25,000 Members Strong - EST 2007 - Work With Mom Influencers

Advertising Rates for Mom Blogs: How Much Should I Charge?

For those of you who may be looking for exact rates to simply plug into your media kit, this post won’t help you only because there are so many factors to weigh first before coming up with precise ad rates such as your monthly page views, unique visitors, reader loyalty, your popularity in your niche, and ultimately how much you want to earn. I do give some hypothetical examples for blog rates later for reference. The first thing I will say about numbers, though, is your rates should always be two digits. Promise me you won't set your ad rates under $10 unless you are talking about CPM rates. Deal? Some mom bloggers set their rates too low thereby underselling themselves.

Selling Advertising

Unless you have a ton of traffic -- I'm talking well over 100,000 page views per month -- you should be selling your advertising packages in flat rates as opposed to CPM rates. I’ve found that although I like to sell advertising in units (CPM), most small businesses don’t know what the heck CPM is and it takes too long to explain it. And almost all large brands exclusively go through ad networks to advertise on mom blogs. So, as a general rule, be sure to sell your space based on flat weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly rates.

So, let’s talk numbers – in general

In order to sell advertising you need to know what your blog has to offer; what is your blog's best selling point? Do you have a steady flow of traffic? Do you have a stellar number of repeat visitors? Do you have over 100,000 page views per month? Is your blog a leader in its genre? Before you can come up with rates you need to be able to prove to advertisers why they should buy ad space from you.

Coming up with rates

As strange as this is there is no industry rate card for bloggers. It would be nice, but in all honesty ad rates are so blog-specific that what might work for one blog will be completely wrong for another.

That said, though, let’s take three hypothetical mom blogs and look at their numbers:

Mom Blogger A
• 500 unique visitors each month (16 visitors a day/1100 page views month)
• Up and coming blogger with growing readership

• Active in social networking circles
• Blogs at least five days a week
• Is clearly creating a niche blog about being a working mom who blogs

Selling points: She may have small numbers now, but she’s creating a niche blog that is picking up steam and getting linked to by other bloggers. Advertisers will probably be willing to pay small rates to establish brand awareness with her niche readers.

This blogger could potentially charge $10-15 per month for 125 x125 banners , $15-$20 a month for a leaderboard advertisement (728 x 90), $15-20 month for 160 x 600 banners, and $15-20 a month for 300 x 250 banners.

Mom Blogger B
• 3500 unique visitors each month (112 visitors a day, 10,000 page views per month)
• Has a loyal following of readers
• Has been blogging steadily for two years
• Blogs for two group blogs
• Has a personal mom blog and review blog
• Blogs for a major parenting site

Selling points: Her main selling points are she blogs for other blogs including one major parenting site and she is easily recognized in mom blogging circles. Although her numbers aren’t huge she is a steady blogger with a growing brand.

This blogger could potentially charge $20-35 per month for 125 x125 banners , $25-$50 a month for a leaderboard advertisement (728 x 90), $25-50 month for 160 x 600 banners, and $25-50 a month for 300 x 250 banners

Mom Blogger C
• 15,000 unique visitors each month (483 visitors a day, 45,000 page views per month)
• Has a popular mom blog
• Gets invited to mom blogger corporate events
• Has been blogging for five years
• Highly recognized mom blogger
• PR 5
• Technorati 150+

Selling points: Her primary selling points are she garners 45,000 page views per month and she is a popular mom blogger.

This blogger could easily charge up to $75-$100 for advertisements above the fold, that are not in rotation with other ads particularly leaderboard ads. Smaller ads can be $50 or more above or below the fold.

These are only examples of blogs and ad rates. I encourage you to put together a media kit and use trial and error to determine your individual advertising rates. If you have an up-and-coming blog chances are you have already been approached by advertisers. Determining your perfect ad rates will be difficult at first because you don’t want to scare advertisers away because your rates are too high and you don’t want to sell yourself short either. You are simply going to have to tweak your rates until they are right for your blog.

Before I go – a small word about ad networks. If you do not have a huge amount of traffic I would NOT join an ad network. You’ll earn only a small amount of money and in most cases the fine print in the contract will hinder you from making money by selling ads yourself. It may even prohibit you from writing product reviews and collecting an honorarium for your time. For more reasons why you shouldn't join an ad network, click here.

There is something very satisfying about selling advertising on your own and collecting the profits without going through a third party. Keep that in mind before you sign anything. Until you cannot handle your own advertising, leave the ad networks to those whose numbers warrant someone selling ads on their behalf.

Leave comments below. .

2 members like this

‹ Previous
1
2
Next ›

Comment

You need to be a member of Mom Bloggers Club to add comments!

Join Mom Bloggers Club

Comment by Elza Augastine on August 7, 2020 at 5:51am: Hi dear i am a blogger and i wish to increase traffic for my sites thanks for this article

Comment by Jody on February 8, 2016 at 8:53am: Great post

Comment by Luana Spinetti on November 2, 2012 at 9:42am: I'm still a Blogger A type but my audience is growing. :) Thank you for the tips on setting decent ad rates, Jennifer!

Comment by Tracy Iglesias on August 6, 2012 at 3:15am: Great post! It's super helpful that some kind of guidelines are put out there, so that BOTH Bloggers and Brands have an idea of what's fair!

Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly

http://www.ascendingbutterfly.com

Comment by Denise Russell on June 22, 2012 at 1:22pm: Excellent! Thank you for taking the time to write this article.

Comment by Marla Murasko on May 25, 2012 at 2:00pm: This was a really great article, it was very helpful as I have just had a company approach me about advertising. My question is what do you all put in a media kit? Is there a post about how to prepare and what do put in a media kit?

Comment by eGarrison on May 23, 2011 at 11:52pm: Thank goodness for this post! I had NO idea where to start. I just created my blog in January and already have a company I have worked with many times reviewing their products and now they want ad space. So excited, but totally overwhelmed! Your information helped so much.

www.MomsLifeMadeEasy.com

Comment by The Nerdy Nurse on April 16, 2011 at 8:11pm: great information!

Much needed information to people as myself who are looking for the numbers that so many are reluctant to post.

thanks so much!

Comment by Brittany at Mommy Words on April 7, 2010 at 11:20pm: This is a great article I am bewtween A and B and need to just figure out where I am going and yes, create a media kit!

Comment by Tamara Unexperienced on January 3, 2010 at 8:01pm: Great info! I fall into the B category almost to a "T." Creating my media kit right now, so this article really helped!

Tamara
www.theunexperiencedmom.com

Comment by Parent Club on October 9, 2009 at 9:45am: This is such valuable information! Thank you for sharing.

Comment by Jocelyn on August 7, 2009 at 1:57pm: I have been getting a lot of invitations from so many different blog ads networks to join them that sometimes it gets really confusing.

This article has been very helpful. Thanks for the great advice! :)

Comment by Momtrends on August 1, 2009 at 10:31pm: good stuff.

Comment by Mommies with Cents on June 10, 2009 at 3:27pm: I really appreciate this article. We have been selling ourselves really short and have questioned that recently and this reaffirms our thoughts. Thanks!

Comment by Laura Kelly-Pifer on June 10, 2009 at 6:29am: Thanks for the info!!

Comment by Mommy B on June 8, 2009 at 2:05pm: SO helpful. As always!

Comment by lvlc @ FromMomToMom on June 8, 2009 at 1:17pm: Excellent info! Although I am a newbiew I fall in the category A and increasing and I thought I was not fit to sell ads... nice to know. Now I value my site more! :)

Comment by Kim Kihega on May 24, 2009 at 4:56pm: Thank you sooo much! I've been needing this!

Comment by Michaela on May 22, 2009 at 12:55am: Thank you so much for this information. I fall into the "A" mom category and information like this is always appreciated!

Comment by Casey on May 12, 2009 at 4:26pm: Thank you so much for this information. As a 'Mom A' blogger, I needed the guidance and encouragement. THANKS a million!