According to Marketing Terms, an advertising network is:

A network representing many Web sites in selling advertising, allowing advertising buyers to reach broad audiences relatively easily through run-of-category and run-of-network buys.

Signing up with an ad network is a great monetizing option for blog publishers. They provide a steady stream of income that increases as a blog’s readership increases.

Ad networks use a CPM formula to determine their pay outs. CPM stands for cost per thousand (with M representing the Roman numeral for 1000).  The 1000 is based on page impressions.

Ad networks either determine a flat rate CPM (say $4 per every 1000 page impressions), or they assign an individual fee to advertisers and then take a percentage of those earnings. Here is an example for a network like that:

Campaign CPM rate Ad Network (60%) Blogger (40%)
Food Co.             $12.00                $7.00                                 $5.00
Clothing Co.       $10.00               $6.00                                 $4.00

Every ad network has different requirements for admittance and pay rates and schedules. Find out more about the ad networks options available to bloggers by reading about the individual networks.  (All ad networks will be linked as the info posts are written.  Check back often!)

• BlogHer Ad Network
• RGM Media
• AdRoll
• Adify
• blogads
• ASN (Advanced Search Network)
• Foodbuzz
• BannerSpace
• Adtegrity
• Federated Media
• Copernic Media Solutions
• Premium Network
• RealCast Media
• Tribal Fusion
• the Robert Sherman Company
• Yes Advertising
• WidgetBucks