Place Ads or Build Traffic | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

We placed 2 ads.  One in the right side column and one at the bottom of each page.  Just Google Ads, nothing fancy.  We've had 1 click in our 2 weeks of being live.  No harm no foul as far as we're concerned.

MyJourneytoMillions said:

Buck,

 

Worry about content first because (and this may be blunt) without traffic it doesn't matter if you have ads lol no one will click them. I put google ads WAY too early into my blog and didn't make money off of them for almost a year. 

That said, I sold my first link ads 2 months in for $400 for 6 months.  I'd do it again, lol.  :-)

Thanks for being blunt, haha.  I totally agree.  Might get a few pennies if I'm lucky.  Gonna focus on traffic.  Thanks!

MyJourneytoMillions said:

Buck,

 

Worry about content first because (and this may be blunt) without traffic it doesn't matter if you have ads lol no one will click them. I put google ads WAY too early into my blog and didn't make money off of them for almost a year. 

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.

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.

Invest It Wisely said:

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. ;)
 

Post edited 6:54 am – December 6, 2010 by Sustainable PF

When researching "blog design" I read that one should get the visual and content structure determined prior to launching.  We decided we'd rather have (pretty useless) ads sitting where we inteneded them to be long term in place from the start.

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.

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.

Sounds like a plan.  Think I'm gonna look into it.  Thanks!

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.

Since I just switched to a self-hosted site, I think I'm going to follow your lead.  Thanks!

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.