Post About Ads on New Blogs | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Post edited 11:10 pm – April 11, 2012 by Financial Samurai

I just published a post about the decision to place ads on a brand new blog.

Would love to hear what fellow yakezie members think about that decision.  It seems that people are pretty firm on their opinion of this.  Is there really such thing as a time period when you should avoid including any ads?  If so, why?

I don't expect to gain any money by posting ads early.  I just don't want to be deceptive by luring people in with an ad-free version and then suddenly selling out.  I'd rather be a sell-out from the start :)  And who knows maybe the monetized posts from the early days might get traffic over time and still lead to commission down the road.  As for adsense, I think that is the easy way out as you can just leave up random ads that might not even suit your audience.

I agree with what you are saying about having ads early on so the expectation is there.

As for the ads currently in place, you have a budgeting tool, and a credit card on there.  None of your posts so far (ok ok, i understand you are new with fewer posts) are related to either one.  Adsense is SE targeted, while not perfect I wouldnt call them as random as what you have up right now. 

Just wanted to throw that out there. Consider this an opinion of a peer, since I see we are both 31 lol.

I'd run ads from the start.  That way, your visitors aren't shocked when you add them 6 months down the road.   Just don't go overboard.

For almost two decades, the Internet ethos has been "content is free." So then how can content providers eat? Well, they do not eat very well in any case, but ads can buy lunch with modest traffic. Use ads from the start and don't worry. Don't overwhelm the site with them, but don't give away the paltry revenue on the few clicks you might get early on.

Since a lot of content on the Internet does not identify publication dates and content never dies without a webmaster putting it out of its misery, there is a horde of speculative SEO advice that keeps getting recycled. Some of this SEO advice might have had a sliver of truth at one point in time, but now the context is long since lost. I doubt if Google cares when a blogger puts up the first ad, but they do seem to care if you overwhelm the content with too many ads above the fold. (Note that this too many ads above the fold topic is also a current SEO discussion that itself will never die.)

Bottom line. If you have something to say, say it. If you want to buy lunch for your efforts, use ads from the outset. If you don't need lunch money, then avoid wasting time on setting up the ads. However, if you don't use ads, many visitors could assume that your site is ancient or brand new, because the only sites I ever see without ads look either ancient or brand new. (Wikipedia or some otherwise funded institution or business excepted.)

Readers do not care if you have ads, because ~99% habitually ignore them anyway. Most Internet users went "ad blind" years ago. See the Jakob Neilsen study at:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/…..tting.html

86% could not find the US population statistic that was in big red letters in the upper right corner of a webpage, because they expected an ad and ignored that part of the web page.

This is something I've been thinking about lately. I feel that PF sites actually look a bit more professional if they have ads. I don't know why, and I'm not claiming this is a rational thought, but it's how I feel.

A site with no ads appears to be a "new" site or somehow unworthy of advertisement. Also, a site with no ads appears to be more of a journal or online diary. PF sites operate more like businesses, and less like blogs. Most of us don't just post random thoughts or updates on what we ate for lunch.

I put some up because down the road I plan to monetize that real estate and I don't want it to be sudden.

Well I'm glad everyone seems to have similar views on the subject.  I agree with John how the lack of ads actually does make a blog seem more amateur.  So I think I'll stick with the ads I do have and try not to overdo it with any future monetization.  I do have a post scheduled for tomorrow that has coupons with affiliate links.  I figure since they still help visitors, they shouldn't be too frowned upon.

These sidebars are made for ads… (sung to the tune of "These boots are made for walking") 

The point of ads is to make money. They aren't there to look pretty. So if you aren't hosting ads to make money then why? It doesn't make sense.