Comments on: 27% of Healthcare Bloggers have Advertising – More are willing to Run them

By: Talia Mana, 2006 Weblog Finalist

Talia Mana, 2006 Weblog Finalist — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 02:26:24 +0000

My blog is on emotional wellness (mental health, insomnia, emotional eating and the like).

I don’t have adsense adverts on my blog but I do have amazon affiliate links to books that I think might suit my audience as well as my own books. I wouldn’t do google adsense as I can’t control who might advertise.

I also have links to my free forum which I am promoting… I don’t earn any direct income from that but I am hoping the forum will build loyalty as well as giving me more feel for the topic areas I should be addressing in my blog. I can use the Q&A to identify subjects that are important to readers.

I may add book reviews to my forum with links to amazon but that is further down the track.

By: Helena

Helena — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 21:45:55 +0000

Thanks George. I know about the filter, but it is just too hard to keep up, especially because I am in a different part of the world than most of my visitors. Unfortunately, the unwanted ads ARE on topic, in fact, they often could not be more on topic (a “how to lose weight in a healthy way” ebook or “healthy weight loss supplements” next to a post about that very topic, for example).

By: Gayla McCord

Gayla McCord — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:22:49 +0000

It was a ‘health’ related site that first introduced me to working from home via the net – and to be honest, I had my website and blogs going long before someone finally pushed enough – that I joined Google Adsense.

Since that time, I still maintain my ‘niche’ and do have advertisements listed – however, I make a special note to let people know exactly what products I’ve tried and what my personal review that product is.

I’ve been addressed by a few that weren’t happy with the negative impression I give of their products, but if it walks like a duck…

I don’t see anything at all wrong with the advertising and supporting one’s honest efforts through advertising, so long as the person is completely honest.

I think most of us can tell who has sold out to advertising and who hasn’t.

By: George

George — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:49:49 +0000

Helena,

My wife and her friend run two natural health related blogs and they get a lot of ads they don’t like. We wind up using Google’s URL Filter to filter out a lot of those sites. At times we use also Google Adsense section targeting to remove words that might trigger some of those ads.

Those statistics were pretty interesting. I blog for both fun and profit. I have friends who are blogging only for fun, but are thinking about joining the “dark side” and starting to profit from blogging.

By: Helena

Helena — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:35:42 +0000

I have an alternative health blog that runs adsense. Like other commenters, I am very surprised by the numbers, because it seems that all of my colleagues are very motivated by money.
I am re-evaluating my money-making strategy. I am not too concerned about the bias, but I am concerned that the products in the ads often are products I would never recommend myself and that may even be dangerous (diet e-books that promise perfect health and maximum weight loss on a diet that is far from healthy, for example). I consider changing from adsense to affiliate ads for products that I honestly endorse.

By: ShiatsuBlogger

ShiatsuBlogger — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:50:54 +0000

I started my alternative healthcare blog a few months ago. Since I am moving from an IT background it started as an experiment with blogging and Adsense but then became my student journal and now I think I want to develop it into something more!!

I did go through the Adsense dilemma but eventually came to the conclusion that since I want to earn a living doing Shiatsu then picking up a small amount of Google cash for the content on my site was OK by me.

I live by your advice Darren and make the site about the content. Whatever comes in through Adsense is a bonus and may eventually pay for a text book!

By: jhay

jhay — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:27:30 +0000

Health care bloggers are probably worried that ads (from contextual ones) about competing products, services specially the ones that are ‘exotic’ (adult-nature, questionable ads).

I tried blogging about health care last year and I was swamped with liposuction and plastic surgery ads.

By: Sexual Health And Advice

Sexual Health And Advice — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:23:26 +0000

Hey Darren thanks for the info, very interesting inferance right there. I do run two health blogs and I do them because they are part of my schooling and want to provide some type of advice to people. I do have adsense and honestly this is secondary and some extra cash for a college student.

http://www.happy-mind.blogspot.com
http://www.sexualhealth-101.blogspot.com

By: Molly's Brother

Molly's Brother — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:12:44 +0000

It’s fascinating to read that this debate re: AdSense is raging in another blogging sector. “To AdSense or not to Adsense” is often the debate among bloggers in the personal finance niche, as well.

I have ads on my site, but I do try and keep on top of ads that do make me uncomfortable or make me feel like I am putting someone with lesser knowledge in financial peril.

Unfortunately, the filters google uses make this a daily task.

By: Hsien Lei

Hsien Lei — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:30:49 +0000

Darren, Please don’t stop hanging out with me! :D

I’ve been blogging about health and health care for almost two years and most legit health bloggers I bump into are sincere. Earning money from advertising is just the reality of any kind of media if any of us hope to make a living off our passion. .

It’s the splogs or corporate shill blogs that really drag all of our reputations down.

By: Fitness Guy

Fitness Guy — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 08:57:26 +0000

So much customization and attention has to go into adsense and all the rest of it that sometimes I don’t feel like I do anything else.

Sometimes I’ll write 3 or 4 posts a day on topics that help people but still feel like checking into adsense is number one thing to do in the morning and then feel guilty about it. Sometimes I even lock myself in the bathroom with an adsense book and turn the fan on so no one will hear me reading it! Haha… thats a joke.

But your right… its the crowd of bloggers to blame

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 08:36:07 +0000

yeah question of the day – I thought that was ‘odd’ too. while 27% have ads only 1.1% said it was a reason for their blog. None seemed to say that as a primary reason. I guess that’s good in terms of their motivations but from my experience a higher % of niche blogs (not personal ones) have a money motivation – although perhaps thats just the kind of blogger that I’m hanging out with that is skewing that for me :-)

By: QUESTION of the DAY

QUESTION of the DAY — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 07:58:49 +0000

Hi Darren,

The last STAT surprised me !
” 1.1% of respondents listed that generating income from ads was a secondary reason for blogging ”

Wow !

By: Ian Robertson

Ian Robertson — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 07:16:02 +0000

I’m surprised that the number isn’t higher. It seems like alot of “health” blogs are built for adsense.

By: Stefan Julius

Stefan Julius — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 06:20:04 +0000

Interesting information, thanx a lot!