Space, The Bloggers Frontier!

Advertising for the Blog WorldSpace

Bloggers have space. 

Bloggers have content.  Bloggers want money.

A Blog is a product to sell, as well as, a medium to sell for others.   To be a success as a blogger you have to balance the space available to you between published content and advertising dollars.  The content needs to be able to draw in traffic in order for the monetized space to draw in the revenue.  So, once again, we are saying that content is king.  Start with good content, then add in the advertising.  Once the decision to monetize has been made, you need to look at your blog theme and see if it allows your content and advertising work in harmony together.

Advertising needs to compliment the content, not distract away from it.  At the same time, content needs to be placed such that if the readers eye wanders, he will end up on a suitable ad.  Glaring, obtrusive advertising may grab the readers attention, for a second, but is more likely to increase your bounce rate as the reader moves on to more suitable content.

Gentle positioning can persuade or suggest to the readers eye to move from the content to advertising.  Photographs of people should be placed so that they are “looking” in towards the center of the blog and not “looking” off the page and potentially, off the computer screen and on to some other distraction.

Positioning of the non-content or negative space is important as well.  The proper use of “white space” can enhance the readers experience.  White space can be used to seperate content and advertising from each other or it can suggest that the content is related to the advertisement.  The space between the paragraphs in this post allows the reader to digest the content in smaller bits and helps the reader not loose his place within a large block of text.  A large white space in the center of a page is likely to capture a viewers attention, but this distraction does not attempt to control the readers experience.

Color and emotion are linked together.  Most of you know that different colors and different shades of color will emit an emotional response in a reader.  There are many different opinions on what different colors and color schemes are associated with different emotional responses.  Commons associations include red being associated with passion and excitement,  with power and elegance, blue  with trust and confidence, and green with growth and harmony.  These association are subjective in nature and take on new meanings when combined into a color scheme.

All of these design features can enhance your readers experience (and therefore your profits!) if used thoughtfully and efficiently.  If you have very little money to spend on Blog Design like me, you end up trying to use a pre-built theme and bending it you your needs.  If you have a little more money, you should invest in having a professional design your blog for you.  The return on investment (ROI) is well worth the money an you will reap your reward in terms of increased traffic and increased revenue!