Advertising banner space on your blog?

[Bloggeries]

Having the word "FREE" in your site or keywords you target is a double edged sword. YES you have a much bigger market but once you get those eyeballs to your screen ... Good luck. These people searched FREE and that is what they want. Good compliments would be selling movies, movie memorabilia etc... through affiliate links. Find paid compliments to what you are giving them free would be my advice. Another option is put a link to buy whatever movie you are reviewing...

[fetchblog]

I have added you to Technorati and De.Licious or whatever...and I have PMed you with some more info on how to get ahold of me to exchange links and what not...

[iliana]

I am not sure what do you mean by saying that the word free is a double edged sword. When I say Free Movies I mean it. I don't want to lie to my readers, and I think this is the main reason why google finds me. So, I am trying to fund my blog from banners, affiliate links and sponsored reviews.

Originally Posted by Bloggeries

Having the word "FREE" in your site or keywords you target is a double edged sword. YES you have a much bigger market but once you get those eyeballs to your screen ... Good luck. These people searched FREE and that is what they want. Good compliments would be selling movies, movie memorabilia etc... through affiliate links. Find paid compliments to what you are giving them free would be my advice. Another option is put a link to buy whatever movie you are reviewing...

[fetchblog]

well I would say having the word "free" in your blog is a definite plus!

I dont think it can hurt you...especially if everything in your blog is free...I mean, i dont think I have anything in my site that requires money at this point, but I plan on it eventually...I plan on having quite a few things that cost money, but for now I am in the same boat as you, I am trying to fund my blog soley from ads that I can pick up...of course im still tweakin my blog here and there...I dont know what to tell you...

[Inhibitor]

Originally Posted by iliana

I am not sure what do you mean by saying that the word free is a double edged sword. When I say Free Movies I mean it. I don't want to lie to my readers, and I think this is the main reason why google finds me. So, I am trying to fund my blog from banners, affiliate links and sponsored reviews.

What he meant was that when someone searches for "free" anything, your traffic isn't in a receptive frame of mind to make a purchase (or click a link that would lead to something to buy), so your CTR would be lower at best.

Also, if they're looking for "free movies", come to your site and are shown links to places to buy movies, you'll be working at cross-purposes...at least in the eyes of the readers. They come for "free", and get it...plus you give them some "buy" options too.

It's not a bad thing, but people tend to lump your ad content in with your blog content at times...especially text-link ads.

That's what he meant by "free" being a double-edged sword...you do a good job on your blog, and you're not misleading about it in any way. But when you're saying "free", it's hard to also mention "buy this" in the conversation at times.