Many blogs are started each day with a purpose of making money. Blogs are great way for their owners to share their ideas with the rest of the world as well as being very lucrative and provide revenue for their owners once thy are established and attract lots of visitors to come and visit them.
There are many ways available to blog owners to make money with their blogs. Most blog owner think of PPC ads and affiliate links when it comes to monetizing their blog traffic . PPC ads make money every time visitors click on ads that are displayed on the blog. The worlds greatest PPC ad network is Google AdSense.
When monetize their blogs with affiliate links, blog owners make money every time a visitor clicks on the affiliate link, goes to the merchant website and purchase product or a service. The blog owner then earns a commission which is usually a percentage of the sales price. There are many affiliate networks online available to bloggers, where they can join and start making money by monetizing their blogs. Many online retailers like Amazon and Ebay have their own affiliate programs which blog owners can join and earn commission whenever customers they send to their site buys something.
Aside from PPC and affiliate programs there are several other methods that are available o blog owners to make money with their blog. One of them is by displaying CPM ads on their blogs.
What is CPM?
CPM is cost per mille advertising or cost per thousand impressions. Impression is every time an advertisement is displayed to the visitor. Impression is the number of how many times a certain advertisement is displayed. The cost of the advertisement is calculated on basis of thousand impressions. The cost of thousand impressions can go from few cents up to few dollars for every thousand views. Let’s say that an advertisement is displayed on your blog 30.000 times and the CPM is $1 then you will earn 30$, or 1 dollar for every 1000 impressions. If the CPM rate is $1.5 then you will earn $45 and if it’s $0.50 then your earnings for 30.000 impressions will be $15.
Although the preferred method to make money with a blog by many blog owners are CPC ads and affiliate programs, there are many that choose displaying CPM ads to monetize their blogs. Reason why choosing CPM ads over other monetization methods can be low CTR (click through rate for CPC ads which means that very little click on CPC ads and blog is not making much money although there are many people who visit it every day, and low conversion rate for affiliate link.
Because of this many blog owners choose to be paid for every time a visitors click on an ad without visitors actually clicking on it or buying something. This is especially true for blogs who attract lots f traffic every day. The earning per CPM can be increased by placing more than one CPM ad on the page or combine it with CPC ads of affiliate links. Before deciding to place more than one ad on a page or combine it with advertisements from other networks blog owners should check with their ad networks if something like this is against their terms, or they may risk being banned and their publisher account closed.
How to start making money with CPM ads?
To start making money with CPM there are certain thing that need to be done:
- Create a blog or a website. To make money with CPM ad networks you will need a blog of your own. If you don’t have one already you can create one for free or you can pay a few dollars for a domain name and web hosting and create a self –hosted blog that you will own. If you opt to use free blogging platforms like Blogger or DevHub make sure you check their terms because some free blogging platforms like Wordpress .com don’t allow to make money with a blog hosted by them. The best way to start a blog is by create your own which will cost you few dollars to buy a domain name and webhosting. You can use Wordpress for your blogging platform which is free, easy to use and highly customizable.
- Drive traffic to your blog. You can’t start making money with your blog if there are no visitors. Because of this you must promote your blog in order to drive traffic. There are several things you can do to drive traffic to your blog. You can write SEO optimized content, create backlinks by commenting on blogs, posting on forums, submitting articles to article directories or using social bookmarking websites. To drive more traffic from search engines you should research keywords and write content optimized for those words. You can use social media to bring more exposure to your blog posts and connect with people that might be interested in reading your content to grow your audience and increase the number of people that visit your blog. The amount of traffic is critical to get accepted as a publisher by CPM networks because they require to have a minimum number of visitors before you apply.
- Apply to CPM networks for a publisher account. Before you start making money with CPM ads you need to become a publisher of one or more CPM ad networks. CPM networks connect advertisers and publishers for a certain percentage of earning. When you become a publisher you can place code on your blog and ads will start to appear and you will start earning. The ads are paid by advertisers and the money is shared between the network and the publishers. There are a number of CPM networks you can apply to. There are certain conditions your blog must meet for your application to be accepted. The most important is the minimum traffic your blog must have as well as the content of your blog because networks may refuse your application if your site has certain content like gambling, adult etc.
- Find areas on your webpage to place your CPM ads. The best place to place your CPM ads are top of your page or below the header as well as righ or left column. CPM ad networks will require the ads are place in visible place eliminating the necessity of visitors to have to scroll down to see the ads.
- Start displaying CPM ads on your blog. Once your publisher account has been approved you can log in to your account and get the ad code you can add on your blog and start making money. Once you place ad code on your blog ads that are paid by advertisers will start to appear and you will make money every time your visitors see them.
- Get paid. Once you start displaying CPM ads on your blog check out regularly the statistics and earnings. Once you reach the minimum payment you can ask to be paid. Different CPM networks have different minimum payment. Some networks have $10 other can have $100 or more. You can be paid using one of the several methods usually offered by the network. Those payment methods can include Paypal, Wire transfer etc. You will need to specify how would you like to be paid and provide your payment details like Paypal email.
Which CPM networks should I join?
There are a number of CPM advertising networks you can join and use to monetize your blog. There are number of things you should consider before you join one of them:
- What is the minimum traffic requirement? Networks have different requirements regarding the minimum number of visitors your blog must have for your application to be accepted. Some networks have a minimum of 1000 visitors a month, others may require a minimum of 100.000 unique monthly visitors You should check out their FAQ page before you apply about their minimum requirement.
- Their CPM rate. Networks have different CPM rate. The higher payment per thousands impressions the better.
- The payment methods they offer. CPM network may offer to pay you through Paypal, Wire, Payza, Moneybookers etc. See if your preferred method is offered by them.
Here are some of the CPM networks you can join:
Advertising.com – is CPM ad network owned by AOL. Advertising has high paying cpm rates but requires your blog has high visitor base.
TribalFusion.com – is one of the best cpm network with paying rates, but requires your site has atleast 500.000 visitors to be accepted as a publisher.
BurstMedia.com – accepts pulishers with minimum 25.000 monthly pageviews and 5.000 monthly unique visitors.
CasaleMedia – requires a minimum of 50.000 unique visitors each month and has high payment rates
Adtegrity – is another good cpm advertising network which requires a minimum of 500.000 views per month and 50% US traffic.
TechnoratiMedia – is social media advertising networks which offers high CPM rates and has many advertisers including CNET, Washington Post, Time Inc., IGN and others
ValueClickMedia – is cpm network that enable publishers to earn revenue from their inventory since 1998. ValueClickMedia has quality advertisers and give it’s publisher full control over ads appearing on their site. Requires a minimum of 3000 page views per month.
AdPepper – has an average earning per thousands impressions of $0.80 for traffic coming from US or Europe and $0.05 to $0.10 for international traffic.
VibrantMedia – Offers Paypal as payment method.
AdsPilot- accepts websites which have minimum150.000 impressions a month and over 70% of their traffic coming from US, UK, CA, AU or Western Europe. Pays through Bank Wire ($1000 minimum), Paypal and Payza ($25 minimum amount)
