Why does selling ads suck?

First post on this forum I've been involved with blogging for a long time, and when I went to scale using ad revenue as leverage, I was hit with a big realization: ad networks that work with bloggers getting less than 50k/mo uniques don't get a fair market value.

So I went to work on an idea - a way to get premium ad sales. I've built a couple of the core features of this social network for buying and selling ads. I've launched the social network and a landing page, but I've hit a road block. Sure, my copy needs work, but that's not the real problem. The issue is that I'm pretty sure my pain points aren't the same for every blogger.

My struggles were simple - turn my traffic into more money, so I can reinvest that money into a VA or freelancers, maybe save up and get a big name to guest blog. I didn't really care that I was spending extra time, since I was freeing up my time in the long run, but I wonder if others see things differently.

In fact, from what I can tell, I think it's the opposite. I think most other bloggers would rather spend their time blogging than to spend any time at all on advertising. I have yet to prove my hypothesis, "Bloggers have a problem getting too involved in advertising," or any other hypothesis around pain points of bloggers.

It's actually becoming uncommon to see ads on blogs. Blogs are offering ebooks, webinars, memberships, affiliate products, you name it. Maybe the ads are tacky, maybe they have no control over the ads, maybe the ads are taking up too much visual space and really aren't producing much income, or maybe like me, you just got rejected from all the good ad networks and said, screw it.

What are some of the struggles you've faced in monetizing your blog?

 

Ads, in general, are low-yield pay. First off, you need to get a deal that actually will pay you some money (or just utilize the big ad-networks, but they only pay when you have rather large numbers) - then you have to do some work on which ads you'll show, which takes time - all of this will still not really get you that much money (Again, depending a bit on the amount of visitors you have, of course). Given that people also have gotten better at doing adblocking on their browser (I know I do, I hate ads that take away from the actual value of the site), you end up with maybe 50% (probably a guesstimate which is above the actual amount) of your visitors actually seeing the ads - then you'll have to have them click it, and if it's an affiliate-ad, actually purchase something. That's a lot of ifs and perhaps.

There are plenty of bloggers who more or less live off of their blog, but they're usually life-style blogs or the similar - where companies actually buy their time and skills with items and money. Then you have to make sure you adhere to your country's rules for sponsored content, and so forth and so on. The amount of followers / readers you need to actually make ads profitable is quite staggering, and depending on your market and country of origin, it might not be feasible at all.

Generally speaking, unless you're doing nudity or life-style for teenagers, (again, depending on where you are in the world), it might be very tough for you to get something up and running that actually pays off. I don't think the pain of ads is in the process of getting them or adding them to the site, it's the amount of time you spend on doing so, just to see very low, or non-existent returns.

 

Thank you for your time! Here are my notes, mostly repeating what you have said, but also collecting some hidden concerns:

1. Ads are low yield.
2. For the work, you really don't get that much money.
3. The amount of followers/readers required to make ads profitable is quite staggering.
4. Large networks only pay when you have rather large numbers.
5. Finding a deal that actually pays you some money is difficult.
6. There's considerable time in doing work on which ads you'll show.
7. Ad blocking hurts Ad revenue since it lowers visitors actually seeing the ads, clicking on the ads, and thus any sales from the clicks.
8. Ad blocking also causes need for concern because there are too many unknowns.
9. Ads suck when they take value away from the site.
10. Adhering to your country's rules for sponsored content is a concern.
11. Ads might not be feasible at all depending on your country or origin.
12. You may feel that unless the blog is centered on sex or teen culture, then ads are not really a viable option for starters.
13. Adding ads to sites takes a lot of time and produces very low returns.
14. It's not the process that sucks, it's the amount of time required.

I do have a question. When you say that the "pain of ads" is not "in the process of getting them or adding them to the site" but it's the time required to get no returns... what process is so easy yet so time consuming? From my experience it has been shopping for ad networks, trying to get approved, and nagging the ad networks to remove certain ads. Are you saying that the configuration and copy & paste isn't hard? I woul ddefinitely agree there. The approval and management process is terrible, agreed.

 

It's more all of the things combined. Adding ads to your page (in itself) is just pasting in some code. Getting the ads to look GOOD, on the other hand (keeping in line with the theme of the site, not breaking out of set "boxes" for showing ads and so forth) while still following the rules set by the ad-network, that's where it quickly gets tricky. Keeping up with changing rules, deciding which rules you're gonna follow (international site, international visitors, but you're still held by the rules in the actual country you're hosting the site in - but not always, since you CAN be bound by the rules in the country of which you're an actual citizen, regardless of where you're actually living...) and as you say, keeping up with the network, getting them to remove certain ads (often next to impossible), getting an "in", and so forth and so on. The actual, technical bit isn't what takes time - it's the management and staying on top that is a bit disheartening.

 

Thank you so much. That's what I was thinking. I too had the same trouble. Technically, it's easy, but being choosey and finding high yield ads is next to impossible without putting on that sales cap and collecting leads, writing cold emails, and negotiating.

Now, for the product solution idea.

If I were to create a service where you entered in your email and the domain (and if ads don't exist for domain, enter the size, price, location on page, and industry/category on your requested Ads), and the system (or an agent) intelligently selected ads that match and emailed the ads for your review, would that management system be worth switching to?

The only time you'd have to install a script and send payment information is when you are ready to accept an offer. Once that is set up, all you have to do is click "Approve" to activate or "Reject" to proceed with the next batch. You can have two ads approved at a time (one will be activated once the other expires) as well as default HTML if there was no approved ad so there's no gap in income. You'll also have SMS support, access to agents/admins and advertisers via the social network, and ability to browse/search the system to manually find ads and make/recall offers. Whatever your flavor of communication you want is there, but I'm thinking you'd rather have suggestions emailed to you.

Furthermore, do you think the following would would be beneficial?

1. Price suggestions based on size, location, and category/industry.
2. Ability to auto-approve ads based on highest bid price in the category.
3. Ability to have an agent approve ads, given your guidelines.

Most of all this is free, since the advertiser pays per month for tracking, split testing, re-targeting, etc. However, anytime you elect to have an agent doing work for you, you will have to split the revenue share with them 80% to you, 20% to them plus $0.50 transaction fee. You might be okay with this provided they are doing all the management work for you, and if you're not, we should probably figure things out.

This could all be better explained over Skype or Hangouts. PM me if you want to talk in more detail to help me better shape the product a bit better. I would really appreciate your insight. It's been so valuable thus far.