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While the prediction figures are slightly staggered, an overall positive projection in 2010 online advertising spending is still evident with gains of between 5.5% – 13.9% growth this year according to multiple sources.

eMarketer is forecasting US online advertising spend to see positive growth of 5.5% this year up from spending that decreased 4.6% last year. According to their article today on Optimism for US Online Ad Spend: “Other firms have published projections in the past three months predicting that 2010 ad spending will increase more steeply. Forecasts range from growth [in revenue] of 7% (UBS and Deutsche Bank) to 14% (Citi Investment Research).”

While according to Advertising Age’s article on Global Ad-Spending Expectations Improve Again, global ad spending on the internet rose 12.6% last year and will continue to grow to 13.9% this year (ZenithOptimedia; Publicis Groupe).

eMarketer’s stats on ad revenue growth show a 13% revenue growth projection in Display Related Ads for 2010, specifically a 12% increase for banner ad formats:

The takeaway for bloggers is that these positive projections could translate to similar growth for those of whom are monetizing their original content through similar ad formats. Bloggers should look to take advantage the optimistic ad revenue environment for this coming year and position themselves for healthy returns in 2010.

This year online advertising spending is expected to be down for 2009 since 2002, the hangover from the internet-bubble years.

Spending on online advertising is expected to come in at $22.8 billion in 2009 in the U.S., down 2.9% from a year ago, due to steep declines in sponsorships, classifieds and e-mail advertising, according to a projection from eMarketer issued Monday. Banner ads were virtually flat with 2008.

Search, which will grow 4% overall, proving itself the most resilient and counter-cyclical form of online marketing. Video also grew, but it’s still too small to make a difference in the overall numbers.

EMarketer’s latest figures come two weeks after the Internet Advertising Bureau said online ads declined 5% in the first six month of 2009. eMarketer benchmarks its figures on the IAB and uses it as a base for its projections for the second half of the year.  Increasingly, search drives the online ad market, and in the U.S., it is more than double the size of online display.

About a quarter of all online advertising in the U.S. flows through Google, and its strong showing was enough to fuel a slight recovery in the second half of 2009. “The trend here is clearly up and that alone will support a mild rebound in the second half,” David Hallerman, an analyst said.

Search is both a real-time indicator of marketer sentiment and the sentiment of consumers, who are doing more commercial-related searches. Mr. Hallerman, like a lot of analysts and marketers, believes the economy hit bottom earlier this year.

Broadly speaking, the display ad market is challenged by the economic cycle, but also the fact that the largest Ad Age 100 advertisers are still allocating small percentages to online marketing. Online gets less than 10% of ad spending in the U.S. “The dollars still aren’t following the eyeballs online,” Mr. Hallerman said.