Posted on April 21, 2005 by Harold Johnson

One sure way to make money blogging or podcasting is by having visitors to your site click your ads. The question is, how do you get them to do that? You can’t just set up a blog and expect visitors to click your ads out of the goodness of their hearts. You’ve got to give them something valuable in return, such as information they may already be seeking–good content, for example.

Let’s pretend you’ve set up a blog dedicated to providing information about audioblogging. Your visitors may discover your site using their favorite search system or by following a link posted on another website or blog, and it’s likely they’ll be expecting some good information about audioblogging. They may even be seeking product information; perhaps they’re interested in setting up an audioblog of their own.

The best thing you can do is provide your visitors with the content they’re seeking. In the case of the example above, it would be well for you to write compact, information-filled articles about audioblogging. Don’t stray into topics only marginally related; most of your visitors will be willing to stick around and read, bookmark, or subscribe to your RSS feed only if you stick to the topic for which they are seeking information on.

Your ads should, of course, also be relevant. This may seem an obvious point, but I’ve encountered too many blogs with ads that seem to have nothing to do with the topic being discussed; why on Earth would I want to click an ad pitching DVDs when I’m looking for information on healthcare? If you use AdSense, of course, your ads will be highly relevant to your content–so make sure to develop that content if you want your visitors to click those ads!