More Ads = More Money = Less Engaged Readers | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Sandy @ yesiamcheap said:

I didn't put ads in, even AdSense, for about the first two years then I migrated to WordPress, chose a professional looking theme that allows ads, added affiliate links etc, and did a grand unveiling and giveaway.  I wanted to have a good amount of archives first, get my blog out there, build a decent audience and not have chump change $15 advertisers coming my way.  I got enough of those low-ball offers in the first two years which I turned down and now those same advertisers have come back with a minimum of triple their original offers and I am able to negotiate the terms that I want.

I'm not opposed to ads.  In fact, I tell everyone up front in my disclosure that the entire point of my site is to make money and that they should assume that every single thing that I mention is making me money in some way.  I accept sponsored posts which a screen HEAVILY and only from advertisers that I would endorse or use in my personal life.  I have affiliate links as well of products again that I would endorse.  I reject far more than I accept. By all means everyone should try to make as much as possible from their sites.  They take us away from our family and take money to run as well as our valuable time.  For those of us running debt reduction blogs, we have even more reason to make money. 

I am just advocating that you get at least six months of solid blogging in, where you have a good amount of archives, have built a little traffic, have loyal readers and have a clear identity for yourself and your site before taking ads.  You learn soooooo much your first six months or so that it will put you in a better position to command more money.

This month I will clear $2,000 from my single blog and already have an advertiser that wants ads on my new niche site that's been around for only 2 months.  I've also been contacted by 2 MAJOR financial institutions that want to add my site to their corporate blogs and/or advertise and I know that they trolled through my archives before approaching me.

I think that content is truly king and having ads a month in or 2 years in doesn't matter overall.  As long as I don't start sucking with my posts, no one seems to care that I had Adsense up after the first 3 weeks or that I sold sidebar ads from 2 months on.  I just hit the $10,000 mark at 1 year and 15 days and it's looking to be getting way better.  Ads, any ads or no ads or whatever, do not make the blog succeed or not.  Reaching out to people, making connections, and building a great community is what gives a blog its heart, right?

I pretty much agree with Crystal here although she's been completely kicking my ass in monetization. ;) I am up for anything when it comes to ads so long as I don't think it's something downright illegal or immoral, but at the same time I like to keep standards and I don't just want to sell out to the lowest bidder.

I actually recently removed my sidebar ad block, not because I thought it was ugly or anything (I actually felt the same as Kevin @ Thousandaire about it making the sidebar look a little more fleshed out!) but because its ecpm was very low. I am testing to see if I can get better results overall by limiting the ads to under the post title.

I got tired of Adsense so my solution was the WSA plugin. My regular readers don't have to see Adsense. I set it so that SE readers only get to see the giant block. I don't want to interfere with the reader experience for my loyal followers.

Just to prove my point;

About 2 months ago, I have removed some ads from The Financial Blogger. While my number of ads were reduced, my traffic jumped and I am making the same level of money that I was making back in December (but with 5,000 visitors more per month). My RSS reader jump by 100 and my newsletter subscribers jumped as well. I don't think it was all related to ads but a part of it is surely linked to having less ads.

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff said:

I think that content is truly king and having ads a month in or 2 years in doesn't matter overall.  As long as I don't start sucking with my posts, no one seems to care that I had Adsense up after the first 3 weeks or that I sold sidebar ads from 2 months on.  I just hit the $10,000 mark at 1 year and 15 days and it's looking to be getting way better.  Ads, any ads or no ads or whatever, do not make the blog succeed or not.  Reaching out to people, making connections, and building a great community is what gives a blog its heart, right?

@Crystal,

I actually like the modification you made. Putting down your banners and widget at a lower level makes the site more welcoming. And don't worry, I have seen worst blogs than yours ;-).

I didn't mean to attack you by the way. I just wanted to tell younger blogger to be very careful with ads. The problem with a very young blog is that if you put ads too soon, you not only risk to burn your readership but you will also risk to burn advertisers. If you fill your site with paid links and banners, chances that your site PR will be dropped to 0 in a heartbeat.

It also depends on what you want to do with your blog:

- build a community, a brand

- make a quick buck

- make a steady income but not grow too much

- sell your own product  or affiliate links

Each strategy is good but requires a different setting and you can rarely combined 2 or 3 strategies and be successfull in all of them.

Out of curiosity, what is the percentage of your revenue earned from other sources of income than private ads? (adsense or affiliate links for example)

I would think that most of your regular readers are reading through RSS and don't see the ads anyway.  I've had ads on and off my site a couple times and haven't noticed much change in traffic either way.

Kevin McKee said:

Has anyone seen the Social Network. Make your site cool before you start trying to make money, or it'll never go anywhere.

I have one adsense box on my sidebar, and it's because I think the sidebar looks empty without it. I've been around for almost 6 months and I'm only 1/2 way to my first $100 adsense check. I'm completely fine with that, because until the site grows substantially, the ad revenue will be so small that it won't have an impact on my personal finances.

 

Kevin, if you keep posting those videos of you singing PF related songs, your site will  soon become the YouTube for financial geeks. I'm sure that I along with many other Yakezie members will promote them as we see them, which should get you your $100 check in no time at all. 

SavingMentor said:

Wow, SPF – your site definitely does look cleaner now! I think it is a definite improvement … but hopefully you will still be able to get some money out of it!

I also think your site is looking a lot cleaner too Crystal.

Ya – I didn't have the 3rd column up for long – mebbe 4 days.

Eventually, when I do get an advertiser, i'll need to figure out a way to display the ads.