Paid ads are the simplest way to generate revenue with your website, but there are many options you need to choose from. You can have banners, or pop-ups; image, or text ads; and they can be CPM, or CPC ads. Then there's the question of which ad network to use.
Banner vs. Pop-Up
Pop-ups are often considered too annoying, and visitors won't stay long on sites that open many. Also, most web browsers have good pop-up blockers, so they might not work very well. Even though they pay better, I would suggest not using pop-ups on your website.
Image vs. Text
The same arguments apply here: some users, especially those with slow connections, consider image ads annoying. Those users may also block images, though it is not as common as pop-up blocking. On the other hand, image ads usually pay more. I believe it depends on your site content: if you only have text as your main site content, you should use text ads only; if you have a lot of images, image ads are fine.
CPC vs CPM
CPC ads have a price per click. So if you have a $0.20 CPC ad on your site, and 50 visitors click on the ad you will earn $10. CPM ads, on the other hand, have a set price per thousand impressions. So if you have a $0.50 CPM ad on your website, and you have 20,000 page loads you will earn $10 from that ad.
CPM ads will earn you money even if no-one clicks on them, but they often have quite low prices. However, you can use many of them on your site, and each page load will generate revenue from each of them. A highly targeted CPC ad, on the other hand, may get many more clicks, but having many on a single page does not help that much. I find that a combination of both works best for me, but it depends on your site, so you should experiment with both types.
Choosing the Ad Network
One of the simplest ad programs is Google's AdSense. It only takes a few moments to sign up, even less if you already have a Google account. They serve a combination of CPC and CPM ads, and their system analyzes your page content for ad targeting. That's why I recommend you to try it out first. For reviews of more networks visit my site from the author link.
Banner vs. Pop-Up
Pop-ups are often considered too annoying, and visitors won't stay long on sites that open many. Also, most web browsers have good pop-up blockers, so they might not work very well. Even though they pay better, I would suggest not using pop-ups on your website.
Image vs. Text
The same arguments apply here: some users, especially those with slow connections, consider image ads annoying. Those users may also block images, though it is not as common as pop-up blocking. On the other hand, image ads usually pay more. I believe it depends on your site content: if you only have text as your main site content, you should use text ads only; if you have a lot of images, image ads are fine.
CPC vs CPM
CPC ads have a price per click. So if you have a $0.20 CPC ad on your site, and 50 visitors click on the ad you will earn $10. CPM ads, on the other hand, have a set price per thousand impressions. So if you have a $0.50 CPM ad on your website, and you have 20,000 page loads you will earn $10 from that ad.
CPM ads will earn you money even if no-one clicks on them, but they often have quite low prices. However, you can use many of them on your site, and each page load will generate revenue from each of them. A highly targeted CPC ad, on the other hand, may get many more clicks, but having many on a single page does not help that much. I find that a combination of both works best for me, but it depends on your site, so you should experiment with both types.
Choosing the Ad Network
One of the simplest ad programs is Google's AdSense. It only takes a few moments to sign up, even less if you already have a Google account. They serve a combination of CPC and CPM ads, and their system analyzes your page content for ad targeting. That's why I recommend you to try it out first. For reviews of more networks visit my site from the author link.
