If You’re Going To Monetize Your Blog
written by John Chow
Some people has told me that my blog is getting too monetized, that there are too many ads on it, that it’s becoming too commercial. I have only one thing to say to that.
If You’re Going To Monetize Your Blog, Then Really Monetize It!
Monetization of a blog is way more than slapping on a couple of Google ads. That is just the beginning. Your job is to find as many ways possible to extract maximum dollars out of it, while still providing a good user experience. There will always be people who will complain about ads on a blog - even if it’s only one ad. Here’s something to keep in mind, those who complain the loudest about advertising on a blog are the same people who will never click an ad, or worst, use an ad blocker. Since you don’t make any money off them, how important is their rant about too much advertising?
How do you know when cross reach the tipping point? The answer is simple. Your traffic will tell you - if it starts going down, you need to make changes. However, the chance of it going down because of too much advertising is quite slim. Asked 100 readers what the biggest reason for leaving a blog is and too much advertising wouldn’t be at the top of the list. I think it’ll be tied with disrespecting a lobster.
Take a look at one of the biggest blogs on the net, Engadget. There are 21 ads on the front page. Do readers complain? I’m sure some do. Does Engadget care? I highly doubt it. If you’re going to monetize your blog, then really monetize it.
The Key To Ad Placement
The key to placing advertising on a site is to use many different advertising sources and to space them out so they’re not too crowded. If Engadget were to put all 21 ads above the fold, there would howls of protests. A good rule of thumb to follow is an ad should be visible with every scroll of an 800×600 page. It is possible to place a ton of ads on a page and still have it look clean (I’m not saying Engadget is clean).
Another key is to use many different types of ads. 21 banners on a page would look ridiculous but if you mix it up with banners, text links, buttons, affiliate stuff, etc., you can still maintain a fairly clean and readable page.
Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, sometime it is worth it to remove advertising from a page. I do not run an inline Google ad on my AGLOCO updates because the goal is to sign up affiliates and not have them leave the site by clicking on a Google ad. This is one mistake I feel many AGLOCO members are making with their landing pages. Why do you have Google ads on it?
Don’t Bother With The Whiners
The majority of your readership won’t care that you have advertising on your blog. Don’t pay too much attention to the whiners. While they maybe vocal, they’re not going to make or break you. I admit I had too many ReviewMe reviews at the end of the month because of that 50% sale, but other than that, I feel the level of advertising on this blog is about right.
One last thing. For those who said some of my ReviewMe reviews were not on topic, this is the Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul. This is not ProBlogger. Everything I write about is on topic! 
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(17 votes, average: 3.53 out of 5)
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I agree with you john , you have to make the most of your blog, My blog is still brand new but I’m planning to monetize it soon. Good work.
I agree with the both of you!.. I just started my site, but I am trying to put some ads on it.. I don’t think its too much to start.
Yeah, I’m going easy on the adds to start. I figure once you have regulars, then they are more likely to stick around when more adds start popping up.
I’m on the side that says that you should claim your ad spots now so that your readers no right from the get-go that you’re planning to monetize the site. It saves yourself from having to explain it in the future.
Hey Gary.. well that’s what i tried to do with my site.. very few ads to start with.. but once the site starts to grow then maybe put a bit more.
I think I’d agree with Gary. If I were to compare this with dating, you would want your date (your readers) to know your true self from the get go, instead of surprising them with your little habits and annoyances (ads) later on and ruining the relationship (losing subscribers).
Good point Gary, get your ads on there as soon as possible! Your true fans wont care if you are trying to make some money - especially if you have great content!
Same here, I am always confused when you hear people stating that your have to wait until you site is “matured” to place ads. All you are really doing to limiting a revenue stream.
Personally, just as long as the content it good, I really don’t care if a site is monetized.
Well…I guess my view was wrong then, I’ll look into fully monetizing my blog as soon as I can.
I have to admit, I did find all of the ads on JohnChow to be a bit annoying, but I keep coming back, so I guess it doesn’t matter!
Thank you,
Wesley…
http://DVDRentalForums.com
Ads are a “must” in every site. Without them, the site will not survive. If the content is good, ads are the less of worries to a reader.
I dont know about this, I ran adds from the off, adds dont bother me at all as long as theres something of interest to read Im happy.
If you dont run adds, you run at a loss, most blogs just want to cover their hosting and get a bit of pocket money, big earning sites like Johns are rare.
Good point of view Jez, has allways.
I can’t say anything more to that
I think you are less likely to get banned from Google Adsense by putting ads on sites with at least 500 visitors each day. If you only have 10 visitors and one day someone clicks on 5 ads, it will look suspicious.
We’ve had our domain for a month and a half and just now started to monotize it. We wanted to build credibility before really trying to find creative ways to monitize
You are right, John.
I do not care about your ads, except - to some extent - for the ReviewMe Reviews.
If I remember correctly, Steve Pavlina shares your opinion.
There were are lot of ReviewMe posts, but there was no decline in regular content!
I don’t think everyone agrees on that statement
I liked John Chow’s articles more a couple of months ago, the latest articles didn’t really tell me much new. However, I guess I’m psrt of the semi-silent whiners, I’m not complaining :p
I didn’t say anything about quality of said content.
No, I’m with you.
I feel that, even though the blog has “ramblings” in the title (so does mine) there were so many reviewmes stuck in there (some not written by John) that the site became about the reviews and not about John.
I have no problem with the amount of advertising content on the blog, I don’t think any of your readers have a problem with the advertising.
What some of us had a problem with was your out-sourcing of writing posts.
Unless you want to change the title to:
“The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul and a few of his friends”
please stick to writing the articles.
I think the 50% off sale may have hurt him a little. He didn’t want to turn anything down (as far as I know), so he took everything. That was a lot of reviews all at once.
The thing is it probably hurt the advertisers to be so bunched together with other reviews.
I think John is in the process of finding a balance, since he finally felt a backlash of readers disapprval
That or he made it through all of the ReviewMe’s!
Yeah I think he had a load of them due to the 50% offer, with those out of the way I would expect it to settle down again, have to wait and see…
What about adding a 3 minute comment spamming plugin? That way readers have to wait three minutes in between posting comments?
No, I don’t think he has. This post is proof. The only thing limiting the number of ReviewMe ads on this blog are the number of requests coming in. I would be absolutely shocked to hear that John turned down a ReviewMe ad due to this fictional backlash.
Of course he wouldnt turn it down, and I agree, the ‘backlash’ is fictional.
I think a number of readers got a bit weary of all the reviewMe’s but were still all here, you cant read a blog, in part dedicated to making money online and then expect the author to turn money down.
One of the most interesting aspects of this blog is to see how John manages to ramp up the revenue it generates, I think thats what the majority of readers are interested in…
While there were a lot of ReviewMe reviews this past little while, John still kept up with his usual number of posts… it’s just the ReviewMe reviews were stuck in between.
i don’t think he’s tryin to do much balance. He’s doing what works and it’s bringing him a profit. I doubt any of us would boycott him because he or anyone else does reviews.
The money making strategies that John blogs about are to valuable to pass up. It’s worth sifting through stuff to find.
Look, whatever Samans paying you to write these comments, Ill double it.
I can believe while Im off reviewing your site your in here bumping me off the no 2 spot
I need some hired help
LOL…now now, there is plenty of room for that number one spot. You just have to be up 24/7 commenting up a storm
I think it did get a bit much at one point, some of them were quite interesting though. Ive only had one reviewMe request and there is a conflict between writing what you want, and writing what you are paid to.
I think if your offered them, they are quite hard to refuse.
In the end I just thought WTF, Ill do it and spend the money on adwords or something…
John probably thought, WTF, Ill do it and pay my mortgage off!!
hahah…well, I’m not sure that the 250 he gets from these will pay off the mortgage, but def nice supplement to his income.
$7000 in a single month from a personal blog will go a long ways toward a mortgage.
I don’t complain about your ads because I have an ad block. But you’re probably right, those that complain aren’t clicking on the ads.
I had you white listed for awhile to learn from you, but your site loads so damn slow with the ads that I put you back on.
yup! same here, I am here for the content not to see the ads, but you have a point John, if anyone leaves you it will be due to disrepecting the lobster for sure!
but the site loads slow as Brain said. I do click some of the ads if I find them interesting or if I think the blogger deserves it. . .YOU really do! it has been a few months since you started monetizing it, there is nothing wrong in it…
Feedback: Reduce the no. of ReviewMe posts. ..I really hate, i know there is big money, but honestly I hate it!, now I am not whining, just that those ReviewMe posts are too much these days . . if you doubt that, just see the no. of posts you have done till date. .
I thought it was the extensive list of comments that slowed the site
Well said
I concur with you. Either one decides to go all the way in doing something (monetizing in this case), or is better off doing something else. You have to commit a hundred percent effort if you are going to reap what you sow. Besides, the only person who has the authority to say what his blog says is still the author.
Advertising is one area I really need to focus on - I have a few, but they aren’t really performing yet. I have applied for some others but haven’t been accepted yet…
What have you applied for??
A lot wont accept you until you have a lot of traffic, which is what I assume you are waiting for??
Yep! I’m getting the traffic and have reapplied to some advertisers…..
We’ll see!
Your traffic is increasing though, right? Do you find that it has increased with your technorati rank increase?
Saman, here’s a hint. Spend 1/5 of the time you do commenting on Johns post. You’ll have lots more time to focus on your advertising and it will still keep you in the top 10.
diversifing is the name of the game!
Nice tip about the ads on a landing page. Now that you mention it, I too have to wonder why people have ads on posts that talk about AGLOCO… it just lets their target wander off to sign up with someone else!
This is very true.
The Paid Reviews are great! $$$. Don’t stop doing them. However… It would also be great if the “Paid Review posts said “Review” somewhere in the title versus some sort of “Title Bait” designed to get people on the page who wouldn’t normally want to be there.
Isn’t the point of doing a review to have people view them? Making them easy to avoid would defeat the purpose!
There’s a fine line between title bait and flat out deceiving your readers. I think it’s very important to have a catchy title so that people will want to visit your post, but I don’t think it’s necessary to put “Review” in there to turn them off from it. So long as it’s disclosed in the first paragraph or two, I don’t think it’s a problem to not have “Review” in the title. If they lose interest by the second paragraph, they’re not going to read the whole thing anyways.
Review me stipulate that you do declare it as a review and suggest putting “sponsored post” or similar into the review.
I think this is likely to be a legal requirement.
I think it is a legal requirement in the UK, in newspapers you sometimes read things that are written like articles, but have “advertisement” in the header, so you are clear what you are reading.
Its to protect the readers US
Opps looks like by bold closing tag failed and sent the whole page bold, try again
You screwed up the whole page!