Your Opinion is Needed
I have been deliberating for some time about making use of the income earning opportunity from this blog. It wasn’t something I ever intended to do when I began blogging. What I hadn’t bargained on was enjoying it so much. I have invested quite a lot more time (and some cash) than I had ever intended to when I first started out.
I would like to be able to continue to do that and earning a small amount of “pocket money” through advertising would help me to do that.
This is not a change that I have taken lightly. It’s something I have deliberated over for some time (as some of you may have gathered from a poll I ran on my blogworld blog last year).
I also recently wrote a guest post on this very topic at On Blogging Australia. If you haven’t read “To Monetise or Not - That is MY Question” I would encourage you to do so. It will give you some insight into my thinking process over this. 
My biggest concern over implementing advertising on this blog is giving my readers the impression that they are somehow less important to me than making money is. That isn’t the case at all and I’m hoping you all know me well enough now to know that isn’t (nor would ever be) the case.
However, it has occured to me that I would REALLY like to give you, my readers, the opportunity to have some kind of say in this. I could ask you to comment but that would be asking you to go public with your opinion. You’re still free to make a comment, either publicly or via my “contact” page in the header. Whether you do or not, I’m asking ALL of you to please take a moment to express your opinion via this poll (it’s anonymous).
Loading ...Every single reader’s opinion matters to me so I’d really appreciate it if you’d take the time to enter your vote and give me some feedback on this matter.
Thank You,
Lightening
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24 comments:
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There isn’t a response on the poll that I totally agree with - my response would be “I don’t like ads on blogs and depending on how many ads there are, or where they are placed, I may resort to reading your blog only via feed.” That is assuming that you are discussing ads and not pay per post - if it’s PPP, then I may stop reading at all, depending on how often these PPP’s appear.
I think it’s the blogger’s personal right to decide whether they want to place ads on their site. I have, however, seen readership decline on some popular blogs because they went overboard with their ads - I don’t want to have to search the page for the blog entry because there are so many ads. I unsubscribe from feeds if they place ads in the footer. I read some blogs via feed simply because I enjoy reading them but don’t want to deal with the big flashing ads and that means they are missing out on 1) comments and 2) hits from me (and perhaps other people would might be doing the same thing).
It’s your choice (and realistically, many many bloggers have some sort of ad system on their blogs these days, so it’s not uncommon) - some small ads out of the way won’t bother your readers, as long as the content is still good and still the same as what they have come to love (and expect) from you.
I’d normally censor my comment a little more, but I felt you asked for our honest opinions and for once, I decided to be blunt yet polite on the matter. As you can see, I’m rather passionate about it.
I’m cool with you (or anyone else) running their blog the way they see fit. That being said, I am really turned off by obnoxious, in-your-face ads.
I would never ever ever ever ever do PPP.
But, as you know, I do have ads. I think placement has a lot to do with whether people are turned off or not. If they’re not aggresively situated then I don’t see how anyone could really object to them.
I am of the opinion, as I always have been, that if you can make money off writing, then why the hell wouldn’t you?
Katie - thanks very much for your response. Your “ad free blog” stance is one of the things that has given me pause. In the past I have occasionally used affilliate ads in my posts if they are a company I want to specifically endorse and it relates to what I’m talking about. I’m not sure if they come through in feed readers or not (it’s pre my feed reader days). I may do that again (if I ever get this site set up for affiliates) in the future but it certainly wouldn’t be a regular thing.
Kirsten - thanks for your comment. I think that sounds fair enough. I know some sites you go to it’s hard to find the content for the ads which I think is sad. I would only ever want them to be a subsidiary to my blog if anything. The content and interaction with my readers is still what I want this blog to be about!
Karen - I think that’s about my position too. They say that if you can find a job doing something you love, you should grab it with both hands. I LOVE blogging. More than I think I’ve ever loved doing anything before. I always had a pipe dream that perhaps I could be a “writer” but never the confidence to chase the dream. I feel like if I could earn a small amount of money blogging then my dream would be coming true!!!! How awesome would that be.
I’m not that keen on the thought of reading blogs with advertising whether it is PPP or not. (you did ask!!)
It’s your blog, so do whatever you wish. I ignore the ads anyway and just read the important stuff–the blog.
I just cannot imagine you ever letting the advertising overwhelm your blog. I don’t think you have that in you. You care too much about what you do and about your readers so I am perfectly comfortable with the idea.
I’m with Karen on the PPP. I think they’re awful but have no problem with you using affiliate links within your posts. Personally, I prefer if that’s noted within the post rather than a disclosure page (just in a tiny little note down the bottom because that gives readers a choice without them having to figure out what is and what isn’t). Also personally, I would choose to click an affiliate link if a blogger recommended a valuable service / product anyway.
Speaking as a wannabe writer and a mum, trying to find a way to stay at home with your children and be fulfilled is a goal I would never stand in the way of.
Ads are fine with me too! Generally I don’t notice the ads at all.. I don’t click the ads either unless it is something I am really interested in.. go for it!! it is your blog
cheers Kim
Ali - I did indeed. Thanks for being honest.
River - okay, thanks for that.
Cerebralmum - awww thank you. I really hope you’re right.
I can understand about the note thing. When I’ve used them in the past I’ve tended to say it’s an affiliate link as I feel uncomfortable enough about making money out of people, let alone doing it without them even having a choice in the matter. I do like the idea of giving my opinion on companies and products and figure any “kick back” is a bit of a bonus. I would NEVER endorse something purely to get me a few $$$!!!!
Kim - thanks for your support.
The interesting thing is that the reason I originally added google adsense to my old blog was because I found some really interesting sites via google adsense on other blogs. Not only interesting but extremely useful. So advertising isn’t ALL bad. Of course, I took them off after Veronica got removed because I was already doubting my faith in them at that stage and it was the final straw for me. It’s a pity there isn’t a similar program to adsense around where the ads are tailored to the topic being blogged about as well as the origin of the reader.
You’ve got enough good taste not to let any ads overwhelm your blog, so that would never be a problem.
People enjoy reading your blog for your input and if you can earn some pocket money while blogging, go for it !
I’m with cerebralmum. I can’t imagine you letting the ads overwhelm the rest of your blog. I do come to your blog for the writing so as long as I can still find that then it seems to be a happy medium. And if it means that you can stay home rather than working outside the home, that HAS to be a good thing, and thats coming from a working Mum
Something else to keep in mind is the balance between the effort of implementing it and the amount of income the thing will generate. Just as people say that if you can find a job you love you should hold onto it, a lot of writers have suggested that the moment you start writing about something professionally is generally the moment you lose your passion for it.
I think that it depends on the ads. I have several different blogs and use different ad strategies for each one. If you have some private (vs affiliate) ads that you could place that would relate to your content and your style then that wouldn’t likely bother even the most discriminating reader.
People from that other forum would probably approve… I’m a little torn. It’s not something I think I’d do (though I’m being careful not to use the word never. Everytime I use that word I end up doing the very thing I was so dead against!)
I never look at ads on other people’s blogs anyway… who’s got the time?… and when you’re on bloglines it’s not an issue anyway, unless you want to add a comment. Some people’s blogs take an age to upload, and maybe it’s because of the ads. I stay away from them. One person’s blog has frozen my computer 3 times because of all the content on the page. Or maybe I mean ‘constipated’ instead of frozen. Either way, nothing was moving, so now I read her but I’m not going back to comment until I’m back at work.
I know what you mean about blogging costing you timer and $$. I’ve decided to take on another tutoring student to make up the $$$. Trouble is, it doesn’t have the symmetry of your idea of making the $$ back from the blog you spent it on in the first place. As you can see, I’m a bit all over the place with it. Personally, for me I’d say no. For you… obviously it’s your space and you can do what you want. You can paint it pink all over if that’s what you want to do. (Oh, wait, you’ve already done that…) I guess the buzzword here is to be discreet about it. Most of us ignore the ads anyway.
Jayne - thank you!
Desertqueen - I appreciate your support and your faith in me.
Stillkindastuffy - After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing over your username I started bouncing with glee over the fact that you left me a comment!!!!
Oooohhh. A PAID author weighing in on the discussion. It’s an excellent point and one I have pondered on myself. My concern about this no longer being “fun” but a “job”. Of course, I doubt I’d ever earn enough to REALLY consider this a job - but you never know………. If I earn a few $$ can I still call myself a “professional writer”??????? 
Don’t worry, I have to learnt FTP next…..*&%$@…….. Who’d have ever thunk little Lightening would contemplate earning money from anything COMPUTER related?????
BizBeacon - thank you for your input. I agree that a few private ads that related to content and came from places that I could fully endorse would be the ideal and is what I am working towards. I think though I need to do a bit more learning about the value of advertising on my blog so I can set realistic expectations before I start approaching companies directly. It is definitely something that I would like to do in the future though. I also need to build up some more techie skills first (see my FTP comment above) so that I can implement stuff more complex than “stick this code in a widget box for your sidebar”
Frogdancer - I think we need to look into what’s going on with your username now that you’re on wordpress. Otherwise your private email is going to be spread all over. Load times is something I’m concerned about too and something that I will be keeping an eye on (so let me know if things slow down much). Do you use firefox? I’m finding that helps. I’m going to write a post about it on lightening’s blogworld soon.
As you know, I’ve been asking myself the same questions and wondering how to manage making a little money off the site without compromising it and putting off the readers. The quandary is - content has to be written for the readers and they must be the primary focus of the blog. It’s the reason most of us started blogging in the first place and I know for me, the area I get the most enjoyment out of - knowing that people are reading and commenting on my posts. I honestly think most regular readers do not even notice the ads unless they are so overwhelming that they stand in the way of the content. Some people have an anti-ad stance which I completely understand, but I think most people accept them now. So to keep the readers happy you have to make sure your ads are unobtrusive. But I think if, as one commenter suggested above, you tuck the ads out of the way, then they will probably not bring any money in for you. Its a tricky thing finding the balance. I have been thinking about this a lot and wondering how to get that balance and working on a few separate blogs, which are more “niche” blogs so that I can 1) not put off the regular readers of my personal blog and 2) attract readers to a more focused blog that maybe is more likely to bring in revenue. I don’t know if it will work and it is a lot of extra work to maintain multiple blogs but I guess its worth a try! Like you, I love the idea of being able to turn this ‘hobby’ into a ‘job’ and maybe keeping the personal (fun) blog separate from the ‘work’ blogs will help to keep it enjoyable.
Hi Jodi,
I’ve offered my opinion before so hope you don’t mind a repeat lol. I hope you do well with this and make some income from it, you deserve to be paid for your time and ability. For me, the issue of ads on blogs is not clear-cut… I do tend to hold a bias that monetised blogs generally have a somewhat different and less personal ‘flavour’ (for want of a better word) but some are still worth my time to read regardless. I imagine yours will fall into that category, although as I mentioned before, I do think the money aspect is likely to have some effect. I guess it’s how much effect that determines whether I continue to enjoy a particular blog (but tbh I think I’d always check in sometimes regardless, just to see how you’re doing).
All in all, good luck with it.
Emma.
Guera - that’s an interesting thought. A “fun” blog and a “work” blog. I guess I’d been thinking of a little bit of advertising on both of my main blogs (obviously not my wordpress free one as that isn’t even allowed). Hoping that little bits might trickle into a large enough pool.
I think I am just going to need to experiment a little and see how things go.
Emma - yeah, I realise I’m covering old ground here but I also have a lot of new readers so wanted to be sure before I went ahead and upset anyone.
I appreciate you taking the time to put your opinion on record here. 
Lightening - No, you don’t have ads in the feed.
If I want to endorse a company, I have no hesitation in doing so - linking to them, praising them, etc. I just don’t want to get money for it - I guess I’m old-school with the whole ‘no ads’ approach and my readers can trust that I am not getting paid anything in order to advertise a company to them - what they see is what they get. Even if it’s something I regularly use, I feel that once money (or other payment forms) have been exchanged, it’s no longer my true feelings, but rather a business transaction, and that just doesn’t sit right with me.
do it if you want to , it shouldn’t stop anyone from reading your blog, but Iw ould suggest keeping it minimal. Over ad’ed sites are very unattractive imo. BTW your site is beautiful as well, keep it up!
Writing for hits can also be a bit of a trap. I do some professional blogging on an irregular basis. About a year ago one of my posts was picked up by digg and there were more than 10,000 hits - which the people who payed me to blog loved, but meant that they wanted to skew my blog in a direction so that it might get picked up by digg again rather than me writing whatever took my fancy. At that point it went from being something that I looked forward to to something I was a bit worried about. Eventually I lost interest in it, because it went from being fun to being something I was regularly trying to come up with ways to push traffic to. Getting paid to blog focuses your attention on other things. Lots of people make it work. But you’ve pointed out else elsewhere that you do this blog for reasons other than money - as a form of expression and as a way of managing your depression. Given the critical nature of the original reasons for the blog, is adding another ingredient to the mix at this stage the best course of action?
Katie - I understand your thinking re affiliates and have had the same thoughts myself. Although my hope is that I’ve built up enough of a reputation with my readers that they could trust me to be honest with them regardless of money. Naturally taking money out of the equation resolves that problem altogether.
Chica - Absolutely. I have seen some very OVERdone sites when it comes to advertising and would NEVER want my site to look like that!!!! Thanks for visiting and for your kind comments about my blog.
StillKindaStuffy - I have been chuckling on and off all day about your user name. I’m really thinking not so much “paid to blog” as “using my blog as a way to earn a little bit of pocket money” (with the thought that *maybe* it could actually be a small income one day). I’ve never had a page on digg and possibly never will so I’m not sure that will be too much of a problem!
But the focus is something I’m aware of and have a few concerns about whether it will change anything. Problem is, it’s hard to know until you try it.
Go for it. Fortunately, I started my blog only in 2006 when blogs being monetized were getting popular. I have ads in my blog but I try not to clutter it too much. Just go what feels right for you