2
8.6/10
Display advertising is the sale of space on your pages to advertisers, priced per thousand impressions (CPM) and paid to you as a share of what the advertiser spent. You place a script, the network runs an auction for every impression, and the winning ad appears. Google AdSense is the entry point almost everyone starts with; header-bidding partners such as… Read more →
Pros
- Works from the first pageview with no sales, products or audience relationship
- Fully passive once the layout is set
- Scales linearly with traffic, and managed partners lift RPM 30-100% at 50k+ sessions
Cons
- The lowest revenue per visitor of any method on this site
- Slows the page and annoys readers if you chase RPM with more units
- Depends on advertiser demand: Q1 pays 30-40% less than Q4
Earns: $5-25 session RPM (general niche) · First payout: 1-2 months · Cost to start: $0 · adsense header bidding rpm banner ads programmatic
5
Pre-roll, mid-roll and outstream ads inside a player on your pages or channel, at CPMs several times higher than display.
BlogYouTubeFree tool
7.4/10
Video advertising sells ads inside or around a video player. Instream ads run before, during or after video content the reader chose to watch, and command the highest prices. Outstream units are players that appear in the text of an article, autoplay muted, and show an ad with little or no editorial video around them. Connected TV (CTV) extends the… Read more →
Pros
- Video CPMs run 3-10x display CPMs for the same audience
- Managed partners provide the player and the video content if you have none
- Adds a unit that does not compete with display slots
Cons
- An autoplaying player with unrelated content is the most hated ad format on the web
- Heavy on page weight and battery; needs lazy loading and a mute default
- Instream demand wants real, watched video; outstream and "video content libraries" pay a fraction
Earns: $10-35 RPM on pages with a player · First payout: 2-3 months · Cost to start: $0-100/mo (player or hosting) · pre-roll outstream instream video player ctv
6
6.9/10
Direct ad sales means finding the advertisers yourself and selling them fixed placements: a leaderboard for a month, a site takeover for a launch week, a "presented by" sponsorship of a section, a listing in a resources page. You set the price, you serve the creative (or the sponsor does), and no network takes a share. It is how trade… Read more →
Pros
- No network cut and no auction: a niche site can sell at 3-5x the programmatic CPM
- Advertisers who sell to your readers will pay for a fixed placement month after month
- Pairs with programmatic as backfill for unsold inventory
Cons
- You are now a sales team: prospecting, decks, negotiations, creatives, invoices
- Needs an ad server (Google Ad Manager, Broadstreet, AdButler) and someone to run it
- Realistic only in niches with identifiable advertisers who cannot reach your readers elsewhere
Earns: $5-20 CPM or $200-2,000/mo per placement; $15-45 RPM · First payout: 3-6 months · Cost to start: $0-50/mo (ad server) · ad server sponsorship takeover media kit rate card
7
Sponsored article widgets and in-feed units that look like your own content and fill where display will not.
BlogDirectoryFree tool
6.4/10
Native advertising is paid content designed to look like the surrounding page: the "recommended for you" widget under an article, the promoted story in a feed, the sponsored listing among organic ones. Content recommendation networks (Taboola, Outbrain, MGID, Revcontent) supply the widget and the advertisers; you place it and earn per click or per thousand impressions. Advertisers (often other publishers,… Read more →
Pros
- Adds revenue below the article without competing with display units
- High fill, including in countries and niches display buyers ignore
- Accepted on sites that ad management partners reject
Cons
- Low RPM per unit and a reputation for clickbait creatives
- Sends readers away at the moment they finished your article
- Premium networks want 500k+ pageviews; the open ones are less selective about advertisers
Earns: $1-5 RPM on top of display · First payout: 1-2 months · Cost to start: $0 · taboola outbrain sponsored articles recommendation widget in-feed
8
Aggressive formats that pay high CPMs, accept almost any niche and pay weekly, at the cost of reader trust and search safety.
BlogSocial accountFree tool
5.2/10
This family covers the ad formats that force attention rather than earning it: pop-unders that open a new window behind the reader's, interstitials that cover the page, direct links that send a click straight to an advertiser, and push notifications that the reader agrees to receive and that arrive on their device for months afterwards. Networks such as PropellerAds, Adsterra,… Read more →
Pros
- No traffic minimum, instant approval, weekly or even daily payouts
- Accept gambling, adult, crypto, dating, streaming and download sites
- Monetize the tier-3 traffic display networks pay pennies for
Cons
- Pop-unders and full-page interstitials violate Google's intrusive interstitial guidelines on mobile and can cost rankings
- Browsers and antivirus flag many of the advertisers; readers blame you
- Push subscriber lists decay fast and cannot be moved between networks
Earns: $2-8 RPM, higher in tier-3 volume · First payout: 1-2 weeks · Cost to start: $0 · push notifications popunder interstitial direct link smartlink
