Black Web 2.0 A Different Perspective

My most consistent blog income comes from LoudLaunch.   I was getting $20 per placement when I started.   My last placement for Blue Nile jewelry earned me $48.    My goal is to place an ad weekly (I usually try to do it on the weekend when my traffic is lowest).

This thread is a good idea.  I look forward to learning from others as well.   How would you answer your own question?

I didn't realize that our profiles don't contact links to our blogs.   My blog is Electronic Village.

This is such a tough question. Ad networks are sometimes questionable and only work if your traffic is really high. Ad networks dont also take into consideration how special you demographic is. Selling reviews is another option, sites like reviewme.com and payperpost are good options. You should also consider asking you audience for donations. I know that sounds wack, but you would be surprised how considerate your audience base will be when the content is great. Another option is to activley pursue relavant advertisers who may be interested in reaching your audience.

On my personal site Black and Married With Kids  I waited to get views and traffic up before I was too concerened about ad network advertising. There are a lot of companies to choose from and I agree with Markus you definitley have to take into consideration your demo especially if you have a niche site like we do. Early on I tried using google ads but since we talk a lot about relationships they'd put an ad with a picture of an older white man smoking a pipe talking about lunchtime dating (this doesn't fly on a site called black and married with kids) so it was important for me to seek networks that speak directly to my demo.

The main one I'm currently using is the Essence Ad network and the jury is still out but I'm trying to wait and see what the finished product looks like since they're still working on it. I'm in the process of reaching out to look for direct advertisers and if traffic continues to grow at the current pace we're moving hopefully one day the majority of my ad inventory will be sold directly. After you reach a certain point as far as page views etc... I can't see giving a network such a big chunk of my pie.

We have had customers use ad networks, affiliate networks, ad words...many of the third party ad sales companies with no real success. They were lucky to get $50 to $100 per month. Many times the ads from these networks just were not good enough to peak the interest of the audience for these sites. This may have been because of inability to figure out a good strategy for these sites. At any rate, we only suggest it as a secondary option in a larger direct ad sales strategy.

We concentrate on our customers building quality traffic. We set them up with their own ad server (http://www.openx.org/). We show them how to leverage their network in their local community to sell ads. If their site has broad appeal, we show them how to approach and sell to small to medium advertisers outside of their local area. We were able to help a few sites bring in $1,000-$2,000 per month in ad revenue on time based ads and CPM. We even had a site with less than 20K unique visitors per week do $6,000 in a month off of all the hype surrounding the Super Bowl coming to their city. Now I know this isn't a lot of money when compared to the multi-billion dollar online advertising industry, but they were all happy to get this additional revenue.

I would say that the most important thing to concentrate on is building quality traffic and understanding your audience. If you can quantify the value of your site to advertisers, sales are easier. If your site is effective for advertisers, you will get repeat business. If you can get great traffic numbers, you can get in a quality ad network that can generate good revenue on your unsold inventory. If you can build awesome numbers, business will find you and you can make great money.

Charles, actually I was looking at your product last week after being referred by a close friend and am currently considering using it to manage my ad inventory. Thanks for the info.

Lamar, OpenX is not our product we are an internet marketing firm and it is one of the tools we use for our customers. It is an excellent product with a large development community. We actually have a site that delivers well over a million ad views per month with this system.

Markus, thanks for the info on reviewme.com. I never heard of them. We have been looking to start experimenting with these types of sites. We have been following PayPerPost.com since they launched and they seem very promising, but I will definitely look more into reviewme.

Do you have any specific strategies that work for you on these sites?

Markus,

   What service do you use for requesting donations from your blog readers?

@Lamar, we have been using Openx to serve our Ads. It took me sometime to get the hang of it but it works very well. If you're looking for something easier and you have a word press blog, consider searching for a wordpress plugins that will manage ads for you.

@Charles, The only suggestion I could make is to only review products relative to you content, and make sure your readers know that its a paid advertisement.

@Wayne,  I have used the <a href="http://chipin.com">Chip In Widget</a> (this is more for somone who's saving for something in particular) and Paypal's donation widget.

@Markus -Around the same time I was looking at OpenX I tried a plugin that I'd found but it hogged too much of my hosts processor and temporarily took the site down... Can you say scared to death because I hadn't done a new backup before I started screwing around. LOL. I was definitely going to do some more exploring.

@Markus - I've taken you up on your suggestion.   I've created Electronic Village Chipin Widget that will be operational for the next year with a goal of getting $25/week or $100/month.    Let's see how it works out!

Well I will chime in despite the fact that I am late. Because of the size of most of our sites, we will never be able to leave off of ad revenue. We are too small to create the SCALE to attract direct advertising from large advertisers and the ad networks skim 70% of the money we do generate with click through. I have a nice little click through rate that basically pays my student loan bill every month and I am loving it.

My blogs generate far more income from derivative opportunities than advertising. Freelancing can be extremely lucrative. In addition I charge people to conduct new media training. I Trained a group of disaster relief volunteers how to blog for a national organization. I charged them by the hour.

This is what I would do, create a goal for how much revenue you want to bring in. Deduct your average monthly ad income and then work at deriving revenue from other sources. Maybe you will syndicate through newstex, maybe you will contact independent newspapers and self-syndicate your posts as columns. Maybe you will contact a site with a crappy blog and offer to ghost blog. Also go to the Blog World Expo page and look at some of the sponsors. There are lots of sites that will basically pay you for syndicating your work in some way.

Hold the line, I am working on something that may finally even the playing field between smaller blogs and big websites that will get us a greater share of ad network revenue, but that is going to be a minute. I am waiting to hear back.

Hands down the most profitable thing you can do in terms of creating online revenue is to create your own information products.

Based on a quick look at your site, I'd suggest - for example - that you create a simple ebook with the 100 Best Online Resources for Black People Married with Kids.  Set up through ClickBank.com and sell it for $27.  Also do one 100 Best Online Resources for Black Kids, etc.  What other areas of expertise so you have?

@Ramon - great idea, thanks for the response. We're actually in the process of creating a similar product to directly sell from the site but hadn't thought of that particular one. Appreciate it!

I love this topic, and what stood out to me is when Gina said that Because of of our Demograhpic we will never be able to live off of ad sales. Well I do everything online, via my main site msoyonline.com and about 10 other blogs and social networks that I created some on www.blackwomenetwork.com .. point being last year I paid my rent just from Adsense. All my sites are black focused, my most popular top at about 25,000 unique views a month, some less, which is small.

Now I get at least $500 a month on adsense, when I am not doing much and then revenue from ad networks that solicit me because they like my niches. I only join a handful and stick to promoting only products that cater to my niche. Once I joined an affiliate, but quickly removed all ads cause none of them were black. They understood, and quickly started sending me ads that only fit my demographic. Some are CPM which is great! and then a few PPC, I take what fits me. I wrote my tips down in an eBook, The Easy ad builders handbook on www.e-junkie.com/lhenry.

I don't do Essence or Glam, i don't like big logos all over the place. The secret to real ad sales is great blended placement and picking the right products. I can't wait to get to the point where I am making a steady $2000 and up from Ad Sales. There are a few black bloggers who have reached this point and I know it is possible. Harder for us than our white counter-parts, but possible :)

LaShanda
Twitter @SistaSense

One more thing. Black and Married With Kids, we should really do a collaboration together. I also created an eBook for parents, which I sell on lulu.com/msoy. I also like e-junkie for selling eBooks, just my suggestion. -lhenry

One of my blogs: http://blackparenting.blogspot.com/

I never said that because of our "demographics" we wouldn't be able to live off of ad sales. Not true. I said that because of the size of many people's blogs, they are not going to be getting direct ads from proctor & gamble because they can't individually offer the scale. That's all.

Sure Famous Amos made money from his cookies, but that doesn't mean he didn't get exploited in the process or had his talents and effort undervalued. All money ain't good money and while Google Adsense is great- the explosive ad network hustle is also aimed at exploiting African American bloggers in the long tail.

Some bloggers have the ability to make far more money from derivative products like the ebooks - these revenue sources are often overshadowed by the ad network hustle. For example you mention a number you are shooting for in monthly ad revenue. Well some of us get that from writing one 800 word article for a major publication or from teaching a 4 hour course to a social justice organization trying to break into new media content creation. Or some of us make that from appearing on Irish radio to give commentary.

I have no interest in running 15 different media properties. Most bloggers don't want to manage that many moving pieces and they don't have to. If Adsense is paying out $500 a month, then how much are you generating for Google? If you are working that hard, what's your ROI? how many hours a month are you working to make that $500 or $2000?

I don't want to argue about it or rain on someone's dream. I want Black folks to get in on the internet hustle and let me assure you that for a part-time blogger, there are far more lucrative ways to generate revenue than Adsense. 

yes, you can live off of ad sales- but how hard are you working to make that money and how much are you making for someone else?

I don't want you to make $2000 a month. I want you to make $200,000 a month if you are working that hard.

Ouch. Did I touch a nerve or is this just a passionate topic for you. lol. Though I understand your point, I think you are missing mine. Adsense for me, now, isn't primary income, its just one source of steady, no hastle income that I think the initial poster of this topic might be interested in looking into as an additional stream of income. I am both a web designer and web coach, so I know and do make far more money from other venues as you suggest, however if you have a website with decent traffic I see nothing  wrong with captilizing off of that.

Also, as I point out, I only limit myself to promoting a small number of products that I can vouch for and reach my demographic. I often get rave reviews from my spaces because i focus more on content than ads, for me that's an extra bonus which is again what I was assuming the original poster was going for.

You don't have to have 15+ sites like me, that's fine. My vision is building positive black sites, so that's why I do what I do. I wasn't suggesting folks need to make 10 sites to get 10 dollars. As for me I am about my passion and my profit. I primarily make money from my ebooks, building sites and showing others how to do the same. If people want to get into Ad Sales, I say go for it, just do it the right way and not try to make it your primary source of income.

*sigh* I love passionate discussions, but I try to keep them to a min. I could do this all day but when would I get my real work done. :P

-lh

You didn't touch a nerve- you mentioned me by name and mischaracterized/misunderstood what I said. Demogaphic=race, age, gender to me and I would never say that Black people, or women, or old/young people can't make money online because of their "demographic." I think the opposite actually. I think my Mama and Daddy could make a killing online.

You and I don't disagree. We both agree that you need multiple sources of online revenue and don't rely soley on Adsense to or ad networks to make it. Some people can do that, but the vast majority of Black bloggers in the longtail aren't going to do that. They don't know about the money they could make, selling their knowlege in ebooks, or consulting, teaching, freelance writing, radio appearance fees, honorariums etc.

Yes, I am passionate about this because far too many Black bloggers are under the misapprehension that they can run their blogs in the afternoon after work, sign up for 10 different ad networks and they will be rich and then they get frustrated and don't know why they are geting a $30check every six months.  Meanwhile the ad networks are getting rich by doing nothing more than serving as a middle man, doing what Black bloggers could do if they organized together and chipped in to hire a professional ad rep.

Yes, I am passionate about the fact that Black women are the fastest growing number of small businss people, but they are averaging $35,000/year or struggle to gain access to capital. 

Yes, I am passionate about the fact that some ppl are slaving away on a blog and Google is taking 60-70-80 % (who really knows of the cut). Black bloggers be better off forming their own verticle ad network with their Facebook friends or Twitter followers.