If you have a self-hosted WordPress website or blog you have lots of options for managing advertising on your site. It all depends on how much effort you want to put in and how much money you would like to earn.
1. Display Google Ads
This is the easiest option for website owners. You simply go to Google AdSense and sign up for an account. Once approved you can add a block of code into a widget or template file on your website and targeted ads will display alongside your content. Generally, you won’t make much money with Google Ads unless you have significant numbers of visitors to your site.
2. Display Affiliate Ads
This is a potentially more lucrative option than option 1 but it involves more effort. You must find suitable affiliate programmes, sign up and get banners and links with affiliate codes to add to your website. You’ll notice this tech blog has affiliate advertising for a number of WordPress and UX related affiliates displayed after posts. The ads are relevant to the content and the affiliate commissions are pretty decent if the clickthrough turns into a sale.
You may decide that you want to display a number of affiliate ads in rotation. If you do so make sure to download consistent banner sizes from the affiliate programmes e.g. 468×60. You can then use a free plugin like DataFeedr Random Rotating Ads to randomly display the ads on your site. DataFeedr is a terrific plugin for simple ad rotation and can be used in widgets or templates.
3. Sell Your Own Ads
Let’s say you want to take ad management to a whole new level and allow advertisers to directly purchase ad slots on your site. I worked with two tools on a client project and had very different experiences. Initially I tried Google Ad Manager which then became Google DFP (Doubleclick for Publishers). This tool offered lots of functionality, different pricing models for cost-per-impression, cost-per-click, cost per day etc. There was plenty of reporting. Lots of scope to have users to administer the system and for advertisers to purchase directly online. Sounds great right? Well it wasn’t. It was simply too big, too complex, too much. I just wanted a simple tool to sell directly sold ads and manage them easily.
Then I found OIO Publisher and I haven’t looked back since. It has just the right balance of complexity versus functionality. Advertisers can book and pay for ad slots online. Advertisers get emailed reports on page impressions, clicks etc. There is a very easy-to-use interface to manage ad uploads and ad slots. The only downside is that unlike Google DFP it is not free. It currently costs $47 but this is for an unlimited licence to use it on all sites you own. Personally, I think it’s a small price to pay for such an excellent ad management tool.
( Bonus – you can get $10 off OIO Publisher right now with this coupon code SPRING11-MULREANY so download it now )
This post was about general ad management for WordPress websites and recommendations for useful tools. My next post will be a more detailed look at targeting ads based on content categories, tags and even custom taxonomies.
