Google Blogoscoped offers “The Paid Links Economy”, an indepth look at how bloggers are using paid links to earn money. The article explores various paid link schemes, but this part jumped out at me:
Whether or not this ad type is acceptable to the blogger thus depends on a variety of factors which need to be balanced. Maybe the website owner will decide that the ad is relevant enough most of the time, or that the animations are so rare they don’t particularly mind. Pragmatically speaking, the higher the payout for the website maker, the higher (on average) the chance they’ll go along with a bigger compromise. If you’re a webmaster who doesn’t accept popup advertising, for instance, ask yourself; would you allow popups on your site for 1 hour only (ever) with a payout of, say, $100,000? If you answered “yes”, then you can see how the payment influences your judgment of what is acceptable.
Do you have a breaking point that would make you switch from no ads on your blogs to accepting ads? Do you think about the how the need for your blog to generate income may be compromising your own standards and values? Changing how you blog?
Most bloggers make very little with ads on their blogs. However, enough high profile bloggers make enough to live off, which encourages others to try it. Most fail because they don’t treat ads on their blogs like businesses.
When your blog becomes a business, it changes the way you blog. When you put ads on your blog, did it change your blogging experience? How? Did it change what you blogged about? Did it change your writing techniques?
Once you put an ad on your blog, it becomes a business. If you want that business to succeed, you must treat it like a business.
Still, at what price would you allow an advertising technique that you wouldn’t normally agree with, to be put on your blog? I’m just curious.
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
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20 Comments
NO ads on my sites! I want to keep it clean and simple, no involvement from any organisation or person.
Same here. The only ads I want are ads to my artwork and my products. I tried AdSense for a while about a year ago and because of the nature of some of my topics (women’s issues), some of the ads that were displayed were highly offensive to my visitors and they did not hesitate to tell me. I dropped AdSense like a hot potato. Not worth it. As for other types of ads and banners, I am really not interested in them at all. I like a lot of white space on my site and I am adamant about keeping visual distractions to a minimum.
I have tried blogging for funds before with a separate blog set up for that reason. It was interesting, and I was getting reasonable revenue for it, but I just couldn’t keep doing it.
I did a brief experiment during a vaguely rudderless phase on my main (and now only) blog but it seemed to cheapen it so I removed them.
My reason for blogging is not income, and adverts would diminish the effect my blog has on my intended goals, so I don’t use them. If someone offered me enough money either as a one off or regularly so that I didn’t need the day job of course I would take it but I would explain things on my blog as well.
At then end of the day respect is worth more to me than money right now.
I started with no ads on my blog and ran it that way for a good while.
But, as the site visitors increased, so did the need to move to a VPS. Today my main source of income is the ads, without which I will have problems hosting.
Virtually every time I think about my blog I think about this very problem. I might have to give up my job in a few months time and see ads on my blog as one way to get some money coming in (so it’s a business), but I try my hardest not to allow them to interfere with readers experience (because it’s a blog).
I don’t use ads that look like links, and keep them in positions that users expect to see ads. Does this have a negative effect on income? Probably, but then I really can’t decide whether it is a business or a blog…
Just as an aside about the linked article, I think the list of things I wouldn’t do for an hour to get paid $100,000 is considerably shorter than the list of things I would do.
I put some google ads on my blog. Just to test it out. I always try things out. “New things”. Trendy things. Just for interest. It’s not much of a business. I just earned a couple of dollars so far. Nothing serious 🙂
Stephan
I actually blogged about this very fact last week and I agree that Adds on blogs can take away the blogs credibility and maybe even look tacky.
“Once you put an ad on your blog, it becomes a business. If you want that business to succeed, you must treat it like a business”
Have you ever put this line to the test?
Whether you blog and wanna make (some) bucks or not, there are only two ways to lead your blog to: making it successful or not.
Do you wanna have an unsuccessful blog only to brag “Hey I am no ad whore!”? I don´t. I think that ads/business and blogging do not contradict.
If you can blog fulltime your blog usually gets better. That´s my aim.
Business is nothing else than just adding a little profit on something. To me it is the same if you provide great content with/without ads. It is not only about you but also about the customer.
Even if ads influence your blog to a certain extend, it is all about honesty. That´s why I promote myself as a money making blogger.
Regards,
René
ProBloggerWorld
I had ads on my blog but I get so little traffic they weren’t making me any money. So, I changed my theme and cleaned up the sidebar to be cleaner and have content from my blog or widgets llike MyBlogLog and Goodblogs.
There are two ways I still might use advertising on my site. First, if I am recommending a product that I have purchased I may use an affiliate link to Amazon or Buy.com and let people know that is where the link goes to. Secondly, if there is a product that is specific to topics on my blog like an ebook or training where I can be an affiliate, but only after I have tried the product.
I am new to a lot of this and am beginning to understand that first I need to establish myself as a blogger in my field and then if I want to monetize my blog to do so once I am getting good traffic.
I appreciate the comments people leave, especially on a topic like this, so I can learn and make an informed choice. I started off my jumping in head first, now I am learning to swim…
Ellen
I’d never put ‘pop up ads’ on my blog. I’d try not to put ads relating to gambling or online dating adverts either.I wouldn’t like to feel I was part of someone’s life possibly being ruined.The money factor doesn’t come into it at all.
I have a few ads on my sidebar which I’ve put on just as an added interest.I find it interesting to see what type of ads are available from which companies, what they pay and if the ads relate at all to my readers.
I can certainly understand the argument against traditional advertising on blogs. I think a great way to offset the costs of hosting as a newborn blogger is to use something like payperpost where they can gain revenue right away even if their blog doesn’t have heavy traffic
I have adsense up on my blog, and also have had companies buy TLA (text-link-ads) ads on my blog. I don’t make much… basically enough to pay for hosting. And I also use Amazon Affiliate ads… but that’s mainly to allow people to see what books I’m reading. (and get more info)
As for what I’ll accept. I won’t allow popups or pop unders… I hate them personally. I also dislike intrusive ads, so I don’t have them in my content itself, but on the edges, no matter how much more they say they’ll pay me. I also keep an eye out and occasionally use the ad preview tool to see what ads adsense will be showing, so I know if I need to block anything. Also I made sure that TLA is set to have me approve questionable ads… and I can refuse any I deem inappropriate.
As for it being a business? It doesn’t make me enough money, and I don’t put enough effort into it.
Speaking for myself, I don’t want to put ads on my blog. I blog under a pseudonym, about a niche topic, that has very few, but usually discerning readers. It is enough; it fulfills my need to express myself and to communicate with people of similar interests. Besides, I abhor pop-up ads and have seen too many gaffes in context-sensitive text-link ads to go that route any time soon. (One blogs about sex in a novel, and then suddenly has to deal with all sorts of imaginative products being advertised in the sidebar 😉 )
I agree that, as soon as you put an ad on your blog, it becomes a business. But the corollary – that your content had better be aligned to that business model – is too restrictive and incompatible with the way I blog. Earning money from ads requires structuring content and adopting strategies which will maximize the number of visitors. It seems like too much work in comparison with the expected returns.
It is difficult for me to think of situations in which someone would pay me to blog. I’m not half as good as I would need to be. But if such a situation arose, it would definitely have to be with another blog, not with my current book blog.
I was thinking of some affiliate ads that I can put on my site to earn some extra cash. I just put down auctionads, its been sitting there for almost two months now doing nothing.
I think ads are nececeary to its sucsess and help to sturcture the writting but have nothing to rude to harm your vistiors at all
I just last week removed all ads from my site. Detailed blog post. I didn’t like where the ads were pointing, nor the clutter they added to the site. But I will miss the income, low 3 figures monthly.
I think adds on any site can`t do any harm at worst you can make money.
@Robert Le Gay Brereton:
You call your blog “Robby’s Marketing”, thus, you must understand something about how marketing, public relations, and advertising works. On a blog, if ads interfere with the reader’s experience, you lose readers. If the ads distract or detract from the content, since they are part of the content, whether you think so or not, you lose readers.
Now, Google’s PageRank is penalizing blogs with advertising.
So tell me again that ads on blogs don’t hurt.
Is there any way to place ads if you’re under 18?
Please help me I really need ads so I can get money for wordpress credits
Ven
@ Venzr:
If you are on WordPress.com, you cannot put ads on your blog. If you are on the full version of WordPress, you can do whatever you want. If advertisers will not accept ad placement for those under 18, that’s their problem, and not a WordPress issue.
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