Comments on: Should New Blogs Have Ads?

By: K. W. Musante

K. W. Musante — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 13:53:03 +0000

I’ve been thinking about putting ads on my site. Personally I don’t mind them. I certainly don’t find ProBlogger’s ads annoying. My site’s not that big, (it’s more of a hobby) and I don’t get many hits, but if I was being payed by ad revenue, I might be more hardcore about it.

By: » Should Bloggers Learn about Change Management?: ProBlogger Blog Tips

» Should Bloggers Learn about Change Management?: ProBlogger Blog Tips — Fri, 27 May 2005 14:12:40 +0000

[...] his is a lesson worth learning for the rest of us. I mentioned this the other day on my should new blogs have ads post where I argued that one of the downsides [...]

By: Jason Davis

Jason Davis — Mon, 23 May 2005 16:57:17 +0000

I am currently thinking about putting ads on my blog (recruiting.com) There are definately pros and cons. I am not sure if a buck a day or even 10 bucks a day makes sense (at least to me)

I think building readership and a community feel is much more valuabale and if in fact there is value, the money will come.

Jason

By: Marketing Loop Blog

Marketing Loop Blog — Sun, 22 May 2005 08:10:01 +0000

Should New Blogs Have Ads?

In response to Jacob’s post about Should New Blogs Have Ads?, Darren Rowse from ProBlogger said that advertising on blogs should be started as soon as possible, especially if the purpose of the blog is commercial, because:

Not much money is better t…

By: Ryan Latham

Ryan Latham — Sun, 22 May 2005 00:20:56 +0000

I just wrote a rebutal to they naysayers of ads in RSS feeds, but my feelings remain the same on ads in general. I am doing what I like doing. Not that I do not enjoy other things, or nor because I am lazy. I am not the evil because I put advertisements on my sites, the ideology of a real job that I go to from 8 in the morning to 5 at night is the evil. It prevents me from spending time with my girlfriend, my family, friends and enjoying life in general. If someone proposed a way for me to get paid doing what I like that doesn't involve advertising I would be more than willing to hear it. But until then advertising will always be a great thing for both blogs, and thier readers. I mean sure, I would still write even if I wasn't getting paid...but the thought of some day making it a living gives me more incentive to do it better and more frequently.

By: Tom Hanna

Tom Hanna — Sat, 21 May 2005 23:32:54 +0000

My experience from nonblog business sites is that when I added ads I added credibility. I began to get less curiosity calls and emails and more real business. With a blog, where the point is probably more to build readership than to build responses, but the lesson here is that a site someone stumbles upon may appear more credible to the average consumer if it has ads. To the average consumer, even Google Adsense ads may create an automatic impression that the blog is more professional and that adds credibility. Of course, having ads with no content won’t hold that impression for long. And if you are in an anticommerce niche, that won’t apply, but in that case you are going to run into issues no matter when you put the ads on.

As far as search engines, FWIW, I hit a PR of 4 in less than a month with a blog that had Adsense ads from day one…I tend to take all the SEO stuff with a grain of salt and just do what I know works. You shouldn’t spam the SEs, but you can’t live your life by them either. Put out good content that people will want to link to and get it in front of the web’s opinion leaders and you will get on the SEs.

By: dean

dean — Sat, 21 May 2005 21:05:40 +0000

it has been proven by reliable sources that putting ads immediately on your site will possibly sandbox your site longer than normal by all se’s – yes even google (or get flagged for human review as spammy site by se’s).

point is to put ads, yes, but wait till site is indexed by all major se’s….

if you are going to have a blog, especially one that gets all content from syndication, them, waiting a month or two will be in your best interest….

By: Danger Stevens

Danger Stevens — Sat, 21 May 2005 17:54:35 +0000

I’m grateful that I started out using ads on all my sites simply because being able to check Adsense stats was an encouragement to me. It wasn’t until I started watching my CTR that I got excited about the idea of really trying hard to develop my sites and place ads well. The dollar-a-day for me was a necessary stepping stone to everything further – I might have quit without it.

By: Michael Moncur

Michael Moncur — Sat, 21 May 2005 17:41:14 +0000

dean: I’ve used ads from day one on many sites, no ads on a few others, and have noticed absolutely no effect on the “sandbox”. It seems to happen to just about every site regardless of ads.

Especially when we’re talking about AdSense, I can’t imagine Google restricting a site for having ads…

By: Michael Moncur

Michael Moncur — Sat, 21 May 2005 17:39:15 +0000

I generally put ads in on day one when I launch a site, although I am conservative at that stage (no pop-unders or animated ads) to help build readership.

My reasons agree with your #2 and #3. Additionally, it fits in with my philosophy that every site should be profitable from day one. Even a few cents a day is at least a start.

One more reason: At some point, traffic will increase, and it may happen suddenly. If I don’t have time to drop everything and add advertising to the site right then, I’m losing money… having the ads already there means I’ll benefit from any traffic bursts.

By: dean

dean — Sat, 21 May 2005 17:34:41 +0000

one theory, and a good point of avoiding ads on your site, is that you may avoid the google sandbox effect, or shorten it, if you dont put adds on your site.

many have tested it and claim it works, i.e. adding ads later. i have one site, no ads/adsense and google has quite a few, if not all the pages, indexed now.

cheers

By: colbert

colbert — Sat, 21 May 2005 16:37:44 +0000

well for me…most important is content. if its good, then why not help out the website owner with some clicks on related ads. BUT strictly not a clicking spree

By: Keith

Keith — Sat, 21 May 2005 16:34:42 +0000

As someone who has a pretty successful site that put in ads mid-stream I can say that were I to do it over again I’d have ads since day one. I didn’t really have that option back then (there was no AdSense) but if I had it, I’d have used it.

A) I would have started making money a bit sooner.
B) I’d have saved myself a whole lot of grief. Both of the points you make were true for me. I had design issues and I caught a bit of flack. Neither of which I wanted to deal with. I want to focus on content, discussion and community, not defending or talking about my business strategy or working on design tweaks to accomodate my advertising.

The funny thing is, I’m putting AdSense into my RSS and expect to go through a bit of that real soon now. At least this time, I’ve already set the president.

By: John Evans

John Evans — Sat, 21 May 2005 14:20:51 +0000

Absolutely, Darren, some of my fave blogs have ads on them. But that doesn’t mean you have to. It’s better to have a clear aim for your blog, one that keeps you focused and alive ~ many bloggers seems to be dead :-). If that purpose is commercial, excellent, just do it well. Make some money, for God’s sake! If not, it may be non-profit, like mine, but you can still sell something on the blog. My new book, “Blogging with a purpose” goes into detail about this. But it’s not on sale yet. Keep up to date on SYNTAGMA.

You see, you don’t have to have ads to advertise!

By: Allen Heat

Allen Heat — Sat, 21 May 2005 14:14:49 +0000

Hmmm, those 2 opposite arguments of yours and Jacob is really making me re-consider putting ads….

Heat