How to Place an Ad on a WordPress Blog

1. Download the 'Advertising Manager' plug-in at WordPress.org (see Resources). According to WordPress.org, this free plug-in automatically handles ad placement and coding for popular ad-share programs like Google's Adsense. Adsense, Chitika, Adpinion and other supported ad programs simply require free sign-up and the plug-in will do the rest. The ads will be placed on your page and you will earn a percentage of revenue generated from ad-clicks. Such automated advertising programs work well for many bloggers, but you can also manually place your own custom ads onto your blog if you happen to have a separate advertising agreement with an individual client.
2. Upload the advertisement image that you want to use for any additional custom advertising. When you upload the image, make a note of the image's URL address as listed in the WordPress blog management dashboard.

3. Add an HTML box on your blog and then click on the dialogue box to begin entering HTML code. Adding a new box is very simply; you just click on the 'Add HTML' button on your WordPress dashboard. This will add HTML code to your blog's sidebar, a perfect place to add advertisements without cluttering up your blog's posting area.
4. Type the following code in as the first line of HTML, as indicated by HTMLCodeTutorial.com as the code necessary to anchor a link:

5. Replace the text reading 'link.html' with the web address for the site that the advertisement is supposed to redirect user to. Make sure, however, that you leave the quotes around the new address inserted in place of 'link.html.'
6. Type the following code in as the next line of HTML:

7. Replace the text reading 'picture.jpg' with the URL address for the advertising image you recently uploaded. Again, make sure you leave quotes around the new text. This line of code is responsible for placing the picture on your blog, but it is also tethered to the link code from the line above it, making the image 'clickable.'
8. Type in the following code on the third line to end the code and finalize the advertisement link:

9. Save all changes in the WordPress dashboard and preview your blog. In addition to automated ad placement, you should also see your custom advertisement image. When clicked, the custom ad should take you to the desired page exactly as you inserted it during Step 5.