I’d Rather Be Writing (idratherbewriting.com) is one of the most popular sites where technical writers and engineers go to stay updated with the latest technical writing news, trends, and information in the industry, especially concerning API documentation. Because of this, I can help increase your product or service’s visibility more than any other technical writing site online.
Ad space options and costs
I mainly help increase visibility of your product primarily through ad impressions. An impression occurs when someone loads a page where your ad is visible. In 2020, idratherbewriting.com had 1,814,770 page views, or about 4,971 page views a day (207 page views an hour). More specifically, users created 1,195,729 sessions, with 1.52 pages per session and an average of 1:25 minutes per session.
You can advertise your product or service on idratherbewriting.com. Different ad spaces are more visible than others. You can select from several different spaces or services. The availability and cost for each ad space is as follows:
| Ad space | Size | Cost per year |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar graphic | 250 x 150px | $1,000/year |
| Horizontal inline post view | 728 x 90px | $2,000/year |
| Top Banner space | 400 x 60px | $4,000/year |
| Newsletter space | 400 x 60px | $1,500/year |
| Inline text blurbs | 1-2 sentences | $3,000/year |
| Product review posts | 800-1,000 words | $700/post |
| Podcasts | 30 minutes | $300/podcast |
For billing, I usually send you an invoice through Paypal. Billing is done prior to any advertising efforts. Although the transaction is through PayPal, you can use either your credit card or PayPal account to submit payment. You can also mail me a check if you prefer.
Sidebar ad space
Sidebar ads (250px x 150px) appear in the left sidebar and randomly rotate positions each time the page refreshes — this helps refocus the reader’s attention on the ads. There is no specific hierarchy to ads in the sidebar.
Your ad can be any image type (JPG, PNG, or SVG) and color; the dimensions must be 250 x 150px pixels in size. GIFs or other animations aren’t allowed. You can switch the ad at any time by sending me a new graphic.
The cost for sidebar ads is $1,000 per year. For 6 months only, the cost is $600.
Horizontal Inline Ad Space
The Horizontal Inline space (728 x 90px) appears below each post, right above the comments, in the single post view. This highly visible space is inline with the reader’s eye and provides a natural click-point after a reader finishes reading a post.
Horizontal Inline ads can be JPG, GIF, PNG, or SVG. Animated GIF is also allowed. Like the sidebar, the position of the horizontal inline ads rotate randomly with each page refresh. There is no limit to the number of horizontal inline post ads that can appear below the post (currently there are 4). The cost for inline horizontal ads is $2,000 per year.
Top Banner Ad Space
The top banner ad space (400 x 60px) refers to the top section of the site, in the upper-right corner. The top banner ad is placed in one of the most visually dominant places on the site.
Top banner ads can be JPG, GIF, PNG, or SVG. Animated GIFs aren’t allowed. There is only one ad in the Top Banner ad space per advertiser, but it can rotate depending on the number of ads you want to put in this space. For example, if you have three top banner ads, the ads can rotate in this space with each page refresh. The cost for top banner ad space is $4,000 per year. Only one advertiser can rent this space. It’s like the main billboard for my site.
Newsletter Space
I send out about 3 newsletters a month to all my email subscribers (5,600 + readers). These newsletters contain links and excerpts to the latest posts (usually two articles per newsletter). Each blog post in the newsletter typically gets around 300 clicks, and the advertising graphic receives approximately 60 clicks or more. The size of the newsletter graphic is 600 x 70px graphic. Here’s an example:
The image format can be any standard image format (JPG, PNG, GIF), but not animated (because the ads appear in email). The cost for advertising in the newsletter space is $1,500 per year. Shorter advertising durations aren’t allowed.
For a list of newsletter dates, links, and advertisements shown during 20202, see 2020 newsletters sent (Google Doc).
Inline text blurbs (API doc site only)
Inline text blurbs are short snippets of text, about 1-3 sentences in length (or 140 characters), that appear in random positions on every page of my API documentation site. You can define 10 ad blurbs with the variety of content and links you want. Here’s an example:
The text blurb’s text changes randomly with each page refresh. However, the position of the blurb on the page remains in the same (initially random) location.
The in-text ads are denoted with a Bootstrap alert-type formatting, with text that says “Sponsored message” prefacing the ad. Pages not included are contact, search, error, or other non-content pages. A maximum of 3 inline blurbs (from different advertisers) can appear on each page. Links are nofollow. Cost for inline text blurbs to appear on the API doc site is $3,000 per year.
Product review posts
I also offer product review posts to help with visibility. These posts usually coincide with marketing efforts for product releases and updates. To write this post, I usually have a 20-30 minute phone call with you to find out what message you want to share.
Each product review post is clearly identified as a sponsored post. I also get your approval before publishing. Links are nofollow. Additionally, I only provide product review posts as part of a larger advertising package (e.g., if you buy sidebar ads or horizontal ads, you can also include a product review post).
Here are some sample product reviews I wrote previously:
- Connecting micro content with search analytics – notes on the first MadCap Flare and MadCap Central 2020 Release
- Redocly tutorial – authoring and publishing API docs with Redocly’s command-line tools
- How does Document360 handle challenges with API documentation?
- Stoplight — visual modeling tools for creating your OpenAPI spec
- Create an OpenAPI specification document using Stoplight Studio’s visual editor
- SwaggerHub introduction and tutorial
- XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) — Integrating documentation and marketing content into a seamless whole (668 page views as of 3-25-19)
- MadCap Central – a first look at MadCap’s new cloud-based collaboration and publishing solution (1,968 page views as of 3-10-19)
- The Story of Paligo: A new browser-based CCMS with all the features you’d ever want (5,533 page views as of 3-10-19)
- Simplified Technical English and HyperSTE (4,056 page views as of 3-10-19)
- Evaluating Adobe FrameMaker’s responsive HTML5 output (1,164 page views as of 3-10-19)
- Adobe FrameMaker 2017 – time, tools, and the tech writer’s focus on content (2,042 page views as of 3-10-19)
- Xeditor, a CMS editor for XML content (1,335 page views as of 3-10-19)
Product review posts are typically 800-1,000 words long and ideally focus on features in a new release. (Having something newsworthy to write about helps establish the article’s relevance.)
These review posts aren’t merely marketing material converted into a blog post. I try to put a personal spin on posts to connect with my audience. A product review post typically takes 3-4 hours to write.
If possible, I’ll download and explore your product before writing about it. But I don’t have unlimited time to ramp up to an expert level on your product. I try to draw upon my industry insight and perspective to make insightful points. You’ll also probably supply me with the information and messages you want to communicate.
Each product review post costs $700 per post. I always review these posts with you and, when published, I identify them as being sponsored posts. If desired, you can also write the post.
Product review posts have good results with search results. If you search google for Xeditor, HyperSTE, Paligo, or Madcap Central, you’ll see that my product review posts appear on the first page of search results. This is because my site has a high page rank and influence.
I also infuse the posts with SEO techniques when I write them. Almost no one else in the tech comm industry has as much online influence as I do with idratherbewriting.com. However, note that for per the Link Schemes policy with Google, I’m required to add rel=nofollow to any links that appear to companies (and their products) when I’m being paid to write the post. This attribute reduces the Pagerank that flows from my site through the link, but it avoids potential penalties or other spam-point assignments in the search algorithm.
Podcasts
Podcasts are 30-minute audio conversations that are recorded and distributed as on-demand audio files. If you’d like your company or product to be featured in a podcast, this format can help listeners get a better sense of your personality and story. Podcasts might not have as many hits as online readers, but those who do listen to podcasts feel a stronger connection with the hosts and story than with written posts. You can see all podcasts on my site on the Podcasts page. I have recorded more than 200 podcasts and have a reputation in the industry for this medium.
To prepare for podcasts, I send you about 10 questions focused on the product or service that you want highlighted. The podcast length is typically 20-30 minutes and syndicated out on iTunes, Stitcher, and other channels. The cost is $300 per podcast.
Here are sample podcasts:
- The story behind Document360 – podcast with founder Saravana Kumar
- Podcast: How Paligo is filling a niche in the CCMS market for complex documentation, with Anders Svensson
Taking the next step
If you’d like to advertise on my site, contact me. We’ll finalize details about the ad spaces you want, and then I’ll send you an invoice via PayPal.