Ad Ideas for Parenting Blog?

by reln
21 replies
I have a parenting blog that I have been running off and on for the last 9 year (est. 2006). It only makes about a $300 a year with Google Adsense and not much else. I am sure if I would've put my full time to it then I could have turned it into something big. But unfortunately I really struggle at writing posts. It could take me days if not weeks just to write one post.

The site gets about 10,000 views a week depending on the season and I have tried some clickbank ads on the side but all they have been getting are clicks. It could simply be that the type of ads dont convert very well. For example, I have tried banners for weightloss products and some parenting related products i.e. potty training, get your child to read etc. They simply dont convert.

I was thinking maybe to put up some banners for make money online / from home products.

Thoughts, ideas?
#ads #blog #clickbank #ideas #parenting
  • Profile picture of the author camohit
    Hi Reln, its a nice idea to put up some banners for make money online as the parents are the people who can not do full time JOB so they may get attracted. However, I am concerned if due to this you dont lose your focus. Its originally a parenting blog and its a nice thing to help parents guide with your posts. Do not worry if you can not write 10 -15 posts a week. Its not required even. Take your time while writing. The content should be of quality. Even if you write 3-4 posts a week, thats fine as in due time you will be having a lot of posts and guides. But you have to be consistent with it.
    My suggestion is to stick with writing good quality posts which provide values to the readers. If you struggle to write take help of google, you will get many many ideas there. You can also refer few quotes from the popular books on parenting to go with your articles...just an idea..
    However, you can still make use of your sidebars or something to put work from home banners..Wish u luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by camohit View Post

      Hi Reln, its a nice idea to put up some banners for make money online as the parents are the people who can not do full time JOB so they may get attracted. However, I am concerned if due to this you dont lose your focus. Its originally a parenting blog and its a nice thing to help parents guide with your posts. Do not worry if you can not write 10 -15 posts a week. Its not required even. Take your time while writing. The content should be of quality. Even if you write 3-4 posts a week, thats fine as in due time you will be having a lot of posts and guides. But you have to be consistent with it.
      My suggestion is to stick with writing good quality posts which provide values to the readers. If you struggle to write take help of google, you will get many many ideas there. You can also refer few quotes from the popular books on parenting to go with your articles...just an idea..
      However, you can still make use of your sidebars or something to put work from home banners..Wish u luck!
      Thanks camohit for your reply. I have so many articles that I want to write but I struggle with them so they sit there unwritten.

      As for the sidebar, thats where I plan to put the ads. For the articles, I will stick with parenting related topics. If I find a good make money product then maybe i would write a review on it and see how it goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    If you're struggling to write articles, maybe outsource this task to someone who is better at it. This way, you can focus on promoting it as best as you can!
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by Slade556 View Post

      If you're struggling to write articles, maybe outsource this task to someone who is better at it. This way, you can focus on promoting it as best as you can!
      Thanks Slade.

      My problem with this option and it may sound stupid is that I dont really trust anyone with writing content for the blog and also I have no clue how and where to get someone to write really good content for a decent price.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Harris
        Originally Posted by reln View Post

        Thanks Slade.

        My problem with this option and it may sound stupid is that I dont really trust anyone with writing content for the blog and also I have no clue how and where to get someone to write really good content for a decent price.

        You have already built a great foundation by getting your site to the point where it is generating 10K views per week.

        But I think you are over analyzing things, and that is causing nothing to happen.

        You could start with a couple of gigs from fiverr, for $10.

        You may have to edit them once you get them back but it is a lot easier to just edit/rewrite content that is pre-written than it is to start from scratch.

        You want to "feed" you existing audience with some fresh content otherwise they will stop coming back.

        So the fastest, cheapest and easiest way do this is with fiver gigs, after you have bought a few you will have yourself a list of good gigs that you can come back and get more content from down the track.

        For making money from your site you could, set up an optin form on your page and offer a free report in exchange for their email and build a list.

        But this probably won't be suitable as it involves writing emails to market other products to your subscribers.

        So I would look into sites like buysellads.com, where you can sell advertising space on your site at a much higher price than what you are getting with your adsense.

        Or you could contact other big sites in your niche and offer them advertising space on your site directly.
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        • Profile picture of the author Steve B
          Reln,

          I think you know what's wrong here . . . you're not treating this as a business. Your blog is a sideline, a "hobby", if you will.

          You can either bite the bullet and fix what you're doing . . . or you can continue to hide behind excuses and have a $300/year hobby.

          If you want the hobby, keep doing what you've been doing.

          If you want to turn this into a profitable income stream, do this:

          1. Dump the Adsense. It's not a very profitable model unless your site gets mega traffic. You make pennies when people on your blog click away. That's not what you want to make decent money.

          2. Increase your posts per day. Spending days and weeks on one post is a killer. You can't do that. I get it that you don't feel you're good at writing. But you need valuable content in the niche and there are writers out there than can help you. Ask questions here at the forum - members will help you to find quality writers.

          3. Get your own products to sell on site related to the niche - information products most likely. There are good products that you can license, PLR products that can be reworked into valuable information pieces, and other alternative. You need to make more per sale than a few cents as your doing with Adsense.

          4. Consider a membership site or other recurring income option (newsletter, community site, magazine, or lots of other options). You need to have a business model that make sense for your audience. They will tell you what they want if you ask in the right way.

          Yes, turning your hobby into a profitable business will take some work, but you've got a decent start and a good market. Doesn't all successful business require some effort?

          The choice is yours - keep your hobby going or turn it into something that will pay you a substantial income.

          Steve
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          • Profile picture of the author reln
            Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

            Reln,

            I think you know what's wrong here . . . you're not treating this as a business. Your blog is a sideline, a "hobby", if you will.

            You can either bite the bullet and fix what you're doing . . . or you can continue to hide behind excuses and have a $300/year hobby.

            If you want the hobby, keep doing what you've been doing.

            If you want to turn this into a profitable income stream, do this:

            1. Dump the Adsense. It's not a very profitable model unless your site gets mega traffic. You make pennies when people on your blog click away. That's not what you want to make decent money.

            2. Increase your posts per day. Spending days and weeks on one post is a killer. You can't do that. I get it that you don't feel you're good at writing. But you need valuable content in the niche and there are writers out there than can help you. Ask questions here at the forum - members will help you to find quality writers.

            3. Get your own products to sell on site related to the niche - information products most likely. There are good products that you can license, PLR products that can be reworked into valuable information pieces, and other alternative. You need to make more per sale than a few cents as your doing with Adsense.

            4. Consider a membership site or other recurring income option (newsletter, community site, magazine, or lots of other options). You need to have a business model that make sense for your audience. They will tell you what they want if you ask in the right way.

            Yes, turning your hobby into a profitable business will take some work, but you've got a decent start and a good market. Doesn't all successful business require some effort?

            The choice is yours - keep your hobby going or turn it into something that will pay you a substantial income.

            Steve
            Steve, you are so right! Except for the first year of blogging, I never treated this a business. There are people who started blogging after me and their blogs are extremely popular and they are well known in their niche. Also people like John Chow only started blogging a year before I did and they kept at it while I tossed it cause I wasnt getting instant results.

            Its actually interesting cause this parenting blog is the second blog I started. I started a Money Making blog first and abandoned it instead of working it. But finally I came back to it this year and I have plans to build it into a business.

            But in response to your suggestions, I didnt understand suggestions #3. What do you mean by getting my own products to sell and good products that I could license? Also where could I get good quality and relevant PLR content?

            As for #4, do you mean that I should try and turn my site into a membership site?

            Thanks for your help.
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  • Profile picture of the author camohit
    My pleasure Reln. My only point is it takes time to develop a brand. Your blog is on since 2006 so thats great you have already invested this much time. You can write any kind of article but I suggest the articles which are off the main topic (parenting blog) keep it limited as the other topics should be secondary...else if you change your line from parenting to make money online, it will again take quite sometime to gain trust and build a brand. However, whatever your articles be, it must provide quality in order to attract visitors and ultimately money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Romeo90
    Originally Posted by reln View Post

    I have a parenting blog that I have been running off and on for the last 9 year (est. 2006). It only makes about a $300 a year with Google Adsense and not much else. I am sure if I would've put my full time to it then I could have turned it into something big. But unfortunately I really struggle at writing posts. It could take me days if not weeks just to write one post.

    The site gets about 10,000 views a week depending on the season and I have tried some clickbank ads on the side but all they have been getting are clicks. It could simply be that the type of ads dont convert very well. For example, I have tried banners for weightloss products and some parenting related products i.e. potty training, get your child to read etc. They simply dont convert.

    I was thinking maybe to put up some banners for make money online / from home products.

    Thoughts, ideas?
    Hi Reln

    Great job, but with that amount of traffic, you could seriously monetize. To put it into perspective, i earn more from my blog in about 2 weeks than you make in an entire year - and my blog has a quarter the traffic as yours does.

    First thing is your mentality/or skills. Why does it take you so long to write posts? Is it your writing skills? Your typing skills? Have you ever heard of dictation for instance, where you talk into your computer microphone? This could be a better (and quicker) way of getting a post published.

    What about other monetization forms?

    Something like the Amazon Associates program could work well for you. Instead of banners, the links would be integrated into text. For example, you are talking about high chairs, and you talk about what you love about the high chair you have, with a link to Amazon.

    Banner ads don't convert nearly as well as they used to in my experience. Some people even have ad blockers installed on their internet browser, and others have just become blind to them.
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by Romeo90 View Post


      First thing is your mentality/or skills. Why does it take you so long to write posts? Is it your writing skills? Your typing skills? Have you ever heard of dictation for instance, where you talk into your computer microphone? This could be a better (and quicker) way of getting a post published.
      It takes me awhile to write posts because I suffer from ADD. I was diagnosed several years ago and it explains my poor performance in school, tests, papers etc... Its kinda funny because writing is the last thing a person with ADD should be doing. I struggle a lot with it.

      Originally Posted by Romeo90 View Post

      What about other monetization forms?

      Something like the Amazon Associates program could work well for you. Instead of banners, the links would be integrated into text. For example, you are talking about high chairs, and you talk about what you love about the high chair you have, with a link to Amazon.

      Banner ads don't convert nearly as well as they used to in my experience. Some people even have ad blockers installed on their internet browser, and others have just become blind to them.
      I do have Amazon links in some of my posts and they never got so much as a dime. Really dont know why.
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  • Profile picture of the author bsurb
    Originally Posted by reln View Post

    I have a parenting blog that I have been running off and on for the last 9 year (est. 2006). It only makes about a $300 a year with Google Adsense and not much else. I am sure if I would've put my full time to it then I could have turned it into something big. But unfortunately I really struggle at writing posts. It could take me days if not weeks just to write one post.

    The site gets about 10,000 views a week depending on the season and I have tried some clickbank ads on the side but all they have been getting are clicks. It could simply be that the type of ads dont convert very well. For example, I have tried banners for weightloss products and some parenting related products i.e. potty training, get your child to read etc. They simply dont convert.

    I was thinking maybe to put up some banners for make money online / from home products.

    Thoughts, ideas?
    Have you created any social network pages for the blog yet? Facebook/Instagram would be excellent tools for driving serious traffic to the blog.
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by bsurb View Post

      Have you created any social network pages for the blog yet? Facebook/Instagram would be excellent tools for driving serious traffic to the blog.
      No but I really should have years ago. I am planning on creating a Facebook page for the blog this week or next. Not sure how Instagram would work to drive traffic as I never used it before.
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  • Profile picture of the author kk075
    I used to be pretty close friends with one of the biggest "Mommy Bloggers" around, so know that I'm not guessing here when I tell you the path ahead. These are facts from watching a mom generate over $100k a year from staying home with the kids-

    1) You can't run a blog if you don't like to write. It's impossible since your site should have AT LEAST 2-3 posts per day. One post could be personal about your kids/family, one should be more like a news article on things effecting families and the 3rd should be promotional...talking about a product or service that your readers can use.

    2) Forget Adsense and "Make Money Online" stuff...that's ridiculous. If it's a parenting blog, post about stuff parents need to be better parents or things they should buy for their kids. People come to you for parenting advice so sell them parenting stuff....it's that simple. Nothing else belongs on your blog.

    3) With that said, reach out to Johnson/Johnson and all the other big "kids product" companies; they bombard mom bloggers with freebies so you'll talk about them on your site. My friend used to get over $1,000 worth of merchandise a day in her mailbox and she either gave it away to readers or sold it on eBay. Plus her kids constantly had new stuff too- clothes, toys, etc.

    4) Start doing featured blog posts for the companies you reach in part #3. Many will pay $75-200 PER POST because you're talking to their ideal customer, so take advantage of this free money that adds up quickly.

    5) Also, ask for your big sponsors to feature you in one of their blog articles on their PR giant site....this will open doors for speaking engagements, conference invites (that include airfare/hotel), vacation and theme park reviews....the offers will come from everywhere.

    6) Ask for guest posting....there are thousands of companies out there with the big corporate clients in your niche and they'll bombard your site with free content in exchange for being able to mention their clients. This is super high quality stuff and you decide the standards, the topics and what gets posted...but you have to already be active on your site for this to work.

    7) The last point is also the first point- you can't be a blogger if you're not blogging every day. If you're getting 10k visitors a week from moms then your site is worth serious money....just sell it if you don't want to be bothered anymore. But you're missing out on an incredible opportunity by not writing daily.

    I hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by kk075 View Post


      1) You can't run a blog if you don't like to write. It's impossible since your site should have AT LEAST 2-3 posts per day. One post could be personal about your kids/family, one should be more like a news article on things effecting families and the 3rd should be promotional...talking about a product or service that your readers can use.
      Thank you so much for your extremely helpful reply. I never put too much thought in the expansion possibilities. Your reply is great.

      You dont think that 2-3 posts per day is a bit too excessive. Many people recommend that amount of posts per week. If I could even get that many per week then maybe I could get to at least one or two per day. I guess as the blog grows there will be more work and a lot more to write about.

      3) With that said, reach out to Johnson/Johnson and all the other big "kids product" companies; they bombard mom bloggers with freebies so you'll talk about them on your site. My friend used to get over $1,000 worth of merchandise a day in her mailbox and she either gave it away to readers or sold it on eBay. Plus her kids constantly had new stuff too- clothes, toys, etc.

      4) Start doing featured blog posts for the companies you reach in part #3. Many will pay $75-200 PER POST because you're talking to their ideal customer, so take advantage of this free money that adds up quickly.
      Good advice. I just need to figure out how to reach out to these companies. Any suggestions?

      6) Ask for guest posting....there are thousands of companies out there with the big corporate clients in your niche and they'll bombard your site with free content in exchange for being able to mention their clients. This is super high quality stuff and you decide the standards, the topics and what gets posted...but you have to already be active on your site for this to work.
      I'm not sure how and from where to get this. Are companies really interested in guest posting on blogs?
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  • Profile picture of the author AdlerSEO57
    Banned
    For parenting blogs I specifically recommend getting on www.etsy.com and joining some of their blog advertising teams. Many shops on the site will pay to have a banner add featured on blogs with a lot of traffic. You'd pay according to views, but with the right market you would definitely pick up some regular customers who want to pay monthly to be featured on your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author JenniferGiacoppo
    I would agree with outsourcing if you are pressed for ideas or time. Have you tried parenting forums and then posting on your website solutions for parents who have issues with their kids. Like for example. A rash on a child would equate to plugging a cream on your website. Basically make your site a hub where traffic comes to, to find solutions being advertised( affiliate) for their children. Drive your traffic through parenting forums and link it to your site. Keep growing what ideas you could put on their. For example most children suffer in their young life with teething-so pain relief would be a good advert-like Children's neurofen. Do some research and find out what parents need for their children. Curash cream is another one.....Breast feeding pillows...the ideas are endless
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by JenniferGiacoppo View Post

      I would agree with outsourcing if you are pressed for ideas or time. Have you tried parenting forums and then posting on your website solutions for parents who have issues with their kids. Like for example. A rash on a child would equate to plugging a cream on your website. Basically make your site a hub where traffic comes to, to find solutions being advertised( affiliate) for their children. Drive your traffic through parenting forums and link it to your site. Keep growing what ideas you could put on their. For example most children suffer in their young life with teething-so pain relief would be a good advert-like Children's neurofen. Do some research and find out what parents need for their children. Curash cream is another one.....Breast feeding pillows...the ideas are endless
      Jennifer, thanks for your reply! You gave me a ton of ideas and after I read your post all the products that we used over the last 14 years have flowed through my mind. From breast pumps to pillows to car seats these are all great ideas and even though we havent used them in years I feel that I could write a quality review on each of them as they have lasted till now.

      Are there any parenting forums you recommend?
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  • Profile picture of the author beiter
    What digital products can you create in this niche? (no adsense)
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  • Profile picture of the author reln
    Many people suggested that I get either PLR articles or pay per articles for my blog. The question is where do I find good quality PLR articles?

    Where would I hire good writers who can write quality content for a reasonable price?
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  • Profile picture of the author Riki Stein
    Have you checked out iWriter? I know people who write for iWriter - you might have some luck on there finding people to write for you.
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    Are you a newbie who would love to learn how to start making money online? Boy, do I have a free report for you!
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    • Profile picture of the author reln
      Originally Posted by Riki Stein View Post

      Have you checked out iWriter? I know people who write for iWriter - you might have some luck on there finding people to write for you.
      I'll check out iWriter and some other sites. Thanks for your advice.

      Besides fivver, some other posters mentioned the idea of going to other places but didnt specify where.
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