7 Reasons not to have Empty Ad Spots on your Blog
Blog advertising is an excellent way to reach a wide audience without breaking the bank. It can also make money for your own blog. There is a mistake that quite a few blogs make â using a lot of empty ad spots. There are a few reasons why I think this is a bad idea.
1. It devalues the ads.
If nobody is buying ads on your site, perhaps the ad price is too high for the traffic your site receives. This suggests your site doesnât provide value to advertisers. Who wants to be the first to buy an ad when there are 5 empty spots?
2. It makes you look desperate.
Iâve seen sites with a whole row of empty ad spots â to me, this looks like the blogger is begging for money. Letâs face it, a lot of people want to make some money from their blog â simply saying âI have ad spots for saleâ isnât enough of a reason for most advertisers, unless they already know your site.
3. Itâs a negative lifesign.
Itâs like seeing 0 comments or 0 views on a post. If you come back and see the same thing again, the blog is probably dead. Donât leave empty ad spots on your blog for long.
4. Itâs a waste of space.
Some blogs like to put a lot of widgets on the page. But how many of these are worth having? If you have an empty ad spot that just isnât getting filled, could you put something more valuable in that spot?
5. It puts a limit on the number of ads youâll accept.
If you have empty ad spots, it suggests thereâs a maximum number of ads youâre willing to display. So if you have 6 empty spots, you might not sell more than 6 ads. But if you have 2 running ads and no empty spots, advertisers can just contact you about buying an ad on your site. Also, if you get a very generous offer to advertise on your site, you may want to consider pushing the limit. This is less likely to happen if you limit yourself with empty ad spots.
6. It makes it harder to promote different ad placements.
If a site has different ads running on each post, this suggests the blog is open to flexible advertising. If you use the same âempty adâ image for every ad spot then this doesnât give the impression of flexibility, as it suggests you canât buy ads on specific posts. However, you can get around this by using a different âempty adâ image for each zone, or specifying the available ad spots on your Advertise page.
7. It limits you to certain ad sizes.
If you have loads of empty 125Ã125 ad spots, advertisers may not realise that you offer different ad sizes. Empty spots can show advertisers where their ads will appear, but this could be done just as effectively with an image of your blog, highlighting the various ad spots.
Is one empty ad spot acceptable?
Sometimes it helps to have one empty ad spot if you donât have any ads up yet. This shows you accept advertising. Itâs just better not to have a lot of empty ad spots.
What you should do:
Create an Advertise page that specifies what you allow and what you donât allow. Advertisers can contact you with their requirements and you can decide if you wish to accept their ad request.
Thatâs my opinion â what do you think? Do you have empty ad spots on your blog? Why/why not?
7 Reasons not to have Empty Ad Spots on your Blog
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