The Ad Debate
There seems to be a bit of a casual debate going on in the blogosphere about when and how a new blogger should monetize his blog. From my limited experience and perspective as a reader of many blogs, I’ll give my 2 cents.
The Debate
I don’t know if thats the correct term in this case, its a real subtle debate and no one is really lashing out at anyone. But basically most bloggers fall into one of two camps. The first camp believes that a new blogger should not monetize his/her blog until there is a steady amount of traffic flowing through, 500 hits per day seems to be the standard amount of accepted hits. The second camp doesn’t really care when you start monetizing as long as its not obnoxious and obtrusive. There’s a few little added jabs thrown in such as whether programs like adsense are viable monetization options or whether you should only go for private advertising and so on, but those are the general issues.
My Position
I can’t speak as a blogging expert since I haven’t been blogging more than 4 or so months, but I can speak as an avid reader of quite a number of blogs. Let me start by saying that I’ve had a limited amount of ads on this blog since its inception, and unless I really feel that my readers are not liking them I think I’ll keep them. The reason for that is because I’ve never bothered myself with ads on other blogs. I don’t believe that there is anything wrong with them if done correctly. I will never disregard a blog just because of a few adsense ads.
Having said that, I think my position is that its fine to monetize your blog whenever you wish as long as you don’t overdo it. There have been many instances where I have overdone it considerably, but I think I’ve hit a right balance for now. And if you don’t know what that balance is for you then maybe you shouldn’t monetize at all in the beginning.
Hiding Your Ads Can Add Instead Of Detract
I truly believe that if done correctly a few ads can add to your blog instead of detracting. There are a few things that I would suggest if you’re going to use something like adsense on your blog.
- Don’t go for the bigger ad blocks, its better to have something smaller that won’t scare other’s away.
- When in doubt take it out.
- Try to make your ads blend in with the general theme of your blog. So if you have a black background with white writing, match the ad block accordingly.
- Please avoid putting more than one ad stack on your sidebar.
- I would recommend not putting stacks at all, I think it looks better when its in the posts. There is a lot of good articles out there explaining how you can do this.
- Sometimes you’ll find that the ads being displayed are just from google whores. So check out what you’re promoting, but be sure not to click on the ads, just type the URL that you see, then go to your adsense account and block those URL’s. You might see an increase in your revenue and you won’t scare your readers.
Benefits of Not Monetizing
Of course there is benefits to not monetizing also. Besides the obvious benefit of not having ads, the one benefit that I can appreciate the most is that when users click on one your ads they are leaving your site, so by not displaying ads you take away that option.
In Summary
I don’t really think there is a right or wrong in this scenario. I’ve seen many blogs without ads that I enjoyed and I’ve seen many blogs with ads that I’ve enjoyed. I’ve even been know to click an ad or two.
What do you guys think? Does it really bother you when you come to a blog that has some google ads? More importantly, do you think I should take mine off? Please let me know.
Simon
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