Posted by kexbrown on March 17, 2009
There are many reasons to advertise your blog. To gain new readers, to sell a product, to introduce a new item or a new person. But, today I want to touch on branding and how it relates to blogging.
Branding is defined as,
“the use of a name, term, symbol or design or a combination of these to identify a product.”
This is the definition from the college text “Basic Marketing” by McCarthy and Perreault.
When I think of branding I think of having a symbol of your company remind consumers of your product. As an example, the Coke or CocaCola brand red can or red symbol with white letters brings a memory of a specific taste when I see their symbol.
You Want Customers to Remember Your Blog
Branding isn’t necessarily trying to get people to buy your product the moment you see the brand mark. But, you want potential customers to remember your product. When they do enter a store you want them to see your product and brand and to feel comfortable with your product to make it a choice.
But, it isn’t just about products. Politicians are constantly trying to create a brand. A brand which might change after the primary elections. They may attempt to win their primary election by catering to people leaning toward liberalism and socialism. Then after they win the primary they attempt to change their brand image to a more moderate stance to gain more moderate votes.
Make Your Blog A Brand
You can even make your blog a brand. When you create your little 125 pixel by 125 pixel ad and place it on the Adgitize Network you are in essence branding your blog. As people wander the internet they see your brand image and have positive or negative connotations associated with that image.
In the blogosphere it is important to create brand recognition. You want them to see your banner ad and to remember your blog when they see the image. This is why regular advertising is so important. They say a person needs to see an advertisement 13 times before they remember it and possibly act on what they see.
As readers are visiting other blogs if they see your brand image enough and they have a positive experience when they visit your blog then they will be reminded to visit your blog again. If given a choice among two brands one they are familiar with and the other which they have no recognition of, people usually choose the brand they know.
Branding and Excellent Content
That’s why politicians send you wave after wave of direct mail ads. They want you to remember their names when you step inside that voting booth. They are searching for brand familiarity with you. Why do some blogs get more traffic than others? Well, I would be lying if I said it was ONLY branding. You still need to have excellent content that entertains, informs and educates. But, there is something to be said for being a regular old shoe where people like to hang out.
One of the frequent advertisers on the Adgitize Ad Network is a blog known as Hillbilly Willy. Willy has done a terrific job of branding his blog. Willy starts with a cartoon character that reinforces our perception of someone that might be called a hillbilly. But, then they continue the branding in the blog itself. No attempt is made to sound sophisticated or even to write proper English. But, Willy informs us and definitely entertains. Willy has branded his blog and when you click on the ad you already know what to expect.
What is Your Perception of Continuity?
How about your blog? Is there a simple cartoon character or beautiful image that makes your blog easy to identify? Once the visitor reaches your blog is the perception of continuity extended to the articles you write? To you get your brand the visibility it needs to attract readers?
I highly recommend advertising in the Adgitize Ad Network to gain brand recognition, because of the methodology we use to display ads. Since we have random rotations of ads then your ad is constantly popping up and making your blog known throughout our publisher network.
How well is your blog brand known and recognized? Do other bloggers look at your ad and think, oh I know exactly what that blog is about and I am interested to see what she has written today? Brand recognition will go a long way to getting you the long term traffic you are interested in for your blog. Tell us your thoughts on branding a blog in the comments section.
Posted by kexbrown on November 23, 2008
Yes, that’s right. I am holding a contest to guess when we will reach 700,000 AD Views as measured by the counter in the upper right. Here is a chance for you to see the power and reach that an Ad on the Adgitize network of publishers can pull for you and your blog.
Can you imagine the interest and attention your blog will get if your blog ad is part of 700,000 ad views in a month? Don’t you think you will get more traffic being part of an advertising network with 700,000 ad views every 30 days? What are you willing to do to have your blog ad be a part of a network with 700,000 ad views?
Why choose Adgitize to grow your blog and get more traffic? Do you like the healthy mix of different bloggers in the Adgitize ad network that will encourage new readers to enjoy your words? Are you looking for writers and bloggers with similar interest and goals to interact with and maybe partner with some day?
It doesn’t matter if you started your blog to teach, complain, spout off, practice your writing or to sell someone something; the Adgitize network is a great place to start to grow your blog. It is like planting flowers in the spring time. You begin your blogging discourse and then you desire others to read your work or view your art or see photos of your children, pets or vacations. You want traffic and ads on Adgitize can bring you more traffic.
Now back to the contest. The contest is for current members or new members. The only goal is to guess when our little counter in the right hand corner say’s, “Total Ad Views Shown Last 30 Days 700,000.” It took us about 20 days to reach 350,000. Will it be faster or slower till we double that number? What do you think?
Here is how to enter.
- You must be a publisher in our network. (ie. you must be displaying an Adgitize Ad Group)
- Your guess must occur at least five days before we actually reach 700,000 ad views.
- You must place your guess in our forum and it must contain a date and a time on it for Chicago Time. I will be evaluating all guesses based on the World Clock. EXAMPLE I guess Adgitize will surpass 700,000 ad views on December 24th at 3:07PM. Minutes is the lowest time we will accept.
- The winning guess must be before the time it happens. (ie, if we pass 700,000 at 1pm and your guess is at 1:05pm then you will not win. )
- Each participant can guess 3 times as new information comes in each day.
Prizes
Pretty easy right? The winner is the blogger who get’s closest without going over. I will also take anyone who tries to guess and pick one random winner. We will give away two FREE ads on the Adgitize Network.
So click the FORUM link on this article and give me your best guess. Become part of a community of bloggers interested in forming a better blog environment for all. Good luck.
Posted by kexbrown on November 2, 2008
Are you a blogger looking to make a few extra bucks each month with your blog? Why do people blog?
Many people enter the realm of blogging because they enjoy writing. Others have a story to tell or they are passionate about a subject. Still others entered the blogosphere to earn a few bucks.
What is Your Story?
What is your story? Did you first get excited about blogging when someone told you about the successful blog of others? Are you a writer honing your discourse or an average Joe bent on putting food on the family table?
Today is the beginning of a new network advertising service called Adgitize. There are two parts to advertising. Part one is getting advertisers to spend money on advertising to grow their business. Part two, and this is where you come in, is having publishers to display those ads.
What is a publisher? In the old days of print media, a publisher was a huge corporation with massive printing presses. You can imagine the Chicago Tribune with thousands of employees. The Trib would have writers, editors, sales people, typesetters, printing press operators and even a whole network of people to actually deliver the printed news to your door step.
This is a new age in publishing. Instead of giant corporations, the new publisher works out of their home. They may be talented computer programmers with years of experience on the net or homemakers with a desire to join the information age. What are you? How did you get your start?
Become a New Age Media Mogul
The new age media mogul has a small office in the least used space in their home. Their office could just as easily be filled with toys and cats instead of standard office furnishings. Their publishing experience comes a day at a time. They try to balance a real job, home, family and friends with the new found freedom of opportunity, adventure and free speech enabled by the web and a computer.
Quite frankly, Adgitize needs publishers and future media moguls like yourself to become publishers on the Adgitize network. Is it easy you ask? Yes, very easy. The sign up process takes seconds. Then you effortlessly copy some code to your blog. Bingo, you are in business and able to earn money.
The Fun Part
Now what happens? Well this is the fun part. The ten minutes you spent to set everything up and get the code onto your blog is all the time you have to spend. You will begin to display ads from our paid advertisers. We share that money with you.
Now to make it fun for you we have added a few twists. We are going to pay you for each blog article you write. We will pay you when our ads are viewed on your blog. And there are more ways you can earn from our network.
You decide whether you want to earn a passive income by only displaying our ads or you can decide to do more and earn even more. Will you get rich being a publisher in our network? Nope. But, if you want an easy way to offset costs of your blog and maybe have a little extra to spend this will definitely help.
Why Should You Join Now?
Why should you join now? You probably know or have heard of people that have joined a program in the early days and it proved profitable to them. Well, my friend, this is the early days of Adgitize. The first 100 publishers will come from this article. They will earn more money because they will refer advertisers to our network. The early publishers will find that they will have an ongoing income from advertisers they refer.
I encourage you to become a publisher in our network. It is free. It is easy. It requires little to no effort on your part. Why not visit Adgitize today and make a few bucks?
Posted by kexbrown on October 8, 2008
Why Did I Start Adgitize?
Well, my first desire was to get more traffic to my web site, You Can Learn Series I was spending money and time on many different programs and was unhappy with all of them.
I was in a program that rewarded me for clicking on other sites. But, the amount of time I spent clicking on ads was unreasonable to me. Then the points I earned were never enough to advertise on the “Top Gun” sites.
Pay per click ads were killing me as I was spending $50 and getting only 1 day of clicks. I suspected click fraud, but didn’t have the time to verify. I thought I should be writing on my blog not clicking on other ads all day and I can’t afford $50 a day to drive fraudulent traffic to my web site.
I think a good blogger does three things, they write as often as they can, they visit other blogs, reading and commenting and they do what they can to drive new traffic and more traffic to their blog. I thought, why not reward bloggers for the things they do everyday.
So, I spent time analyzing ways to get more traffic to my blog. I analyzed the things I liked about AdToll, Performancing Ads, Project Wonderful and Entrecard. There were definitely things I thought were good about those programs, but there was always something missing. Entrecard had the drop 300 cards a day issue. I just didn’t have time for it. Project Wonderful showed promise, but I was always getting those pesky emails, “approve this ad.” I never felt comfortable just letting any body advertise on my web site. Many times I would go to approve an ad and it wasn’t even valid anymore. They had run out of money.
I tried AdToll a few times and I really like their model. But, I felt there was some click fraud going on. One time I advertised and paid $50 for over 1,000 clicks. But, the program was over in ONE DAY. Yeah, I got my clicks all right. But, it was pretty empty with no new subscribers, rssfeed readers or comments.
But, they all have good qualities that I liked. So, I set about building the model that now represents Adgitize. I still use all but Performancing Ads. I tried to use them, but I couldn’t get their units working on my ASP.Net web site. I don’t think it should cost $50 to advertise for one day. I think for most web sites and blogs you should be able to get a whole month for half that cost.
I hope you take the time to learn more about Adgitize. I have worked hard to make it fast and relevant to bloggers. If you see something you don’t like, then let me know in the forums or on the contact us page. I will strive to make this an advertising vehicle that drives relevant traffic to your blog. Traffic that reads your blog. Readers that subscribe to your rssfeed or signs up for your email subscriptions. Good luck.