When Should You Put Ads On Your Blog?

I agree that adds form the get go is a really good idea when you don't have to worry about marketing them. However I think there are a lot of sites out there that the functionality suffers due to too many ads, and I think that it actually drives down traffic, and thus revenue.

I only recently started blogging, I put the ads in place first. At least that way people are use to your site with no ads and won't think that you are money grabbing as much as they would if the ads just appeared when the blog is well established.

Mike

thanks for the guide, if not i will be still waiting...and waiting...and waiting and waiting...

I totally agree. The more ads the merrier. :)

I have a personal blog that is just a rambling one like John says he started off with. A friend of mine suggests that I start a serious blog to which he would divert traffic! My problem is this. Who would want to advertise in a blog that does not exist, nor have traffic?

I'm somewhere in the middle of the two school of thoughts because I think that it's the right time to place ads in your blog once the blog is getting about 200 unique visitors daily. If it's less than that, the time spent on advertisements is better spent on getting more traffic. Just my humble opinion.

If you plan to put ads on your site at any time during your blog life - they should be put on from the beginning. Start as you mean to go on. Then readers know what to expect from your site.

Amen to that, John!

I don't understand the folks who criticize people who have ads up or make money vlogging or whatever.

The other day news reporters criticized a guy for selling his video of the Cleveland school shooting.

I thought, how ironic that newscasters who put food on their children's tables by reporting about the same shooting that the i-reported citizen journalist taped are being hypocrites and talking about him!

The world of ads and blogging and reporting are changing...

So .. looks we are agree on one "critical" aspect of blogging .. http://five4all.com/several-amazing-golden-rules/ (august 20)

Yeah, whilst I do believe it's good to put ads on right away so that your readers will always be conscious of them and not be angry when they're added. Shoemoney still makes a good point. He said he usually waits till about 1,000 uniques a day as shoving them up right away can give you a 1 click and gone effect, also it's very hard to gain a lot of subscribers with ads in their face.~

I think... with a stationary or commercial site I would put ads up straight away, I always do. But with a blog... I would restrict ads for a little while as the main focus should be getting subscribers, not making money. Then you can implement them when the subscribers are there.

I think if you don`t put any ads, you will make no money 100 %, so it`s logical to put them even if you have a bad traffic. You might make a few bucks, but it`s better than nothing.

I never thought about the idea to have ads as a part of the design but you are 100 % right.

The advantage of putting ads on your web site from the very beginning is that you can see early on what works well and what doesn't. As the web site evolves, so will the type of ads being used. For instance, I'm seeing many sites dropping AdSense because it doesn't generate enough money.

Many businesses tell me that they don't want advertising because it cheapens their web site and takes away their credibility. We are living in an advertising saturated world and people are used to seeing all of this. As long as the ads don't interfere with the web site usability, they're ok to use.

It is always good to put ads at the start, otherwise you may lose readers after that... :mrgreen:

I am with the 'put the ads in the beginning' school

I always found that return visitors never really bothered with adverts anyway so I put them up straight away just to get something back from the odd search referral that comes my way.

I think in reality it does some what add to the negatives of going to the blogs, it may not exactly stop the user but the unless the user has a need of going there, the user will try to avoid going to that site. I found that true with myself as well as others. When I had done something similar, it did not stop incoming traffic but the time at which someone will stay on my blog reduced dramatically compared to my friend who actually found the advertisements repelled his traffic in the other direction. Also you have to remember that the only reason other websites are buying ads from your website is for traffic reasons. So its not sometimes worth getting ads and loosing traffic at the same time. Defeats the purpose for some websites and blogs especially.

I think you are totally true. I think too many ads really has a down effect on your traffic..

If there is no traffic and page rank, I guess 125x125 banner ads is not an option for starters though... :neutral:

I suppose I'm still in the building traffic mode, but I went to Ads 4 weeks in and wont look back. I'm going to add a 125x125 Block this weekend available to all . Cheap too. Stay the Course

Oh yeah, I've copied John's idea of 125x125 ads everywhere in our blogs. Well, techcruch did a good job too...

If you have a loyal readership , I dont think it would halt anything. I have a very low readership currently only 24 and the visits are about 2000 views per day, I decided to go ahead and put the ads up and see how it turn out. I need to switch to Wp before I can integrate more, blogger just doesnt cut it

Nice Writeup

I agree with including ads as well, just think your readers will like the blog better if its well placed. Not just slapped everywhere. As long as the blog is neat it will be a good thing.

This sounds like a case of "do as I say, not as I do".

I fundamentally disagree with monetizing a blog in any way before it gets any traffic.

The idea that somehow people will STOP reading because you monetize in the future is ridiculous. After all, you followed the
"no ads in the beginning, monetize later", with this blog and it worked extremely well.

From a reciprocity, social proof, viral word of mouth perspective - NON blog monetization is FAR more efficient in promoting a new blog.

Certainly other blog owners, directory owners, and anyone with an interest in LINKING or DISCUSSING a blog is going to be far more likely to link/discuss YOUR blog if it has no ads on it.

The only exception to this rule is if you are already a perceived authority in the market.

Monetizing from the get go is like dragging a 400 pound bag up a mountain - sure you may eventually get there - but why not climb up first and send for the helicopter once your on top?

Very interesting article. A great topic that I've been thinking a lot about lately. I started my blog with no monetization, but definitely am going to be placing them on there after reading this.

Thanks!

By ads, John means private ads right? AdSense shouldn't count... the program itself is a joke.

I think its perfectly acceptable to over monetize your blog if you have GREAT contents from the start.

I agree. The earlier you start, the earlier you get to test and see what works and what doesn't.

For instance, I started with a big google image ad in the middle of every post. But it wasn't performing well so I took it off, and my blog is better for it. I can make up for it and begin planning where I'll add additional ad space in the meantime before I get too popular.

John I agree with you about putting ads from the start. Otherwise as you gain readers, they may leave after seeing tons of ads added all at once. Another thing of note is some of the advertising programs want you to have a decent Alexa traffic rank before even allowing you to run their ads, so those can wait.

Since the redesign of John Chow, 125x125 blog ads have popped up a ton more sites. I've received a decent amount of emails asking me to advertise on these blogs. It's funny to see the comparisons in price when you compare them to JohnChow.com rates/rss/traffic.

Your advertiser: "Incomes from $200,000 to $400,000 or more are realistic results from ordinary people!"

What a joke

I'm try to decide whether I should put up ads on my new site. I think tho that visitors appreciate clean and ad less sites.

*another micro-investment site at www.wikillionaire.com, feel free to visit it. With the success of MillionDollarWiki, I just had to create my own. :)

There is no problem with placing ads on any content site, as long as the ads are relevant to users. Every quality publication from Forbes to the NYTimes has ads and these sites are beacons of the online publishing industry.

I've done both. You're right, no ads from the start usually means a redesign or a hacked up look. With my new blog I went with ads from the start.

i agree that ads should be part of the design :D
i think that just putting a few ads doesnt really hurt for personal or commercial blogs/sites as long as it dont intrude readers.

sometimes it is the ads that makes your site looks like a site. personally i dont mind looking at ads (especially creative ones) but i prefer ads to rotate else i will be sick of looking the same ads over and over again.

Now that we are talking about starting weblogs... what happened to that "secret weblog" you started sometime ago, the one you were not going to say the name as you wanted it completely anonymous? I haven't read again about it! Are you still up with it?

I would agree, putting ads on at the beginning seems to be the best way to go. Even a blog with only 150 page views like mine still makes $150 a month. Thats even better rates than you!
Click for Nick - Make Money, Save Money

I agree, excellent read John. I usually start monetizating my blogs, when they reach the 1000 uniques a day milestone, sometimes i wait even more.