Do you really care what others are doing?
This is a guest post my Laurence over at Finding the Universe. Laurence was my partner on the ad survey and deserves ALL of the credit for crunching the number and making the pretty graphs. As with my initial post and analysis please note that this we know this survey is loose and not fully representable of the blogging community. But it does offer some interesting data, and most of it is very close to what I see bloggers charging and making out there. We both hope this helps you in some way figure out your own pricing schedule and monetization strategies. Take it away Laurence”
How much should you charge for advertising on your blog
The question of what to charge for advertising on a blog is one that nearly every blogger will find themselves asking at some point. The answer is unfortunately not a straightforward one, and varies based on a multitude of factors.
In an effort to understand the existing situation, and perhaps clarify the muddy waters somewhat (or just pour more mud in, who knows?) Todd and I put together a poll that we sent to existing travel bloggers to ask them what they currently charge for various advertising options on their sites. [Todd here: if you like this poll, and want more comprehensive ones we are happy to oblige, just leave a comment below in support]
Based on the responses, I have put together a number of charts detailing, amongst other things:
- An idea of revenue a blog may be able to earn
- Which types of advertising are most popular amongst travel bloggers surveyed
- How much travel bloggers charge for different categories of advertizing
Whilst the numbers of bloggers who responded wasn’t particularly high (44), there is still enough data to provide some useful information. Forty four being, after all, more than none, which was the previous benchmark.
Most of the results will be presented in the form of charts (who doesn’t like a good chart!), with some additional thoughts from both myself and Todd [I like to talk in italics]. Naturally we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below also.
Revenue from a travel blog.
Part of the travel blog challenge is to achieve a turnover of $1000 per month. Clearly, this is a challenging target to achieve from a travel blog, as of those polled, less than 15% are currently meeting this target.
Note that 40% of those polled did not disclose their earnings. This is probably due to the fact that I (Todd) added the question halfway through after realizing we needed a data point to compare answers to.
Of those polled who did disclose their earnings, 46% are earning between $0 and $200 per month, and 54% are earning $200+ a month.
Page rank would appear to correlate closely with earning potential, as only those blogs with a page rank of four and higher broke the $500 a month barrier.
- Monthly Earnings in USD
Types of advertising – popularity:
For the poll we identified thirteen types of adverts that a travel blogger might run on their blog and price according to Page Rank. The three most popular types of advertising offered, in order of popularity are:
- A text link on the home page, paid monthly
- A one off sponsored post
- A text link in a post with a one off payment
Beyond that, other types of advert are as seen in the chart below.
- Types of Advertisments
Prices for advertising:
And now, for the bit of the article you are probably most interested in. The first graph shows the average prices charged for each type of advertising offered, in USD, for sites with a page rank between 3 and 5 (0-2 PRs were excluded due to lack of data):
- Average Prices for PR 3-5
Now to see how that average price differs if we break it down by page rank:
- Average Advertising Prices by PR
With the exception of the odd anomaly, probably caused by low data points, the trend appears to be that the higher the page rank, the higher the average price that is charged for a product.
The average price however does not show the whole picture. The series of graphs below show the minimum and maximum prices for each advertising option, grouped by Page Rank.
Clearly there are some serious variance in price across all the bloggers polled! (Note that there were very few respondents in the PR 0-2 region, so these were grouped together.)
- PR 0-2 Advertising Prices
- PR 3 Advertising Prices
- PR 4 Advertising Prices
- PR 5 Advertising Prices
The reality is, as can be seen, prices for advertising vary enormously, even within the same page rank. There is no one size fits all price. For example, a sponsored post on a PR4 site can go for as little as 30USD, and as high as 1000USD. [Todd here, if you are a PR 4 and charging $30 you are nuts!]
So what can we conclude? Well, despite the massive variance in prices, few bloggers are earning big bucks with their travel blogs. Presumably, a balance is being achieved, where those with higher prices sell fewer of a product, and those with lower prices, sell more. I know, not exactly mind blowing stuff, but useful to see.
Thoughts for next time
Page rank, whilst one metric, is clearly not the only differentiator. In retrospect, it was perhaps not the best way to categorize the answers, even if there is a relationship between page rank and earnings.
Page Rank and success are likely to go hand in hand, so it is not an entirely useless metric – and certain advertisers will use it as a negotiating tool.
As your blog grows however, other metrics are likely to become far more relevant to your prices. Look out for another version of this poll, revised based on what we have learned, in the not too distant future.
Quick Word from Todd
I don’t have much to add that I didn’t say in my last article based on this data Advertising Survey Results, but I would like to say thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who is going to comment below! I agree with Laurence that PR is not the only metric but I do think it is most commonly used metric in justifying text links. The next version of this survey will be more detailed and will take into account visits, page views, and above and below the fold areas.
But I’d like to reiterate an earlier point I made. While I think that advertising can bring in a steady income for travel bloggers, and can be an assets towards making at least $1,000/month, I think it has its limits. This is not going to make anyone rich and it won’t be around forever. So plan your future strategies well.
Ok, have at us. What do you think? Where do you stand amongst the rest of the pack?
Oh, and don’t forget to connect with Laurence on Twitter or Facebook.
About Todd Wassel
Thanks for all the info, Todd and Laurence! I was at one PR when I participated in the survey, but am at another now. As someone who is new to this whole advertising thing, I’m glad to see I’m in the ballpark. It can be difficult to hold out for higher pay sometimes, but then you have fewer junk links are able to maintain (and improve) your PR, so I guess it’s worth it.
Of course the technology will evolve and change, but I hope there will always be a model for those of us who like to travel and tell stories that will support us financially.
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Interesting stats….thank you for sharing.
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THanks soooo much for doing this survey and presenting the results in a bunch of useful charts!
To be honest, it was easier for me to use the stats in previous article’s format. ie.
PR 3. text link prices $25 – $30 – $50.. etc than with the charts. I think that’s because I couldn’t tell from the charts what exact prices were.
I think we should keep in mind (I’m assuming here) that there are many travel blogs out there making money that are NOT in this survey because they’re not in TBC. I can name several blogs I know making >$1000/month that arent’ part of this survey(please correct me if I”m wrong) As Todd and Oliver pointed out, this survey is the results of about 60% of 44 participating blogs.
Also, it seems to be that blogging is on the verge of taking off, being more accepted by PR and travel media/world.. so, who knows what will happen, but it seems like more opportunities will be opening up… from what I’ve been reading around the web.
Any other thoughts on this?
IN any event, I”ll look forward to the next survey! And hopefully get to participate too.
thanks very very big. Lash
Hmm maybe I’ve been around too long – but I first ever blog was slapped for selling text links – lost all its PR and never recovered (neither did my income). If I had a flagship site with PR I would be very, very careful about selling links – it can be a useful income boost – but its not a long-term business strategy
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Hi Lisse, thanks for the comment and insight. I very much agree with you and in my analysis in the last post I wrote a bit about how I don’t think this is a long term strategy. That being said, I am surprised at how many travel blogs are able to make a decent income stream (over 1,000 a month) off of text links and without getting slapped. It seems to be the sites that over do it and are too overt that get hit….knock on wood for everyone here.
It might just be that G hasn’t targeted the travel niche at the moment – which is OK the money is still in the bank, and PR loss doesn’t affect rankings. I wonder though if some bloggers do realize that they are selling links not advertising – if they are unsure – ask the advertiser if they are OK with a “no-follow” link – you will find 9 out of 10 times that they will NOT be happy.
this is very interesting information! I’m not in any PRs categories but some day…hopefully.
does anyone in the travel blogging world join ad networks? i know there are a lot for food bloggers but haven’t heard anything with travel blogging?
Thanks Todd, while this is an excellent guide for most bloggers, it would be slightly different for me over in this side of the world. I am also happy to inform you that Malaysia Asia is also a $1000 above/month since 2010. Sorry I didn’t take the travel blog challenge.
David @ MalaysiaAsia recently posted..Borneo Bird Festival 2011 Sabah
Good stuff Todd. It’s great to see travel blogs earning some income for many people here.
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Great info. Thanks for sharing!
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Interesting stats. This is an excellent guide for most bloggers. I hope there will always be a model for those of us who like to travel and tell stories that will support us financially.
great stats todd… i think most new bloggers including me are a bit lost when it comes to pricing and this is definitely helpful. i remember accepting guest post before and realized that i should charge for it because the links turned out to be from travel companies… im sure a lot of people will find this information VERY useful.
Nice piece of research. However, it would be great if you could move on from using Toolbar PageRank as your sole metric for evaluating blogs. I realise a lot of marketers use it, either because they don’t understand that it doesn’t relate to actual PageRank / site authority, or because it’s simple shorthand.
A better set of metrics would include unique monthly visitors (where available), Klout score, Twitter followers, MozRank and Moz Domain Authority (which, unlikely Google Toolbar PR, are updated regularly).
It sounds like bloggers are happily buying into the idea that Toolbar PR is the only thing that matters, when in fact they should be trying to extend their reach, engagement and influence within their niches. That, ultimately, is what advertisers are looking to tap into.
You could help in moving the focus in the right direction.
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Great piece of analysis Todd. Our Travel blog is a PR2 at the moment and perhaps one of the few in Kenya attempting to run a travel blog. I would not say we are consistent yet in our income streams which normally come from banner advertising and one-off sponsorships which include running a photo for a major tourist hotel chain with a story we are doing and that kind of thing. The on-line advertising market here in Kenya is still very young and even younger for the niche market we write for but the prospects look very promising and we are looking forward to earning $1,000 a month one day.
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awesome info todd, love what uv done with this site =) I think it’s possible to run maybe 5 sites, all earning $1k+, any more than that and you’d need fulltime writers i think :S
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I have a PR3 site and the advertisers approach me daily (mainly from the UK) and are happy to pay between $120-200 for contextual links in posts. I went from making $500 total in 2011 to almost $4k by May 2012. I have no idea how it happened or what the tipping point was to get here.
I am trying to figure out how to work the monthly reoccurring and invest in more travel blogs to share the wealth. It’s a full time job, a fun one at that.