The Amatureist has a nice looking advertising page, with numerous options for advertisers to purchase links and banners on the site, as well as good stats reporting (which is vital for an affective advertising page).  One thing that The Amatureist advertising page does not have, though, as far as I could tell, are prices for the various advertising options, instead encouraging people to contact him for details.

Advertising pages without quoted prices are things I have seen before, but it’s usually on much larger, high-priced blogs like ProBlogger.  While I haven’t seen a smaller, new blog decline to quote prices, it’s worth chatting about whether it might actually be a good idea.  Generally, I like to quote all of my pricing on advertising pages, because I don’t want to get queries from people who can’t afford what I charge.  But maybe not lising your prices, if the prices are very low, might actually encourage more people to contact you.

Anyway, it’s certainly worth considering.  I’d be interested in seeing how the “no prices” approach works out for The Amatureist.  Whether it’s successful or not, he has a good blog and I’d encourage him to keep up with it.  If The Amatureist keeps putting out good, original, frequent content, they’ll be making some good advertising income from the blog soon enough.

The thing that makes Garry stand out from other pro bloggers is his strong voice and an obvious eagerness to share the “stuff that works” with his readers.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blogger who makes himself more available to interaction with his readers (even going so far as to occasionally list a phone number where fans can call in to leave questions).  Readers appreciate this kind of attention from bloggers, and it’s evident in Garry’s killer RSS subscription numbers.

And readers who feel that they are being paid attention to are more likely to buy advertising, as well.  Right now Garry Conn’s advertising page only offers 125×125 sidebar banners for 25 bucks a month, a very low price for a blog that has as much traffic and respect as his.  He has spots filled, but I have no doubt that he could probably sell even more spots and links on his blog if he wanted to do so.

I suspect that Garry doesn’t want to over-monetize his blog, instead using it as an outlet that is primarily dedicated to mentoring other bloggers . . . which is great.  But that shouldn’t stop you from looking to Garry’s example as an inspiration for you to make yourself more available to your readers and speak with a stronger voice on your blog.

By doing so, you’ll be much more likely to attract advertisers and subscribers!

Contest Blogger’s homepage is a forum that lets you search and share online contests, sweepstakes, free samples and coupons.  It has become very popular in recent months, and gets about 80,000 pageviews a month.  I make some nice income on the Contest Blogger Forum through Google Adsense, but I’ve decided to offer some banners and links for sale as well.

First of all, I am definitely making sure that all links I sell on Contest Blogger are rel=”nofollow” links as required by Google (and you should do the same too, dude).  I enjoy nice rankings for some good keywords in Google, and I don’t want to lose that privilege.  So everything needs to be above-the-board and legit.  Besides, anyone who advertises on Contest Blogger will get plenty of traffic and contest entries even with the “nofollow” links.

I used to do very well selling paid reviews on the Contest Blogger Blog for $100 a pop, and I’m going to re-institute that offer (with nofollow links, of course).  I’ll also be selling forum-wide 125×125 banners for $100 a month and forum-wide post links for $50 a month.  I’m going to test and see if these prices encourage people to buy, so the amount I charge may go down if I don’t get any bites.

Anyway, to kick off my new Contest Blogger advertising page, I’m going to be giving away three of the $100 125×125 banners to some lucky winners for a full month of free advertising for your blog.  All you have to do is just tell your readers about the contest, link back to the Contest Blogger Forum homepage, and let me know you want an entry.

I’ll draw three winners on March 17, and your banner ads will stay on the forum homepage for one month, or until I sell the ads to someone else.  This is an easy one to enter and would be some great free advertising for your blog, so I hope to hear from you!

In addition to that, we’re also glad to see that our RSS feed subscriber number is now over 50 and growing every day.  If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to the Advertising Blogger RSS feed to keep updated on the coolest advertising options in the Blogosphere.

And don’t forget that you could win $100 just for linking back to Advertising Blogger (or our other network sites) from your blog.  It’s quick, easy, and we’ve gotten a great response from the Blogosphere on the giveaway.

Stay tuned to Advertising Blogger for some great reviews of advertising options available from across the Blogosphere.  Hey, do you have a blog that you’d like to see featured on this site for free?  Then what the heck are you waiting for, dude?  Drop us a line and let us know all about your site!

While some kids his age are playing video games and sleeping in, Carl is working his butt off on his blog and ranking number one in a Google search for the term “make money online.” Carl Ocab Dot Com has been featured in his national newspaper, has been covered by some of the greatest bloggers on the Internet, and—perhaps most importantly—all of his current advertising on his blog is completely sold out.

Carl Ocab is a great blog to highlight here on Advertising Blogger, specifically because it’s a great example of what you can do online if you work hard and set your mind to it. If a 14-year-old kid can make a ton of advertising cash with a blog—even with school and chores getting in the way—then there’s really no reason why you can’t, too. And no, there isn’t a big secret to how Carl got where he is. He kept blogging, networking, and getting back links, and put together an awesome advertising page that tells potential advertisers how they can benefit from purchasing ads on his site.

If you get a chance, go check out Carl Ocab’s About Page to learn a little bit more about how he got into blogging and rose to become one of the most influential bloggers on the Internet. But keep this in mind: becoming a much-visited site is a great thing, but monetizing that traffic will take you from blogging as a hobby to being a professional blogger. If Carl Ocab can do that at age 14, you can do it, too!

We’ve run sporadic contests to give away cash to people who linked back to us in the past, but today we’re kicking off an awesome new policy: every month, from now on, we’re going to give $100 cash (payable via PayPal) to a random person who links back to Contest Blogger or Advertising Blogger on their blog.

You read that right: if you link back to Advertising Blogger, whether it’s in your sidebar, a post, or whatever, we will put your name in the hat to win 100 smackeroos, dude! And here’s the really cool thing: once you’ve linked back to us, we’ll leave your name on the list of entrants forever as long as you don’t delete the link. That means that with just one link, you’ll have the chance to win $100 every single month from now on.

You’ll get more permanent entries in the drawing if you also link back to Contest Blogger (and another one of our network sites, Romance Tracker). Also, if you have multiple blogs or sites, you’ll get more entries if you link to us on more than one site.

I hope that isn’t too confusing; basically, what it adds up to is that you have a chance to get tons of entries in a monthly giveaway that could put $100 cash in your pocket instantly.

Go check out this post to learn more about how to enter (dude, it’s totally easy) and how we will be announcing and contacting winners. Once you’ve linked back, you can contact us via the Advertising Blogger contact form, or by our contact form on Contest Blogger. Either way, we’ll enter you in the permanent giveaway and verify that we recorded your link.

Good luck!

And while you’re at it, take a look at the Habitation of Justice advertising page for an example of what a good advertising page should look like. Lincoln Adams takes his own advice, and the end result is one of the most impressive ad pages I’ve seen online. In addition to an interactive, user-friendly method of payment with a dropdown selection menu, the advertising page goes into great depth when it comes to the site’s statistics, visitors, topics, and etcetera. It definitely spells out to potential advertisers exactly why their money would be well-spent on Habitation of Justice.

Finally, take a careful look at how many different advertising options Habitation of Justice offers potential advertisers. Regardless of your budget or your tastes, there is bound to be some form of advertising that you can get excited about on this ad page. For those of you who grip about not having many options when it comes to selling ads on your blog or website, look to Habitation of Justice for a little inspiration.

Here’s a big Advertising Blogger kudos to Habitation of Justice for penning a great how-to on John Cow, and for putting together a dynamite advertising page. It’s obvious that Lincoln Adams put a heck of a lot of time and effort into it, and I’m sure his hard work will pay off in spades.

I’ve watched the webmaster of Blog About Your Blog, Matthew Henrickson, display that exact type of dedication, talent and patience as he’s steadily grown his site and found enviable success in recent months. His RSS feed reader numbers hover around 600 or so, and Blog About Your Blog has an awesome Alexa rating that is dipping below 50,000 right now. That ads up to Blog About Your Blog having some great exposure in the Blogosphere, and that exposure is only going to get better.

In spite of their strong, steady growth and great reader numbers, advertising rates on Blog About Your Blog are pretty reasonable. You can get a text link or rotating banner ad for only ten bucks a month, a sidebar 125×125 ad for twenty a month, and a 200+ word review for $40 (that’s a heck of a deal for an RSS audience of 600, believe me).

I’d especially take a close look at the paid review option . . . it can be a great way to get the word out about a new site or project, and prices that reasonable for such a large audience are few and far between (heck, I used to sell reviews on Contest Blogger for $100, and my readership there was only around 400 at that time).

So go check out Blog About Your Blog if you get a chance, and tell them Advertising Blogger sent you!

Like I said, Blogging Mix has some pretty solid stats.  In addition to being on the brink of breaking into the Technorati Top 10,000 Blogs, it gets around 15,000 monthly unique visits and has an enviable 230 RSS feed subscribers.  And because there are so many “blogs about blogging” out there, by setting their prices at a competitive level, I think Blogging Mix is going to end up doing pretty well at monetization.

A 125×125 square banner ad on Blogging Mix will run you $20 a month at the top of the sidebar, or $10 at the bottom of the front page (this is the first time I’ve seen the latter as an option, but I like it).  And a sponsored review of at least 300 words is just 50 smackers.

I say “just” because 50 bucks is really a good deal for exposure to an RSS reader base of 230 (in addition to daily traffic).  I’ve learned from my own experiences in publicizing a blog that these paid reviews can end up getting you a lot more new readers than other similarly-priced options.

Anyway, go check out Blogging Mix, subscribe to their feed if you get a chance, and don’t forget to take a look at their ad rates.  I think you’ll like what you see!

First of all, a quick glance at her site tells me that Mommy Bytes is in a very healthy position to rake in some more money by selling advertising.  She has a professional, active, fun blog and (presumably) some good daily visitors.  I also get the feeling that Mommy Bytes has developed a good network of “friend” blogs, judging by her blogroll and active linking on her sidebars.  And here’s another tip that Mommy Bytes has higher-than-normal user interaction: her post comments.  There is consistent commenting there, which tells me that Mommy Bytes has something of a loyal audience.

Depending on what prices Mommy Bytes settles on, I think it could be a great opportunity for bloggers in a similar niche to purchase some affective, affordable advertising.  My first suggestion to Mommy Bytes would be to put together a good advertising page (if it is there, I couldn’t find it) detailing their daily traffic, Technorati rating, RSS readers, and prices for ads and reviews.  By setting text link and banner ad prices a bit low in early weeks, I think Mommy Bytes could very easily attract a group of loyal advertisers who would be willing to pay a bit more in coming months as her visitors and readers increase.

Like I said, Mommy Bytes is well situated to pull in some nice money from ads if they take a gradual approach and broadcast their ad options.  In fact, it might be smart for one of our readers to contact Mommy Bytes directly to see if you can broker a deal before they put any rates in writing!