One blog may charge you $500 while another one of the same niche may charge $5,000 for an identical volume of traffic. Why do advertising costs vary so much across blogs?
The reason one site is selling their traffic for $500 i.e. $.50 CPM is because they have minimal or no branding. The other site can charge $5,000 ($50 CPM because it’s well branded and has a respectable following of very loyal readers on their site.
For those unfamiliar with the term CPM advertising, it’s a method of purchasing advertising on the basis of views. “CPM” refers to the cost per thousand views and 1 impression is considered as 1 view.
We’ve compiled some information related to top sites from the internet marketing, blogging, and tech niches along with their relative charges. We’ve only considered sites that sell their inventory on a CPM basis. We have also tried to ensure that the location and size of ad placements are similar.
Search Engine Journal
When it’s related to the online marketing arena and search based news, SEJ is one of the biggest blogs. They also have a good standing and many in the industry know about them. If you want to place a 300X250 ad on the top right corner of their site, you’ll have to shell out a hefty $16 CPM
Web Design Tuts
This is a successful blog from the design and blogging market. It has more than 600,000 impressions per month at present and the prices vary according to the ad location. The same ad we spoke about in relation to SEJ would have a $12 CPM. Now if you post the same ad at the bottom of their posts, you would have to pay a rate of only $1.50 CPM. See how important the ad location is.
Life Hack
This isn’t really a marketing or tech site, but they are very well known and the traffic flow is massive – more than 12 million visitors each month. The site focus is improving productivity and life tips. Placing a300X250 ad in a prominent location on their site will cost $4 CPM.
The Next Web
This is a hot site for technology and internet marketing news. More than 6 million monthly impressions are served via the site. A 300×250 banner ad located on the top right side of their pages costs $5 CPM.
Other Awesome Blogs
While the advertising space charges of the above blogs might surprise you, you’ll be even more amazed to see some blogs actually selling out on the basis of their CPM ad space. Two of them are listed below.
Killer Startups
This used to be a blog with a focus on startups and new web sites. For a placement fee, they were open to profiling anyone. Sometime ago, the site was completely redesigned and now focuses more on blogging and news. The Killer Startup’s site has a single banner location for sale – a 300×250 banner at the bottom right side. They have more 520,000 monthly impressions and this location is being 100% sold out at $3 CPM.
Personal Branding Blog
As the name suggests, this site is all about blogging and is the creation of the well-known speaker and marketer Dan Schawbel. Out of all the sites mentioned, PBB has the lowest traffic volumes – 60,000 impressions each month. In spite of this, the blog is fully sold out in two CPM categories. A middle right side 300X250 banner location costs $7 CPM.
