I am glad you found my article helpful. All thanks to Kevin for giving me the opportunity to post.

What click data would you specifically like to track? For ad tracking, which i think is what your referring to, check out http://click.websitegear.com. They seem to offer a pretty detailed service. But, I’ve not used them personally, so i cannot say for sure.

Since, I run adsense on my blogs, my interest has only been to track pageviews thus far. For this, i use eLogicwebsolutions. But, they provide detailed analysis on user activity in their Pro package. Woopra is another analytical tool i’d like to try. Heard positive things about them.

You raise some excellent points actually. My cost structure for advertisements primarily refers to MMO/make money online type blogs. I should have been more specific there. My fault was in the assumption that most of your readers fall within the MMO/IM niche and my price point for ads was intended to target them.

Your right, corporate blogs can and actually do easily fetch a much higher price for advertising. Topics such as hedge fund strategy, intellectual property law, distributed computing and cardiothoracic surgery are some clear examples. I just didn’t assume you’d have a surgeon, hedge fund manager, or lawyer read my article’s advertising price point. Once again, the fault was mine. Should have specifically mentioned MMO blogs.

With respect to one-week long trials. Sure, you raise a very good point. I see your angle. An established blog never runs short of finding sponsors. True. Also, there is the possibility of exploiting the free offer with no intention of actually advertising. Agree.

If only Google did the same right? They never run short of ad words clients. Yet Google offers free $50 vouchers for new customers. They don’t need to, they choose to. But you may ask, “Google versus someone’s blog is comparing apples to oranges”. Well, how about problogger? I am sure we’ve all heard of the legendary Darren Rowse. Safe to say, he doesn’t need any advertisers? He’s only running a 6-figure net profit annually. But, in his post “Find a Sponsor for Your Blog”, you’ll find that he not only suggests a free trial, but has also offered it. Here’s a direct quote from his article, ” I’ve found that having one advertiser (even if it’s a free one) can actually attract other advertisers (or at least make selling sponsorships easier)”. There are a few others. Feel free to check it out.

I do agree, however, that a one-week long trial may be excessive. Perhaps 3 days or so would be enough. My thought process at the time was that the sponsor should have enough time to test if a blog’s traffic is converting for his ad or not.

Call me overly kind, but i didn’t feel it right to take the sponsor’s money with him/her having reservations about my blog’s ability to generate sales for his/her business.

Lastly, your right about new blogs. I am a big fan for original relevant content. Content is king. Most of us know that. I mentioned it in my last article as well. A new blog’s primary focus should be on creating high quality content first. I should have added that in. Nevertheless, there’s always new bloggers that will look for sponsors, regardless of whether their blog is content-rich or empty. In those cases, free advertising is their best bet. (my expectation was that new bloggers would be discouraged by my suggestion of the free advertising model and try to establish their blogs.)

Sorry about the long comment. Just wanted to explain myself fully. Thanks.

First of all, you mention off free advertising if your blog is new. I disagree with this. For one, if your blog is new you shouldn’t be thinking about adding advertisements, you should be thinking about adding more content and promoting it rather than try and monetize a blog 100 visitors.

Secondly, I don’t think that you need to offer week long trials. 1. Because there are always people who will take the trial and have no intention of advertising and 2. Because if your blog is ‘established’ then you won’t have to. Established blogs rarely have problems getting advertisers (that’s if the are actually established!).

Lastly, you state that unless you have more than 25,000 unique monthly visitors $45/month should be the absolute price ceiling on a 468×60 banner ad and $30 on a 125×125 square ad. I disagree with this. It really depends on the niche. You can’t put a set price on all blogs because some types of blogs get traffic easier than others but are harder to monetize and vice versa.

Take for example a medical blog or a blog advising readers about the law and their rights. They might only have 15,000 visitors a month but they could probably charge over $100 for a 125×125 banner ad because their traffic is so targeted.

You do make some good points though. In particular, about your advertisers success being your success. If your advertisers are making money, they will always renew their ads with you