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Question: How do I go about putting advertisements on my blog?

Putting ads on or in your blog requires that you know a little bit of “code”. Sure, it varies between blogging platforms, but with most you still have to be able to figure out how and where to place a piece of code that the advertiser gives you into your blog.

Don’t worry, it’s not that hard. Let’s use Wordpress (which AsktheBlogger uses) as an example.

Let’s say I want to place an ad in my blog sidebar. Here’s how I would do it.

1. Login to my blog account.
2. Go to “presentation”, then “theme editor”.

Now’s the tricky part. If you have not already set permissions on your theme pages, you need to do that now. FTP into your blog and look for the “wp-content” folder. In that folder you’ll see the folder of the theme that is powering your blog. Open it.

In that folder you’ll see a bunch of .php files. These are what power your blog, the pieces parts. Find “sidebar.php” and right click on it. Choose “permissions”. Now, change permissions to “777″, which means that it is now “writable”. In other words, it can be edited now.

Now go back into your Wordpress admin. Onto step 3.

3. Click on “sidebar” link. You’ll now be able to edit the file directly in the admin.
4. Copy the code from your advertiser and paste it into the sidebar area where you want it.

Now you can save the file and look at the blog to see how the ad appears. If it’s not in the right spot you want it in, go back and and grab the code and move it again. Keep trying till you get it in the spot you want.

That’s it! Other blogging systems may vary. Consult your blog help file for detailed instructions or contract your local blog consultant to help you out.