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
Rewarded video, interstitials and banners inside an app, auctioned across networks by a mediation layer.
Mobile app
7.8/10
Apps monetize with ad units rendered by an SDK: banners at the edge of the screen, interstitials between screens or levels, rewarded video the user chooses to watch for an in-app reward, native units inside feeds, and app-open ads. A mediation platform (Google AdMob mediation, Unity LevelPlay, AppLovin MAX) asks several networks for a bid on each impression and serves… Read more →
Pros
- Rewarded video is the highest-paying and least-resented ad unit in existence
- Mediation (AdMob, LevelPlay, AppLovin MAX) auctions every impression across 10+ networks
- Pays the moment you have users; no sales funnel needed
Cons
- Interstitials at the wrong moment cut retention, which costs more than the ads earn
- Store policies and privacy changes (ATT, Privacy Sandbox) keep lowering targeting and eCPMs
- Needs SDK integration and constant tuning, not a script tag
Earns: $5-20 per 1,000 sessions, rewarded video up to $30 eCPM in the US · First payout: 1-2 months · Cost to start: $0 · admob rewarded video mediation ecpm interstitial
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
