When do you decide whether to put some ads on your site or not? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Nope, no rules that I know of.  I've heard of people waiting until they have x unique visitors or PRwhatnot.  It's all up to you.

I personally monetized asap (no PR and less than 50 visitors a day) but I'm generally an impatient person overall anyway.  There are pros and cons to waiting imo. 

1)  You'll make more with a higher PR and more readers, so if you sell space when you're cheaper, you won't have it to sell when you're site is worth more.  I personally attempt to guard against this by trying to keep ad "contracts" to 6 months or less so I can weed regularly. 

2)  Another con to monetizing (with links at least) is that Google may hit you pretty hard and make it difficult to get a higher PR.  I was a 2, then a 1, and then a 2 again…maybe if I didn't do link ads, I could be even higher by now.  Again, I'm personally not patient and am okay with the risks.  To each their own.  :-)

3)  Obviously the pro to not waiting is that you can start making money faster, but I honestly don't know if I would have made more if I waited or not.  BFS is 7 months old and has brought in about $3300.  Could it have been $5k if I waited an extra few months?  I don't know but I also don't regret anything.  I like having the control to accept an ad or not every single time…entrepreneurship rocks!

Hope this helps,

Crystal

Tim – Every Peso Counts said:

As with most business, "cashflow" is very important. I would suggest you start using adsense at least.

I also started with Adsense.  I also would suggest becoming an Amazon affiliate and having at least their search box on your site.  After that, I tried another place like Adsense called Adbright, but their definition of "family friendly" included cleavage, so I took them off. 

I sold my first set of link ads in April (2 months after I started my blog).  So far, that is where I've made all of my money:  Adsense (minimal so far…less than $100), Amazon (less than $30 so far), link ads on homepage (majority of my money, more than $2500), and sponsored links in posts or sponsored guest posts from businesses ($500-ish so far).

Good luck!

Crystal

PS  I will be doing a blog stats and income update at the beginning of every month, so feel free to check in and ask anything you'd like about any of that as well.  I am NOT a big blog yet and have to build up a much bigger audience, but maybe it'll help a little somehow…

Like most,  I started with Adsense right away. I think it is good for your readers to know that you are supporting the site and your efforts with ads.  On the other hand, I suggest waiting until you are getting some larger traffic numbers before you start running CPM ads. For example, it probably isn't worth having 3 huge banner ads on your site that are paying $1 CPM (or less) if you are only getting a couple thousand of views each month.

Aloysa said:

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff said:

I sold my first set of link ads in April (2 months after I started my blog).  So far, that is where I've made all of my money:  Adsense (minimal so far…less than $100), Amazon (less than $30 so far), link ads on homepage (majority of my money, more than $2500), and sponsored links in posts or sponsored guest posts from businesses ($500-ish so far).

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Since I don't know anything about this… were you approached with an offer (link ads) or did you find them? 

Crystal

whenever i create a niche content website, i wait until i have 200-300 unique readers per day before implementing ads.  this serves several purposes – one of them is getting accepted in directory listings (many do not accept commercial, or money making websites)