Google AdSense is a very popular way to add income to your blog. If AdSense is not for you, there are plenty of other advertising options. You can type “AdSense alternatives” into your favorite search engine for other advertising options. You can choose from inline ads, contextual ads, or banner ads.
Inline ads ~ are similar to Google AdSense. Short text ads contained within a box you put on your site.
Contextual ads ~ words marked in blue and underlined. They link to other sites.
Banner ads ~ also called graphic ads because they add a graphic to your site. These can also be square like the one to the left about Crowd Mountain
Advantages of the various ad formats
Unfortunately people have grown accustomed to seeing ads, so they have learned how to ignore them. Contextual ads still have a curiosity feature to them. While people are used to graphic ads, they still have visual appeal. And as for text ads, if it says the right thing, people will click. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it brings in revenue when people click.
Best Ad locations
This an area that depends on your niche, but as they say it is all in “Location, location, location.” Many people have trained themselves to ignore the ad at the top of a blog. Contextual ads do not disrupt the text of your article but do create curiosity. Ads near the bottom are popular. If you place it near the bottom and have information around it people will be interested in you and the ad just because it might be related.
Advertising Advantages
If you have a product or service to sell this gives your readers an opportunity to click away from your site, perhaps before they read your offer. Yet, this form of advertising might be the only way to get money from people who are window shoppers.
