Apr 25, 2008
Cut your hair, get a real job, and put ads on your blog.
Like this post?
Tony Kummer considers blog advertisement.
I say, ads don’t sell you out any more than getting a job does. We’re not hippies.
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
I think it depends on the ads. If I’m only accepting ads for products and services that I know are reputable, then that’s fine. If, however, I start tacitly endorsing shady characters–and throwing my readers at them like so much guppy chow–then you would certainly have a case for believing that I had chosen to sacrifice my readers to Mammon.
That, and we readers prefer a low signal-to-noise ratio. If relevant ads are displayed in a way that isn’t noisy, then I’m all for it! (The guys behind IconBuffet do this well.)
Yes, there are definitely important considerations after you decide ads are OK. Keeping your site wholesome, usable, and well-designed are the most important, I’d say.
Ads are okay if your blog has a readership to support them. It’s the blogs having fewer than 5-10 readers that should not be putting ads up. It just looks pitiful.
Abraham – Thanks for linking over and reminding me not to be a hippie. :-)
When thinking this over, I wanted to set it up without losing control over the ads or making the blog look like a spam site.
Good conversation here.
Derek,
So would 10-20 readers be OK? :)
Kummer:
You will never earn a living from your blog, but you may occationally pay for Christmas or a weekend away with your wife.
Place ads which you know are wholesome. AdSense doesn’t do that because it uses any keywords it can find, and the key word “Jesus” draws all kinds of heretical ads.
Sell stuff. make money. Spend it in a Godly and wise way. Thank God for the blessing.
And I love IconBuffet. I go back for seconds all the time.
Beyond making me laugh out loud, the logic of your take here is outstanding! Thanks. I’d also point out that most ad providers, including Adsense, give you the ability to filter out ads (both general and specific) that you don’t want showing up.
There was something else I thought of, Tony, while I was railing on Abraham for his thoughts on how to make blogs better. Most blogs that advertise have generic ads for generic things, and that’s not going to cause anyone to click thru.
You have to have ads for things that your readers specifically are going to want to (at least) click thru to see more about. I know this speaks to what kind of readers I really have, but my t-shirt shop outsells the “mandatory reading” in my sidebar by like 100 to 1 in real dollars.
You have to sell something people want. And you will know something about the people who read your blog.
Such wisdom: “We’re not hippies.” I am inspired. No we are not. Thank the Lord!
Hi, all. Nice site…I really like your site ! Good job man.h