QOT has joined the Forbes Business and Finance Blog Network, and now you should see some high quality (large!) rich media advertisements on the site adding to an additional source of blog income. Many top bloggers have been invited to join the Forbes blog network over the past few months, but I got an invitation a few weeks back and accepted the contract.
In late March, Forbes.com officially announced the creation of a Business and Finance Blog Network, comprising of a community of pre-screened, influential business and financial blogs.
Forbes Business and Finance Blog Network
Here I describe some details which people have been asking me –
Why display such large ads? We are required to place at least 2 large ads – Leaderboard (728x90px), Wide Skyscrapper (160x600pc) or Medium Rectangle (300x250px), but I have placed the minimum 2 required, though adding one more will pay better. Those huge ads will surely showcase the advertiser products very well on member sites.
Which blogs joined the Forbes Blog Network? You can track all BFN blogs on the Business & Finance Network Buzz, where the feed content is aggregated. There are a lot of content rich blogs out there.
How do you manage these ads? – I login to Adify from where this network is managed. They have an amazing admin panel where you can create and manage ads spaces, review media buys and juggle multiple networks easily.
How does BFN pay? The advertisements are on a CPM basis (cost per 1000 impressions), which means the larger the number of ad impressions, the more money you earn. I am not allowed to reveal the CPM rate or the percentage of commission they cut.
But shouldn’t that lead to huge earnings? The CPM is limited by the ad fill rate as the budget of the advertiser is distributed over the hundreds of sites where these ads are shown. So all code impressions do not necessarily display paying ads, so the revenue is much lesser than expected of a 100% ad fill rate. Network ads are shown when no paying ad is there.
How to manage unsold inventory? If you do not wish to display network ads, you can monetize the unsold ad space by using alternative advertising programs. I am using Google Adsense, Chitika Premium, Widgetbucks on these spaces. You can try any other affiliate program you like. That ensures optimal utilization of your ad spaces.
How do I sign up? You can find a Forbes network membership logo on the front page of this blog, clicking on it will take you to a sign up form. Thereafter someone will review your application. I am sure they would like to add more quality blogs to their network.
Forbes.com is the top business news source in the world, and being associated with the best is great for blog branding. A lot of blogs are joining and you can also apply to join. This advertising program has ensured rich advertisers can target the most premium ad spaces on a huge network of popular blogs at very reasonable rates. I just hope they sustain a good ad inventory and maintain a high ad fill rate with high CPM prices to keep web publishers happy.
Mainstream media is opening up to blogs – recently BBC featured QOT and it was a great experience.