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Back in June, I wrote about the importance of contingency plans. The same month, I wrote about how you can determine who your Google AdSense advertisers are. Both articles are important - imagine if you are banned from AdSense or any other ad network you use. How would you recover the lost revenue?

Always keep a record of your advertisers

Sure, you may be making a nice bit of money through your ad network now, but what would happen if this network became inaccessible to you?

It is hard to get any site that has a strong emphasis on user generated content into the larger ad networks, so if your current network abandons you what will you do?

It is precisely because of this uncertainness that you should always spend the good times preparing for the bad. If you use Google AdSense, you may find that there are no end of advertisers apparently willing to shell out to display their ads on your site.

Are you keeping a note of these? You should be - if Google decides to close your account, what will happen to your revenue?

Using your records as a contingency plan

If you keep a list of all your previous and current advertisers, should anything happen to your relationship with your current ad network you will have a database of leads to approach for private advertising deals.

Sure, without a list you could approach sites in a similar niche to yours but this will be extremely time consuming and inefficient. If you have been keeping records of your advertisers you already have a list of sites that have previously advertised on your website - this means they are likely to do so again, particularly if you mention this in your email proposal.

Most online communities rely on advertising to generate revenue. Unfortunately, many of the large ad networks shun sites with a large emphasis on user generated content - this means we are constantly balancing on a financial tight-rope.

The advertising industry changes all the time. The daily $200 you are making today could evaporate by tomorrow. Are you prepared for this?