advertisers are highly valuable, so it is a better approach to adjust your rates so that you’re getting an amount that the spot is worth, but advertisers will still want to stick around for a while.

8. Try Different Ad Spots and Prices

It’s a good idea to try some different things from time-to-time rather than just sticking to the same ad spots in your sidebar. Try selling different size ads in various locations to see what gets results for advertisers and what generates good money for you (without annoying your visitors). New spots will stand out more to frequent visitors and will likely result in some extra clicks and attention from advertisers. You may find some spots and sizes that work well and some that do not.

9. Don’t Try to Manipulate Pageviews

One of the factors that is typically used for determining the price of an ad is the number of pageviews (or more specifically the number of ad impressions). Some bloggers will try to inflate the number of pageviews by showing only excerpts in RSS feeds or breaking posts into multiple pages. In my opinion this is not a good idea as it can be a turn off to visitors. It may increase your pageviews in the short-term, but keeping a site more user friendly will usually lead to better long-term success.

10. Identify Your Target Advertisers

One of the keys to making a decent amount of money through ad sales is having an audience that is well suited to particular advertisers. If you have not yet launched the blog, take some time to think about who would likely be able to benefit from advertising on the blog that you are planning. You may be able to do some research by visiting other similar blogs or by doing a search and looking at the PPC ads.

You may or may not approach potential advertisers, but regardless you should have a good idea of what your blog has to offer to potential advertisers. When I first started selling ads on my blog I did some research on other blogs in the niche and I contacted some of their advertisers with an offer for space on my site. The response was surprisingly positive and I sold a number of spots this way, some that remained with me for a long time.

What’s Your Experience?

Do you monetize your blog through ad sales? Do you have any tips of your own to share?

One of my friends has just launched a new product that I think may be of interest to many Traffikd readers. Glen Allsopp has written an e-book, Cloud Living, based on his experiences from making a five-figure monthly income from his websites. Cloud Living is actually more than an e-book, it includes 6 tutorial videos, an optimized affiliate site template, and an small e-book with instructions for tweaking the template.

About Glen:

I was first introduced to Glen through his blog PluginHQ (was called ViperChill at the time). He was posting some excellent content about social media marketing and I was just getting started with my blog, so the content was a huge help to me.

Glen’s expertise in social media and online marketing helped him to land some work with very large corporations that needed his services for marketing and reputation management, while he was still a teenager. Earlier this year Glen decided to focus on his own websites and has been self-employed making money through the methods he teaches in Cloud Living.

What You Will Find in Cloud Living:

Cloud Living is a large (177 pages) e-book that covers two different ways to make money online, and everything that is involved. The book includes information about buying a domain name and hosting, finding the right niche and products to promote, setting up the site, and of course, promoting the site.

The two topics that Glen covers are minisites and blogs. The book is divided nicely into two separate sections so you can read just one or both, depending on your interests. Glen walks through the process of setting up each kind of site and what is involved in making it successful.

What I Got Out of Cloud Living:

I have been blogging for a few years now and that is where a good portion of my income is generated, but I have very little experience with minisites. I quickly read through the blogging section, but for me, the information on minisites was much more valuable (of course, this will depend on the reader and where your experiences and interests are).

What I appreciated about Cloud Living is that you can tell that Glen takes a very upfront and honest approach. He doesn’t make any outrageous claims and you can tell that he actually does care about helping his readers to become successful. Because of this, he really covers everything that you need to know to set up a profitable minisite, even if you are new to online marketing. At the end of the section there is literally a checklist of steps that you need to take, which is great for putting the information into action for yourself.

I won’t get into the details of what is covered in the book, but I can say that if you have been wanting to learn how to make money online, or if you have tried before but didn’t really know what to do or where you went wrong, the step-by-step instructions and explanations will give you a clear picture of the process.

Why I Recommend Cloud Living:

First of all, I know Glen and I know that he has been very successful in his work over the past few years. In Cloud Living he has obviously spent a lot of time and effort to put his knowledge into an e-book that will be able to help others who want to duplicate his success. I have read some other e-books that cover great ways to make money online, but at the end of the book you are kind of confused or unsure about actually putting it into practice. One of the big strengths of Cloud Living is that it is written as a guidebook that will lead you through the steps that you need to take, plus it provides plenty of explanation so you actually understand it.

If you are looking to for some trustworthy guidance about making a living online, I recommend that you check out Cloud Living.

Disclaimer: This is not a paid post, however, it does contain affiliate links. I have personally reviewed the product and can recommend it without hesitation.

After I launched the site without the job board I kept my eyes open for a viable solution. Several months ago I came across a premium WordPress theme created specifically for job boards, and I bought the theme so I could customize it for DesignM.ag. When I started to work on the theme about a month after buying it, it wasn’t working quite right out of the box.  When I went to contact the designer and seller of the theme for support they had disappeared and apparently closed up shop. Rather than spending a lot of time trying to fix something that I couldn’t get support for on future releases of WP, I decided to go back to the drawing board.

Recently I came across a premium WordPress plugin called WPJobAds that claimed to easily integrate a job board into a WordPress-based site. At a price of $59 I thought this was well-worth a shot. This plugin is ultimately what I’ve used to power the job board on DesignM.ag and I think it may also be a great option for some readers out there who are looking for a way to enhance their site or to find a new stream of revenue.

I give you the background of my situation only to make the point that finding a simple solution to power a niche job board was not that easy. There are some high-priced options that will allow you to build a complex job board, but for a small job board that’s just one aspect of a site, the cost and the time spent on customizing and development hardly seemed worth it. Customizing a WordPress theme manually is always an option, but buying a premium plugin or theme would be a big time saver.

For disclosure purposes, this is not a paid review. However, as I was about to purchase WPJobAds I decided to contact the developer to offer a review in exchange for the plugin, and the offer was accepted.  I’m happy to publish the review because I think it’s a plugin that can provide some valuable added functionality to a WordPress-based site, and it’s competitively priced for those who are looking to add this type of functionality.

The Basics

As a WordPress plugin, WPJobAds is able to be used on just about any existing WordPress theme. The plugin creates a page for the job board where all of the jobs are listed, and a separate page with the details of each job. The plugin also creates a page where employers can submit jobs to be included using a simple form. After a job is submitted through the form it will show up in the WordPress dashboard for approval. Once the job is approved it will be published and visible to visitors.

WPJobAds allows for a lot of control from the site owner/administrator. Job listings can either be free or paid, and WPJobAds even works with PayPal to make the process easier for those posting the jobs, and for you, the site owner.

The site owner can also set the categories of jobs that can be listed. For example, on my job board the categories are design, development, SEO/SMM and other. Employers then choose the appropriate category when posting a job.

Prices can easily be set and changed by the site owner. Different prices can even be applied to freelance positions as opposed to full-time, part-time, or internship positions.

Integration

The nice thing about using this plugin as opposed to the premium theme that I had originally purchased is that it integrates nicely with an existing theme. With the premium theme that I bought I would have needed to customize it to match the look of DesignM.ag, but with WPJobAds the job board immediately is part of the existing site and it is styled with the existing CSS stylesheet.

In reality, the WPJobAds plugin will create a job board that could be used out-of-the-box within minutes of uploading and activating it. In my case, I did make some customizations to the style of the job board to create the look I wanted, but it was very simple in comparison to designing a new theme.

WPJobAds includes a few widgets that can be used in your sidebar to help get some attention for jobs that are listed, as well as to encourage new submissions. Additionally, there is an option to display a random job at the end of your blog posts.

The job board also creates its own RSS feed, so there are plenty of things you can do if you want to play around with the feed. I’ve run my feed through FeedBurner so I’ll be able to offer it to visitors and keep track of how many people are subscribed. I’ve also used FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost to list recently posted jobs in the sidebar of blog posts. This should help to draw some extra attention to the listings and make it a more valuable resource for employers.

The Control Panel

The options provided by WPJobAds are easily controlled through the WordPress dashboard. Through the dashboard you can see jobs that are awaiting approval, see what has been paid and what hasn’t (if you’re charging for submissions jobs will not be published until they have been paid), add or delete categories for jobs, control the emails that are sent (more on that in a minute), and even post new jobs manually if you want to.

The options page is simple but powerful. You can set the job board description that will be shown at the top of the “post a job” page, and you can set the terms and conditions that will be shown to employers who are posting jobs. Additionally, WPJobAds sends an email to anyone who posts a job when it has been approved, which can also be customized.

My Suggestions:

Overall I’m extremely happy with WPJobAds and I think it’s a great value for website owners and bloggers who want to easily add a job board to their site. However, since this is a review I should also point out a few areas where I would like to see some changes or improvements in future releases. I’ve been in contact with Andy, the developer, a few times since getting the plugin and he has been very responsive and eager to get some feedback on ways to potentially improve WPJobAds. I’m confident that he’ll keep working to improve the product whether my suggestions are really any good or not.

(Note: before publishing this review, I emailed Andy with my suggestions, so I’m including his responses to each.)

1. Email notification of a new job submission

WPJobAds emails employers when their job is approved (you can customize emails for both free listings and paid listings) but it doesn’t email the administrator of the job board when a new listing is submitted. Ideally, I would like to receive and email letting me know that there is a job waiting for approval so I don’t have to check for it in the WP dashboard.

Response: Will be included in version 1.2 (the next release).

2. Payment without an email

If you’re charging for job postings the process goes like this:

• Employer fills out the form to submit the job
• You approve the job through the WP dashboard
• WPJobAds sends an email to the employer notifying them that the job has been approved and it includes a link for PayPal payment.
• WPJobAds and PayPal interact so that after payment the job is automatically published.

This system is pretty cool as is, bu my preference would be to allow the employer to pay for the job listing immediately after submitting the job, rather than waiting for an email. The main reason is that some emails get caught by spam filters, so it’s possible that a notification email could be missed. Second, by the time the email comes with the payment link, they may not feel like going through the process anymore.

Allowing payment before the job is approved could potentially create issues if the job is not approved, but I believe PayPal allows the option to refund money that you’ve received if you do not want to accept it.

Response: Will be done in version 1.2.

3. Reminder email at the end of 30 days

Job postings can be set for any length of time, but by default they are for 30 days. At that time the job posting will fall off of the job board. Since not all jobs will be filled within 30 days it would be nice to have an automated email that goes out around 25 days on paid listings to give the employer an opportunity to renew the listing. Taking it a step further, it would be even better if you could offer this renewal at a discounted rate, say 50% off for the second 30 days.

Response: Would need to somehow integrate with a cron job. will be considered for a later version update (would probably *not* be in 1.2).

4. Approval button higher on the page

After an employer fills out the form to submit a job, they are shown a preview of how the listing will appear. At the bottom of the page there is a button for them to click if they are satisfied with the listing, and it is not submitted until this is done. I haven’t used the plugin long enough to tell if this is really an issue or not, but my fear is that some users may not realize that they have to approve the preview in order to submit it.

With the button being at the bottom of the page it is easy to overlook. I would like to either see a button at the top of the page for approval, simply so they realize that it needs to be approved, or just a brief message at the top of the page instructing them to make the final submission from the bottom of the page.

Response: Will be done in version 1.2.

5. Clickable freelance, full-time, part-time and internship links

Each job is labeled on the job board’s front page as either being freelance, full-time, part-time or an internship. To me these labels look like they are links. It would be nice if you could click on the word “freelance” to see all of the freelance positions available. The job board does list the jobs in specific categories that you set up, but this added functionality wouldn’t hurt.

Response: Will be done in version 1.2.

6. Company name links

On the job board the company name of the employer is a link, but it just links back to the front page of the job board if no URL is entered by the employer. The URL field is optional, but all company names become a link even if no URL is submitted.

Response: Will be done in version 1.2.

Conclusion:

None of my suggestions are make-or-break factors in my opinion, and since there are plans to take care of them in the future they are even less of an issue. After testing the job board for a while and now putting it to use on one of my own sites I’m very happy with it. As I said at the beginning of this post, there are a number of options for creating a job board, but most are either expensive or they allow very little room for flexibility. There are a few free options for adding a job board, but they will not give you nearly the control that you will have with WPJobAds, they will not allow you to offer free job listings (that’s how they make their money since the service is free), and you will have to share your revenue with them (and usually they take a pretty high percentage).

What makes WPJobAds a great option is the combination of affordability (especially if you’re charging for listings), ease of use, customization options, and no need to share revenue. In my opinion WPJobsAds is best-suited for blogs and websites that want to add a relatively small, niche-specific job board without requiring a lot of work and maintenance. For others, like myself, who are in this situation, I highly recommend purchasing a license for WPJobAds.

Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips (and many other sites) has just launched Online Profits, a six-month membership program that provides over 60 lessons on all aspects of marketing an online business and making money.

I had the privilege of writing for Daniel at Daily Blog Tips for almost a year, and I’m confident that any program he produces is going to be of very high quality. Daily Blog Tips is one of the top 100 blogs, according to Technorati, and Daniel has created a very valuable network with all of his sites.

What really separates Online Profits from most of the other membership programs that you’ll see is the diversity of the mentors who are leading the program. Daniel has assembled a team that includes highly-successful internet marketers that specialize in a variety of different fields to create the various lessons. Members will have the opportunity to learn from Michael Gray, Neil Patel, Yaro Starak, Tamar Weinberg, Zac Johnson, Courtney Tuttle, and more.

From now until January 16th, a six-month membership is available at a 50% discount for the price of $48. On January 16th the program will close until it will re-open towards the end of 2009 with a price tag of $98.

If you’re interested in making more money and building a more successful online presence, I suggest that you visit Online Profits and see what Daniel and his team of experts have to offer.

A Little Background Information from My Experience

When I started selling ads I wanted to handle everything myself, rather than using a third party service that would take a portion of the ad revenue. This is a personal choice that will vary from blogger to blogger, but I’ve since changed my approach and I’m now using a third party service on all three of my blogs. At some point the convenience and ease of this approach made it worth the money to go with a third party. I don’t think any approach is better than another, it’s just a matter of what works best for you in your specific situation.

Banner Ad Marketplaces:

The following services will not only help you to display the ads on your blog, but they’ll also help you to sell ad space. Although they take a cut of the revenue, the idea is to save yourself the time of managing the ads and to take advantage of their marketplace to earn higher dollar amounts, which may offset the commission that they take.

BuySellAds

I started using BuySellAds here on Traffikd several months ago, although I was skeptical of the service at that point. Like I mentioned earlier, I handled everything manually at my primary blog, so I figured I would test out BuySellAds here. Since that time I’ve launched a third blog, DesignM.ag, where I decided to go with BuySellAds from the start, and just this month I switched the ads on the Vandelay Design blog to use BSA as well.

BuySellAds takes 25% of the ad revenue, which is reasonable, but their system makes the process easy for advertisers and for publishers. It’s nice to check your email and see that an ad has been sold and is already being displayed (you can set them to require your approval or to display automatically) without any effort of your own.

My experience with BSA has been very positive overall. The customer service is excellent if you have any problems, and it’s very easy to get set up quickly. From my observations it seems like most of their market belongs to tech-related blogs or tech-savvy audiences. For bloggers who want an easy hands-free approach to selling ads, I recommend trying buy sell ads. One of the nice things about their service is that it’s not limited to 125 x 125 ads, you can specify the dimensions of the ads.

Performancing Ads

Performancing Ads was launched a few months ago, and they seem to have been pretty successful so far. Performancing, of course, is a Technorati Top 100 blog with a large and established audience of bloggers. I haven’t personally used the service, and the terms listed on their website are somewhat vague, in my opinion. With Performancing Ads you can either sell 125 x 125 ads, or you can participate in a traffic/ad exchange with other publishers. Published opinions of their service are very mixed.

Blog Ads

Blog Ads is an invitation-only ad network. Their commission of revenue is 30% for those blogs in their network. You can get accepted into their program by being sponsored by someone that you know, or you can contact them and they’ll notify you when a sponsor becomes available in your niche.

Ad Serving:

In addition to the marketplaces listed above, bloggers can also take advantage of ad servers that are available to help them manage and track results, although they will not sell the ads for you. Some of these options are more involved than the average blogger would need, as they are intended to be a comprehensive solution for larger sites.

OpenX

OpenX (formerly OpenAds) is a free, open source ad server with plenty of potential. It offers advanced inventory management and targeting tools as well as stats and reporting. It’s a great option for those who have serious online businesses, but probably more than what’s necessary for the average blogger.

Google Ad Manager

Google Ad Manager was launched a few months ago and has been perceived to be an “OpenX killer.” Google Ad Manager is also a free ad management service with all kinds of options. When it was launched I signed up for an account to give it a try, but I decided it was more than I needed at this point. It has lots of options for companies that have a team of people selling ads and just about any tool or report you can imagine. My opinion is that small bloggers are better off with a simplified solution since all the bells and whistles won’t even be used.

OIO Publisher

OIO Publisher is a bit of a unique option as it is an ad server and a WordPress plugin (meaning, you don’t have to be using WP, but it’s a simple solution if you are). The cost for a lifetime membership is $47. OIO Publisher will help you to sell ads without the middleman, and it will help you to manage the ads on your blog. I did use OIO Publisher for a while, but I only used a fraction of the options available. I have a few friends who have very good things to say about their experience with OIO Publisher.

Atlas AdManager

Atlas is another advanced option along the lines of OpenX and Google Ad Manager. The emphasis is on forecasting and related tools.

WordPress Plugins:

For blogger using WordPress, there are a number of plugins that are available for ad management. Most of these options are simple and not as feature-rich as advanced ad servers, but that’s usually what bloggers need, without all the features they won’t use anyway.

WP125

I looked for a while for a simple plugin that would handle and rotate banner ads, and WP125 was the best option that I found. I used it on my primary blog for a few months before deciding to go the route of BuySellAds. WP125 is very simple to use. All you do is activate the plugin and enter ad details, such as the banner URL, the URL the banner should link to, and the date the banner will expire. If you want to sell your own banners, I highly recommend this plugin, although it only supports 125 x 125 banners.

WPAds

WPAds is an older plugin that hasn’t been updated in a while. It was one of the more popular plugins for ad management, but be careful if you’re using a newer version of WordPress, as it may not have been tested.

UBD Block Ad Plugin

The UBD Block Ad Plugin (from Unique Blog Design) is not one that I’ve used personally, but it looks promising. The features and functionality seems to be very similar to WP125.

Show125

Show125 is also similar to WP125 and UBD Block Ad Plugin. From the WP control panel you’ll have easy management of your ads without getting into the coding.

What’s Your Experience?

If you sell ads or use affiliate banners on your blog, what tools do you use?

Recently I’ve done a little bit of research to look for some possibilities with affiliate marketing and I thought I’d share some of the networks that I’ve found. Affiliate networks are great for helping you to stay organized and for keeping your income in a few spots rather than having ten different programs with a $5 balance waiting to reach the minimum threshold for a check.

Check out the networks on this list and see if a few stand out to you for monetizing your own website or blog.

Commission Junction

Commission Junction is one of the larget and most popular affiliate networks around. The allow affiliates to promote a wide variety of products in all different categories. Some programs will pay per sale and others will pay per lead (such as credit card applications and many others).

ClickBank

ClickBank is another one of the leaders; however, unlike Commission Junction, ClickBank sells only electronic/downloadable products, mostly e-books. While Commission Junction serves many major companies, most products being sold through ClickBank are created by individual entrepreneurs who are looking for some help with distribution.

LinkShare

LinkShare is a bit more like Commission Junction with lots of choices, including those from very large companies in a variety of industries with just about any kind of product or service.

pepperjamNETWORK

Pepperjam is a relative newcomer to the scene, but has already been able to put itself in the elite class. As an up-and-coming affiliate network, they are always bringing new advertisers on board that will make the program more lucrative for affiliates.

AzzogleAds

The AzzoogleAds affiliate network has been around since 2000. They offer publishers plenty of choices in terms of what products can be promoted and how they can be promoted. They even offer Facebook applications for publishers.

Other Affiliate Networks to Consider:

Affiliate Fuel

Primary Ads

Advaliant

LeaderMarkets

ClixGalore

Direct Leads

RevenueLoop

Clickbooth

Valued Network

FluxAds

Affiliace

Adfinity

Affiliateer

Jumbo Affiliates

LinkConnector

Affiliate Window

ShareASale

clickXchange

Which Affiliate Networks Do You Use?

If you are active with affiliate marketing I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the networks that you use.