blogs - make money with ads

There are dozens - perhaps hundreds - of online companies providing web ads. They come in many different formats, from simple text links to whizz-bang shopping malls. As far as you're concerned, however, they all work similarly - you'll get paid every time a visitor clicks the ad or uses it to make a purchase.

The term 'targetting' is often used with ads. Want to know more? view or hide

Before you start, though, make sure you have a personal domain and that your blog is working well. Many companies will check to ensure that it meets their standards; many more will insist you have your own domain.

some of the best ...

Here's a shortlist of some of the most reliable online advertising providers. Visit their sites, see what they offer and make sure you feel comfortable with their methods and instructions: some will inevitably appeal more than others.

If you decide to sign up for an account, make sure you choose a 'publisher' option. This is simply another term for someone who puts their work online. (Yes! You're an online publisher now!)

We'll be adding more providers as we receive new recommendations, so make sure you check back frequently!

how to put ads on your site

blogger and weebly's 'instant' options

As we've said all along, it IS possible to venture into online money-making without going too near anything technical, and both our featured blog creation tools provide really simple set-up options.

 

    Blogger

There can't be many things easier in the online world than adding Google's AdSense to a Blogger page - it really is child's play (and even allows you to sign up for an AdSense account at the same time if you haven't already done so).

In your blog Layout view, click any Add a Page Element link.

A window opens with a range of named options. Look for the AdSense option and click the Add To Blog button.

You'll be taken to a wizard where you can choose the size of ad, as well as a color scheme (design your own if you wish).

Click Save Changes and the ad unit appears on your page as a new element.

You won't see the actual ad here in the Layout view, so click Preview to view, then Save to publish online.

 

    weebly

Weebly includes an option to position Adbrite units almost anywhere in your blog, and although this is similar to Blogger's functionality, the truth is that it isn't as easy to set up - you'll need to work at least once with Adbrite's code in order to get started.

For this reason, we'll talk you through this option once we've taken a look at using the code that actually generates adverts. And don't worry - it's all a lot less painful than you might think.

working with code

Once you've signed up and been accepted into any of the advertising programs, you'll probably want to spend a little time experimenting with all the different types of ads you can create. Setting them up is simple: each site provides their own easy-to-use wizard, which usually includes presets for different shapes and sizes as well as a choice of text or banner ads. Often you can create your own color schemes, too.

Before designing your final ads, think carefully about the layout of your blog and where the ads need to fit - you can usually judge dimensions by eye.

In all cases, once you've walked through your wizard the final button will deliver a chunk of code that looks something like this:

<!-- Begin AdVertiser code -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://ghf.advertiser.com/AdVertiser.cfm?pet=45893219" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT>
<noscript><a href="http://www.Advertiser.com/>pay per click</a></noscript>
<!-- End AdVertiser code -->

Scary? We know that it can certainly seem so! But in fact, the only thing you need do is copy and paste this into an appropriate part of your blog. Read on, and we'll tell you just how to do this for each of our chosen blog programs.

 

    Blogger

Although setting up ads using the AdSense wizard is so incredibly easy you may never want to do it any other way, adding code is almost as simple. And since Blogger doesn't appear to have any objection to ads other than Google's being used in your blog, you might want to experiment with several different schemes.

To add code, click any Add a Page Element link in your blog's Layout view.

A window opens with a range of named options. Look for the HTML / JavaScript option and click the Add To Blog button.

Another window opens; paste your code here (don't write anything in the Title box)

Click Save Changes and the ad unit appears as as a new page element.

You probably won't see the ad itself here in the Layout view, so click Preview to view, and Save to publish online.

 

    weebly

If you've created your site in weebly, any ad code has to be pasted into a special box known as a custom html element.

To access this, click the Elements tab then the More option.

Drag a custom html element into position in your blog layout (if you've previously left space for ads using picture or paragraph elements, you'll need to replace them with this one).

Once the element is positioned, it will display a 'click to set custom html' message. Go ahead and click, and an Edit Custom Html button then appears in the weebly Editor panel.

Click this, and the interior of the element turns white allowing you to paste your code inside (don't worry if nothing seems to happen straightaway - you won't actually see the ad until the site is online).

Click the Publish button to view your new ad.

 

    working with Adbrite in weebly - finding your ID

As we've already said, weebly makes it simple to drag and drop Adbrite ads into pages without any pasting of code needed. The initial hitch, however (and admittedly it's only a very small one) concerns the fact that you'll need to use your own Adbrite account ID in order to make sure you get paid for the ads rather than weebly.

Of course, you'll need to sign up for an Adbrite account if you haven't done so already, but for some reason Adbrite doesn't seem to make any record of your personal id available in its admin areas. Nevertheless, it is automatically embedded inside any ad code you generate. So to grab your id, you'll have to set up at an initial chunk of code, even though you won't have to actually paste this into a weebly page.

Once you've created the code (which you might want to copy and paste somewhere for future reference) look for the following:

In this case, the id is 456789 (we've underlined the numbers in the image ourselves). Yours will be another 6-figure number.

 

    Using Adbrite Ads elements

Once you've successfully obtained your ID, the rest is simple.

Click the Elements tab then the More option.

Drag an Adbrite Ads element into position in your layout.

Click just inside it, and Element Options will appear.

Click inside the Account ID box and type in your own account number

If you want to, use the Orientation pull-down menu to change the appearance of your ad.

That's it! Just remember to change the ID every time you use a new Adbrite element.

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