I’ve often talked about not making any money off this blog. Well, it’s a little different with one of my other blogs. On my finance blog, I get plenty of advertising. I can’t say I’m turning into a mogul on that page, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s doing pretty well, and combined with the Adsense money I make off one of my other sites I’m not doing all that badly.
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The thing about accepting advertising, though, is making sure that whatever you accept fits in with what it is you want to accomplish with your blog, or how you want it all to look. I thought I’d talk about this a little bit because you can find yourself gushing with a little bit of pride the first time someone comes to you asking if you’ll accept an ad without thinking about how it might eventually affect the look and structure of your blog.
For instance, when I first had advertising on this blog, I hooked up with Text Link Ads. And I made money; one month I made almost $100 while I was accepting it. Then Google learned about it and I lost my page rank. I wouldn’t have cared except it seems those advertisers stopped wanting to advertise on this blog because of it. And since my Alexa rank wasn’t as good as it is now I didn’t have anything else to keep them interested, so that was that.
These days, I don’t accept link ads on my blog except within a post. I also don’t accept any advertising that doesn’t have anything to do with the topic of the blog or website. That’s actually the most important thing you have to look at if you decide to accept advertising; relevance. Now I know I’ve said this blog will be about almost anything, but I do concentrate on a few things here and there. So, unless I’m popping up one of my own affiliate ads, you won’t see shampoo ads on this blog. I almost said you wouldn’t see Duncan Hines ads on this blog, but y’all know how much I love cake. lol
Okay, maybe not so much for this blog, but for my finance blog if the ad doesn’t concern something financial or business related it’s not going on there. I don’t accept any advertising on my business blog except for my affiliate ads. On my local blog I don’t have any advertising there yet, not even Adsense; I’m going to have to take care of that one of these days.
Then there’s the types of ads one will accept. I don’t accept any text link ads on the sidebars or on the first page, but I do accept banner ads of some type. If you decided to check out my finance blog you’ll see there’s this neat widget at the lower left. I get paid well to run that sucker and it’s finance related, although it’s geared towards a UK audience, which is one of the strangest anomalies for me. Most of the advertisers are from there, but they pay well and quickly and I don’t mind all that much, though it’s still confusing.
I also will allow someone to buy into an article, or write an article and pay for their ads to be in it. That’s one of the best parts of allowing guest posts there, and it’s the type of thing that can bring in cash here and there. For instance, yesterday I had a company ask if they could write an article about their website and their product. That’s a first, and the reason I turned it down was that it wasn’t a company geared towards an American audience, though it was financial. Since the blog is geared towards Americans it didn’t quite fit. However, I’d have gotten paid nicely for that guest article, which would have been a total advertisement, and I’m not above that.
I do allow ads within posts as long as they’re related to whatever the topic is on that post. I allow that kind of advertising on my other websites as well. Though I’m about to remove the links in a week because their contract is up, I have some linked advertising on my anti-smoking site, which ran for a year. Of course, the rate’s going up for anyone else who might want to advertise, but I’d grandfather them in for now.
Anyway, the overall idea is that money can be made on blogs or websites in more ways than one. It helps to think about your advertising rates and the type of advertising you’d like to accept if you’re ever asked. I hope you get asked as well; trust me, it’s kind of cool. 😉
Definitely there are many ways to make money. I am also not a big fan of ads. It is really dangerous as you mentioned Google and paid links. Right now there is a form for reporting paid links to Google. And as soon as competition is aware you get in trouble.
Carl, I’m not sure if they found me that way or because of how they were tracking Text Link Ads in some fashion, but that’s okay because I went into it knowing it might not work out well. Still, for people who really don’t care about page rank it’s a way to make money if their advertisers also don’t care. But one has to be cautious across the board in what they take money for.
I am not sure how tracking is done. I had a similar conversation with one of my colleagues about 2 weeks ago. How some paid ads providers get caught and how other does not.
Interesting to see how you got to the point of deciding what works and what doesn’t.
Right now, I’ve had some success on my personal blog and I’m going to keep it personal. I’m still very much a rookie w/ do-dads, buttons, adverting, etc, so I don’t know if I will be changing it much at all. Having said that, who knows how I will be thinking 30 days from now.
The real eye opener for me was last wk when Ari Herzog did a feature post on me. First of all I thought he was just going to mention me in his post, and the way it was written just blew me away. There were over 150 comments on that post.
It did open my eyes to the power of community and got me thinking how can I translate that in a positive way to my day job (which is sales). Interesting indeed and I like the fact I do have options.
Good to see you and thanks for stopping by my place.
Bill, the power of a blogging community is amazing, which is why it’s important to never take it for granted and never try to take advantage of it either. At the same time we all have to be ready to do for ourselves in some fashion, so if you ever get to the point where advertisers are coming to you, set a policy and stick to it.
Hi Mitch
I don’t have advertisers on my lavender blog. It has been suggested to me by a marketing friend that it would be a good idea to accept ads, but so far I haven’t.
However, on a new site I am building at the moment, I will have some ads but will be choosy about them. Only want them to be related to my site.
As you have found out, they can bring in some income and if we are running a business site then that’s good news 🙂 But for me, most important of all is to keep my integrity and only have what I am comfortable with.
Patricia Perth Australia
Smart move, Pat. Integrity is always the number one priority for me as well, though the almighty dollar can blind you for awhile. 😉
I’m not above accepting ads on my blog as long as they don’t link to a site I disapprove of. The most I’ve ever received is $100 for a link for a year, and it was on an old post as well. Luckily for me they asked for link on more than one blog. 🙂
It’s pretty nice when you’re asked, right Sire? Still have to be circumspect, but it’s great seeing that almighty dollar.
It sure is, it’s like wow, someone has seen all the hard work I’ve put into my blog and is willing to pay to be a part of it.
I’m not to fussed with what ads I accept as long as it’s not something that I disagree with. An ad is after all just an ad and I think most people appreciate that.
Sire, I think I’d be like you on this blog, but on the finance blog things must be standardized. Relevance becomes a major key with a niche blog; at least that’s how I see it.