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. We do give some hypothetical examples for blog rates later for reference. 

Selling Advertising

Unless you have a ton of traffic -- we're talking well over 100,000 page views per month -- you should be selling your advertising packages in flat rates as opposed to CPM rates. We’ve found that although we 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 $20-25 per month for 125 x125 banners , $25-$30 a month for a leaderboard advertisement (728 x 90), $25-30 month for 160 x 600 banners, and $25-30 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 $30-45 per month for 125 x125 banners , $45-$50 a month for a leaderboard advertisement (728 x 90), $35-50 month for 160 x 600 banners, and $35-50 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 $85-$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. We 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 we 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.

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