Anyway, i added them a week ago and will cross the cash out mark sometime this week if the trend holds up. Now I wish I added them sooner, so there, another reason to add them early on - you might be leaving some cash on the table 

Melissa said:

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I completely agree.  You run the risk of faithful readers thinking you have "sold out."  If you have ads from the beginning, it won't make a difference to them.

I put up one.  Don't want to be known as a sellout.   Funny thing, I kind of took it the other way.  Now that I have an ad up, it almost feels more professional?  Maybe it's just me...

NarrowBridge said:

I agree 100% with Jason.  Put the ads up early even if you don't make a lot from them.  Your readers might call you a sell out if you put the ads on after building a community

I'd recommend having some ads in from the beginning, just to make sure you are building a community that won't stomp off in a huff when you add ads 6 months later.   Keep them discreet, but keep them there.

moneysmarts said:

My feeling on this is to just add your ads (only 1 or 2 of them tops) from the start.  My reasons?

 

1. Better to have them from the beginning so they don't look odd getting added in later on.  If they're there from the start people get used to them, and don't question why you're "selling out" later on. :)

2. Even if you don't make a ton your first few months, you might make something:  While i didn't make a ton, i was still able to cash out my adsense after 3 months on my first site.  That more than paid for my hosting.  My current site, smart on money, cashed out after 3 months as well.

3. Having adsense can help you to analyse what topics pay the best, and improve your earnings:  If you have ads on your site you can see which articles and topics are getting the most impressions and clicks if you have it linked to google analytics. When you find those things out you can write more of the same and similar topics to make more money.

4. Regular and subscribed readers aren't the ones clicking your ads and making you money anyway:  People who are your regular readers are pretty unlikely to be the ones clicking on your ads and making you money, so I wouldn't be overly worried if 1 or 2 people get offended at your ads. Search engine readers are your bread and butter.  By the way, in 3 years of blogging I've had exactly ZERO complaints about ads.

Aloysa said:

I put up some ads as soon as I switched to a self-hosted site. It doesn't harm me, as far as I am concerned. But I totally agree that content and traffic are the most important factors.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff said:

Invest It Wisely said:

Does anyone actually behave like this? The ones that would are probably using Adblocker. Maybe it's because I am a blogger, too, but I don't really notice ads too much. The only ones I don't like are the ones that get "suggestive" -- if I see this on a site, I'm usually closing it. ;)

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I have a post up today asking what my readers think about my ads and so far none of them care as long as I stay away from pop-ups, porn, religion, and politics.  :-)

Jason@LiveRealNow said:

I'd recommend having some ads in from the beginning, just to make sure you are building a community that won't stomp off in a huff when you add ads 6 months later.   Keep them discreet, but keep them there.

uhnw said:

Hey - I agree. I am concentrating on building traffic more than anything else though great content (trust me or if you don't believe me, go check it out yourself ). I have a adsense ad on my site, but thats it. I also have had 1 click in the last 2 months and a couple of dollars, but that was it. I don't really expect any cash for now. It would be nice, but I'm more concerned about cracking 200,000 on Alexa and getting my Moz ranking up at the moment.

1. Better to have them from the beginning so they don't look odd getting added in later on.  If they're there from the start people get used to them, and don't question why you're "selling out" later on. :)

2. Even if you don't make a ton your first few months, you might make something:  While i didn't make a ton, i was still able to cash out my adsense after 3 months on my first site.  That more than paid for my hosting.  My current site, smart on money, cashed out after 3 months as well.

3. Having adsense can help you to analyse what topics pay the best, and improve your earnings:  If you have ads on your site you can see which articles and topics are getting the most impressions and clicks if you have it linked to google analytics. When you find those things out you can write more of the same and similar topics to make more money.

4. Regular and subscribed readers aren't the ones clicking your ads and making you money anyway:  People who are your regular readers are pretty unlikely to be the ones clicking on your ads and making you money, so I wouldn't be overly worried if 1 or 2 people get offended at your ads. Search engine readers are your bread and butter.  By the way, in 3 years of blogging I've had exactly ZERO complaints about ads.

Readers may not "stop reading" your stuff if you add ADs well after launch, but most humans are creatures of habit who once accustomed to a specific look/feel of something familiar, dislike change.  I know it drives me batty when a site like CBC changes format as I have to re-learn how to get to the pages I like to read.

As I stated earlier - no harm no foul.  After the initial set-up of the ads there isn't a whole lot more that needs to be done to them - pretty low maintenance.  We haven't touched the ads in weeks, so after we posted them we focus 100% on content now.

Does anyone actually behave like this? The ones that would are probably using Adblocker. Maybe it's because I am a blogger, too, but I don't really notice ads too much. The only ones I don't like are the ones that get "suggestive" -- if I see this on a site, I'm usually closing it. ;)

Jason@LiveRealNow said:

I'd recommend having some ads in from the beginning, just to make sure you are building a community that won't stomp off in a huff when you add ads 6 months later.   Keep them discreet, but keep them there.

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Jason@LiveRealNow said:
 

I'd recommend having some ads in from the beginning, just to make sure you are building a community that won't stomp off in a huff when you add ads 6 months later.   Keep them discreet, but keep them there.

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Does anyone actually behave like this? The ones that would are probably using Adblocker. Maybe it's because I am a blogger, too, but I don't really notice ads too much. The only ones I don't like are the ones that get "suggestive" -- if I see this on a site, I'm usually closing it. ;)