Ahhh, the question we all want answers to.   How do you find companies willing to purchase ads on your site?  We all want to get so big that we need business insurance and group health insurance. LOL!  I only have a couple private ads on my site but not because I don’t know how to get them, simply because I haven’t spent enough time looking for them.  In this week’s Blogging Basics, I am going to give you a list of several places to find advertisers for you site.  Remember to have really specific prices and plans in place before contacting anyone.

1. Many companies want to know your reader reach (twitter followers, facebook fans, feed subscribers, monthly unique viewers, inbound links, etc).
2. You need to know why YOUR site would be a good fit for their advertising budget.
3. Most companies want options: side bar ads, header ads, text ads, sponsored posts, paid tweets etc.  Figure your pricing on those and have it all spelled out.
4. BE PERSONAL!  It is perfectly ok to come up with a static email to contact companies with, but be sure you are personalizing it to what you like about their company and why you think you two would be a great fit.  Then, you can copy and paste your stats and prices into the bottom.

Now that we have gone through a few rules, lets talk about places to find advertisers.  After all, we all want to make some money on our site.  I would love to tell my husband that I have an individual group health plan. Last week, we talked a bit about Google Adsense.  Obviously, it isn’t going to make any of us rich!  We need more ways to make a little income without affecting the integrity of our blogs.  I really like private ads (ads I find on my own and invoice straight from here… no middle man and I can build a better relationship!).  In fact, I just spent a little money to redo my sidebars to be more ad friendly.  See my cute “Support My Sponsors” section on my site?  The top banner and the 400 px ad where Juicebox Jungle currently resides are also available for purchase.

1. Press Releases – When a company pitches a product to you, turn right around and pitch back to them.  The whole, “I would love to work with you and here are our options” really works well for some people.
2. Reviews/Giveaways – I don’t do it anymore but that is because I have gotten lazy, but when I did it I had great response.  At the end of a giveaway or after a review I would approach the company I worked with about advertising to extend their reach, etc.
3. LinkedIn – This is such a great resource for finding PR/Marketing people of pretty much any company.  Just be careful about using the LinkedIn system for communication (unless they are already your friend) as you can get in trouble.
4. Twitter – Oh man, I tend to have tons of luck with contacting people on Twitter about events!
5. FaceBook – Look at the ads on the right hand side of your facebook page.  Those people are paying for ads and might be a great place to start.
6. Other Blogs – Yep, you heard me!  If they are paying for advertising on other blogs, then they are not opposed to that avenue of advertising.

Have fun finding some advertisers!  What would you like to see next week?

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