If you spend a lot of time writing or producing content on the internet, chances are that you want to start seeing a little better return on your investment. While you might not be deeply invested in terms of dollars spent, you’ll more than likely have a lot sweat equity in the content you’ve produced. If you’re still at the beginning or intermediary stages of this process, you understand that just producing great content isn’t the same thing as making a living off of what you do.
In order to do that, you’ve got to take part in the eternal symbiotic relationship between advertisers and content creators, and you’ve got to adjust your production mindset to make it happen. Here’s how.
1. Produce Focused Content
If you want to have a blog or content stream that is attractive to great advertising partners, you want to make sure that your content is focused. Have a point of view. Stick to a specific niche. Be unique, yet relative to the conversation that is always going on in the topic you are focused on.
If you do this for long enough, you will be perceived as a thought leader in your niche. Even if you don’t have 100,000 readers and you aren’t a household name, quality and focus are characteristics that can make solid advertisers want to work with you.
2. Work With an Ad Network
It will be difficult or impossible for you to approach advertisers one by one. It’ll be still harder to organize your own advertising contracts with them in this a la carte fashion.
That’s why ad networks like Pubsio exist. They have relationships with numerous advertisers who are always on the hunt for compatible brands/content to pair their advertisements with. By putting your content in the hands of an ad network like this, you will have a team of people who are in the business of shopping around this sort of content to advertisers all around the world.
The best advertisers will accept only high quality content creators, but they’ll produce the best payoff in terms of dollars earned for their publishers.
3. Hire Other Good Content Creators
Once you’ve done the above, it’s all about maintaining product quality and extending the boundaries of what you are able to produce. If you are able to hire other content creators who can start on brand with the quality of work that you produce on your own, you will be able to maintain and grow your business without having to write every single word that appears.
Your role in this stage is one of curation: making sure that the work produced actually contributes to the main goal of your site, and of the advertisers who are paying you.
Takeaway
If you follow this path, you’ll be able to set a brand that advertisers really want to work with. The advertising that comes forward will likely be relevant to your readership and will actually contribute to your brand, not take away from it. It’s hard to strike the balance that makes this relationship possible, but many people do it. Make yourself one of those people.