If You Don’t Place Ads On Your Blog Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later

This is very true. One thing I despise is an overly advertised content section though. For instance, too many Kontera ads.

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I started with a lot of ads on my blog, but then changed my mind and remove them and then when I saw traffic coming in place them again.

Now I only use Google AdSense and Kontera. I would like to get some direct advertisers but no luck so far.

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Hmm a timely post. I’m at the stage where my blog is still very new and slowly gaining subscribers. So far I have not monetized it all. It somehow feels like I would be ’selling out’. I have mentioned the possibility of monetizing it but something always holds me back. I think to start with I’ll try just pushing some affiliate products via posts themselves rather than slapping ads on it. We’ll see.

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True, I don’t show ads anymore in my posts.. but in every new post I add a code.. if I want ads back up, they are showing up on every post hehe

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I’m just a newbie and I didn’t want to put any ads on my blog until I get certain amount of regular readers.

Now I’m glad to see that blogger of your calibre confirms the same thing.

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Neil, I think the bigger question is not whether you should place ads (that seems to be a given) but how many you should place. Mostly because multiple ads tend to detract more attention from each other than from the site itself (in my humble opinion). Like when you go for a curry and get complimentary pompadoms - obviously you wanna dig in - that’s a given (yum!) - but if you digest too many they are not as tastey relative to one another compared to if you have just one or two and you’ll savour that in comparison to the mail course and rest of the meal.

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Kontera ads suck, I agree, they tend to overdo them . John Chow is a bit over the top IMO .

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Shoemoney said to wait with ads until you reach 1000 uniques a day..

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The nature of the Internet (free) thrives on ads. Any service worth using or blog worth reading will eventually be ad-supported or have some premium access or support level that requires a fee. There’s nothing wrong with ads if you do it right and keep away from pop-ups. I will never return to a site that pops ads up on me or resizes my browser window. I hate that.

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There is nothing wrong with monetizing your website or blog. But doing it in an effective manner is what counts. Taking time in creating campaigns that are successful for your advertiser is the key.

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@Joe Tech - I agree comepltely about pop ups… but I have started using the _blank on a few links in different sections. Ex: In the middle of an instructional paragraph, I may use the _blank to open a reference site and have been thinking twice about it.

Any thoughts on that use of a new window?

Mark

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i put ads up as soon as i had a few posts on my tech blog. my site is still fairly new but i haven’t seen any problems with adding ads

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You should put ads, but only when it reaches a certain level of traffic, and a good number of RSS readers. If I come across a blog that is new and it’s full of ads I’m running away from it.

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Agreed - also make sure the ads you add are a positive for your brand. Users will judge you based on who you associate yourself with.

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I’m waiting until I reach 500 unique visitors before I even start to place ads on my site.

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You should put ads, but only when it reaches a certain level of traffic, and a good number of RSS readers. If I come across a blog that is new and it’s full of ads I’m running away from it.

This is what I have heard a lot. Don’t use ads till you reach X number of RSS subscribers or until you hit XXX,000 number of uniques per day. What say you Neil? Should new blogs/pages wait for a certain amount of traffic or feed subscribers?

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The man is right! My main blog brings in 4 times the Adsense income of my best site that isn’t a blog. Especially as you start to get subscribers and return traffic do you really see some income!

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I always crank ads out right away on almost all my sites. The idea of waiting until your reach x number of visitors per day or whatever, that makes no sense to me. Why? Where do you pull a number like 1000/day from? Why 1000? And why would one leave a site because it has ads? Stupid. If you leave a site because it has ads, then you might be missing out on some good content. Lastly, how often do new television shows premiere with no commercials? NEVER. It should be the same on the web. Bandwidth is expensive and so is my time, and I don’t feel bad about “asking” for compensation by putting up ads. Also, even 1 hour old sites can get Dugg or Stumbled at any time so…

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it think that is key to place ads only after being popular, especially adwords that will basically show up competitors…. and if people is not loyal with you, you will probably lose them forever

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I agree, I also am hesitant to link to a site that’s up to the neck in ads. A couple adsense spots isn’t a big deal but you start putting kontera, adsense, massive # of aff links, and i start walking. It’s not that i’m against people making money, but don’t ruin the user experience.

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Don’t ads dignify the site as being something? Without ads you look like a rookie…

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Well… you paint all blogs with the same brush here. There are many reasons to blog outside of trying to make it a vocation.

What about blogs that are run by companies as a way of communicating with their customers and vendors? What about a blog that you use to communicate with friends and family? What about blogs used for the sharpening of your writing skills?

I don’t think that just because you have a blog that you’re compelled to slap some ads on it.

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“and if people is not loyal with you, you will probably lose them forever”

That makes no sense. If they aren’t loyal, then did you ever have them to begin with?

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As long as a blog doesn’t do something egregious with their ad placement (ie, pop-ups, or interstitials) I don’t see why you wouldn’t want them up from the start. Honestly, if you produce good content, people won’t care. You will lose readers if you’re a hack and you have ads all over the place, but that’s because it’s transparent that you just want to make money, not provide value with your content.

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I agree 100%, Brent. Ads don’t push people away by themselves, unless they are SUPER obtrusive. It’s crappy content coupled with over-monetization that drives people away.

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I think you’re better off with advertisements than filling post contents with affiliate spiel. A simple adSense block is less likely to be viewed as “selling out” compared to compromising your content.

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Going into an overly advertising driven blog is notwhat one is looking to do at times. But, for me the real question is, HOW DO PEOPLE ACTUALLY CLICK ON THE ADS? I have never had the desire to click on any ads by Google (or anything in the likes) and I have asked my friends and it doesn’t interest them either. Any light on this? or do I just live in a small tiny world?

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Sorry, 3rd comment here but this topic interests me a lot. I would agree Greg, not all blogs should have ads.

In my mind, the only reason to not put ads up right away is if you are recieving or could receive some sort of compensation directly from any of your visitors. I’m talking money straight from their pocket to yours, like if you are selling a product, service, or if the site receive donations. Otherwise crank ‘em out!

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Dignify? What, so I have to place ads on my Blog so that it gets dignified? That’s absurd! I mean, I am not against ads and would want to put some ads on my blog, but I don’t think that if you don’t have ads on your site is indignified. To each their own, don’t you think?

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Ditto, the only ads I truly hate are Kontera, they really get on my nerves. Especially on Chows blog where they look quite similar to normal links.

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I agree. Now, here is someone who has some GOOD head on his shoulder.

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I agree with you.

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Good point about being dugg or stumbled. That would be killer for a new site if it was dugg had you had no monetisation. Not particularly in the IM niche but in other less ad savvy niches could mean a few hundred in revenue.

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Considering this is a blog loosely focused around making money online and to small /single webmasters i doubt he means large companies who use their blog for communication.

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That is a good question: When you should start adding ads. There is many opinions out there some tells you that when you have a good traffic and some tells you from the begginning you choose which one you have to follow

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It’s a good point. I’ve slowly started to put ads and with my next layout I will incorporate more. I think a great way to introduce ads is by creating a new theme / template so people are used to the ads from day 1.

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No ads on quicksprout yet neil, when you gonna add them there?

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Funnest thing. If I post everyday, my clicks on adsense go down and so does my revenue.
Only post twice a week and my revenue goes up. go figure.

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I think you should start posting ads when your traffic is high enough to make it worth your while.

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I find them to be somtimes sporatic. Myself I like adds that are in the side bar. I keep mine on the far right sidebar as far aways as I can get them from the content.

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I guess you will know when to much is to much when poeple start complaining. Hey how long does it take rocket profit to respond to you wanting to join.

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I’ve found one good method of handling this is initially using ad space to advertise your own web site (ex. newsletter, popular articles), and then once you are established, transition the existing ad space into paid advertising.

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i personally hate ad-laden blogs and have recently unsubscribed from a few of the worst (*cough* johchow *cough)..

If you’re sole-purpose for blogging is making money, then by all-means, monetize your blog responsibly - a good example of a monetized blog that doesn’t over-do it is Darren’s Problogger.net. But for bloggers that earn good money with other ventures or other websites, such as myself and “others”, I think jamming a bunch of ads up the reader’s asses is a bit insulting.. because of this i have made my blog ad-free… But that’s just me..

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I agree with you. Too many ads seems to distract from the message of the site…unless it is some kind of special blog/site like marketing pilgrim or shoe’s blog. It doesn’t seem to bother me as much.

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Does anyone click on those anymore? I feel banner ads are making a come back.

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I had the same idea. Also why no pagerank on Quicksprout?

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I have to agree as well, every domain is actually piece of real estate, and the value of real estate is judges in certain ways, and showing a revenue stream is good,

But if you blog for fun, I guess its ok to have no ads

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Randy,

I have to agree with you also , It is nice seeing a blog all white once in a while,

But then again , people are not going to stop watching TV because of commercials are they?

I mean shit, look at the super bowl, Its every guys dream, BUT those Mo fo’s pack that crap with ads….

Maybe NOT having ads is not the answer, How about having more fun ads like the super bowl.

I mean shit, I never her anyone bitching that the game stopped to show some boobies…………..lol

~Wethead

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Shoot I have to put them up right out of the gate ’cause once I hit go chances are I’m going to forget about it until I have to re-reg the domain.

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Whoah man. People will be far more annoyed by you dedicating entire content space to ads than a sidebar or header. The undercore of it all is to provide quality to your readers. I don’t think people get annoyed by ads as long as the content is still quality and the ads are not prolific. If you have pop up ads and kontera everywhere I think this may annoy people. But sidebar ads or whatever are fine. Dedicating a post to pushing a product though… where’s the quality to your reader there? that’s just in your own interest. Try getting some direct ads, I also recomment John Chows TZZ Media Affiliates.

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Yeh setting a milestone for yourself is good. But there’s no specific number everyone must set. Shoemoney can afford to do that as he has other income and is very experinced. If you are just starting a new blog and have never marketed online before, maybe set yourself a lower milestone like 200 uniques a day.

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I agree to an extent. I think it’s good to set somesort of core milestone but think about it. A new visitor… is a new visitor. An inexperienced web user or anybody who is not a marketer may be unlikely to make judgement on how new your blog is. So why would it matter how much traffic you get. If they will run away because of ads, they either will or they wont. I think the point in waiting for a certain amount is so you don’t lose too much early on as it’s hard to build subscribers with ads in their face, but a sensible amount I think is fine. But I think if you leave a blog just because it has ads… that’s a bit judgemental. I would read posts first. Content is what matters.

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Well… that’s you. I wouldn’t unsubscribe from a quality blog just because it has ads though. I think that’s a tad childish and trivial. If I find a blog which I think has amazing posts… I’m gna keep reading. The ads don’t bother me because I’m not going to click them anyway but why cut off a good source of literal enjoyment for a trivial standpoint on ads. I don’t think a blogger should have to exclude himself from making money with a blog due to the fact they make money elsewhere. An entrepreneur siezes every oppurtunity to make money. Personally I would agree in Chow over doing it though, I think his blog would be better without the big 350 by 250 in the content. But I certaintly wouldn’t unsubscribe from someone for something so trivial.

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I am at a cross roads too, and felt like I would be selling out, but I dont think that way anymore.

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i like blogging because it lets me speak my mind. i wouldnt mind being able to pay the hosting though.

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I completely agree but when starting out, I think it’s best to build at least 200-300 visitor traffic before doing any ads…

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Agreed, the money you will make from less visitors usually wont be much anyway

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Yes, people click on ads.. especially search engine visitors looking for some very specific things.. ThaT’s why adsense is so effective…. Contextual ads are the way to go, and they work.

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this coming on the guy who made a whole post about how john chow and his “evil” moneymaking schemes were bad :smh:

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I do fill that the popup ads are really annoying and I won’t go back to any sites with popups. :p

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That’s my motto

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The easiest thing to do to monetize without turning off readers in the beginning is to monteize your old posts the heaviest.

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Well said, I second

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If I consider myself a mysterious reader and get to a blog with good content and ads, it gives me no trouble so far the ads don’t interfere with my reading, I never stop to ask how many unique visitors go to that blog, if i see an interesting banner, i click. So what’s all about the unique visitors story. I behave differently now cause I’m a blogger, before i didn’t just give a damn on the % of ads on a site and i believe its the same for most non bloggers. Ads go with the type of visitors you have and not with the number of visitors, that my point of view

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I absolutely hate those Kontera ads, those stupid popups come up when you move your mouse around and it’s incredibly frustrating. I don’t mind a text link ad on the side but that kontera stuff is annoying.

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Ha, plenty of people click on adsense ads.

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I think 200 is a reasonable milestone, I’ve done it as low as 100; it depends on what you want to do.

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woot? I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about.

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In the German blogosphere, this is still a big discussion… of course it’s totally okay to keep one’s blog ad-free, but people tend to judge others who don’t - and that’s really st00pid.

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good point… but at least in the beginning, more screenspace should be designated to content than to ads…

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how long will you wait? I think it’s very difficult to determine the proper number - because that heavily depends on your topic.

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I don’t have many ads on my blog yet, but I’m going to ad some more. These idiots who say - “I won’t visit your blog if you have lots of ads” get on my nerves. It’s like saying, I won’t visit your store if you sell stuff.

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that’s how I figured out that you could make good money online - with my blog. It was almost an accident. I just wanted to cover my hosting costs, but it turned out to be more than I expected and I knew I was on to something.

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Take comfort in knowing those aren’t the type of readers you want anyways

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Something’s better than nothing. Better to project an image of success from the get-go, in my opinion

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I agree that to an extent there is no detriment, and truly only an advantage to having ads on your blog. However, any ads like pop-ups which visitors automatically will dislike should certainly be advised against because those ads will only end up hurting you later on.

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OK Somebody needs to make up my mind for me because half the blogs out there say ads are bad and people like John Chow need to be shut down and the other half is like woo hoo lets put up some more ads.

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– You want someone to make up your mind? — Put ads on your damn blog! If you aint earning anything, your wasting your time! If you blog is good, people will read it, ads or not. they have no choice. Mind made up??

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You can only make that decision yourself. If you want to earn money from your blog the choice is pretty obvious. Get the ads up ASAP. If you just enjoy writing then don’t bother.

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Well said.

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Nice. You are really good at the whole talking shit thing. Maybe I’ll go read your blog?

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I admit Im a noob and I dont want to make people think all I want is for them to look at my ads. Besides, isnt that what my affilate sites are for? My affiliate blog is more about helping other noobs not make same mistakes I do.

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This is correct. After a period of time. Any webmaster or blogger should think about getting revenue from their site. At least to pay the site hosting fee or to move to new domain and host if they are using free ones.

Thanks
Mido from pimp my cash

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Agree with You …

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I wish to place some ads besides adsense in mine blog as well, ~1k uniques daily. Kontera bothered my visitors, Chitika got low ctr, I guess bad for my web site… Trying CJ now.

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I tink once you have 100 visitors par day you should think about ads for sure.

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Hey Neil..I agree. Put the ads up on the blog/site..nothing wrong with monetizing a blog. Of course, it should be done in subtle enough way, and ideally the ads should make sense with the content of the site. I like to think the ads on my site are not too in-your-face. I make most of my $ thru my ebooks now but I hope to up the ad rev someday.
A funny story if you can stand my “Internet old fart-ed-ness” for a moment..back in the day I worked at AOL..before they had ads. Yeah, they used to not have ads and prided themselves on it. I never saw the sense of that..I mean, tv had ads and that was how they brought content to the masses, right? Eventually they saw the light and got ads, and now of course there are more ads than you can swing various cats and dogs at.

OK..thanks for humoring me for sharing that tale. Bonus points for anyone who remembers Prodigy.

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I still say ads all th way ,Like I said above , NO ONE stops watching TV because of commercials right?

What about magazines,….you still read them?

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that’s true, more click on those I think than any other. I have yet to sell anything through affiliate links so I don’t do that anymore really but well placed ads can be encouraging.

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Ads aren’t bad, but I hate the contextual linking where you are just scrolling your mouse over the text and suddenly you have the website snapshot in front of you when all you are trying to do is read the website you are currently on.

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An excellent point, but the only way you would be selling out would be if you are just putting random ads on it that have no connection to your blog. Just be diligent about which ad networks you use and what they are showing. For those who aren’t reading it, Caroline has an excellent blog with some great information, go signup there.

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Ive spent a small fortune trying to generate traffic. I resisted putting ads up …until today. Coincidently I found this post after some of my handy work. I’m giving it away on contests, I have to recover some of it somewhere, don’t ?

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I say its good to put some ads on a new blog but it shouldn’t be the main focus.

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straight to the point….very true indeed…but reasonable amount of ads is advisable

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I too hate popups, also this days even IE will block them so we cant earn anything .

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that is good but by placing ads far from our content , revelant ads may not display, that is only probe.

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ya, we less traffic we cant earn also clean blogs gets traffic and backlinks fast.

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Cool, i,am planning one blog for me, may be i will start from next week.Hope tech blogs run well.

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I have Kontera ads on my blog and they look nothing like the hyperlinks. A typical hyperlink has a single underline and Kontera has a double underline. It doesn’t take long to figure out what links go where from using the blog for a little while.

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Good point - so putting more ads up will hopefully get rid of the bad readers too.

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Julia - I vaguely remember Prodigy. But it’s hard to remember what aol was like before all those ads. There like the spammiest company ever now. I can’t even read my email in the morning without accidentally clicking on a half a dozen ads. And they are the most annoying ones, because you didn’t even want to click on them anyway.

I think there is probably a happy medium, but I guess AOL make a fortune from them.

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exactly. Ads should be related and minimal.

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Sorry, not sure how to put a link in here - I tried and my post didn’t show: fatboysquest(dot)com

Just wanted to say thank you thank you and thank you to Jeremy for sharing this personal information.

I found this site serendipitously when searching for ways to improve my own admittedly newbie blog. It has inspired me to not only continue my quest, but redouble my efforts!

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I would rather start the ads from the beginning with just a two or three and build from there. I think if you don’t show ads until you build readership you may come off as a sellout or oppurtunistic.

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You have a very nice site here, I found it while searching the web on how to improve my site. I am gland I found you!

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No one stops watching, but a lot of people change the channel

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I think you should start as you mean to go on - so if you want ads on your site then put them on there from the begining

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I blog for the love, not for the money! Just kidding, my blog is full of ads

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LOL - - yeah - mine too

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Probably million-dollar-webpage guy’s opinion should be sought in this matter. Apparently he seems to know good enough about the issue, to make him a millionaire. Cheers

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This is a great article and has convinced me that my homework for tonight is to monetize carefully…wealth of knowledge around here!

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Having a strong committed community to your posts, ads shouldnt be a problem at all. Just my 2 cents

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Sadly enough the more time I spent trying to perfectly monetize my blog the more I screw it up and the less money I make

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Hello,

I’m from Kontera and I’ve been reading some of the comments here. I wanted to stress a few point that have been overlooked.
The time it takes the layer to open at mouse-over is configurable by the publisher. This is to prevent random opening of the layer. Publishers can also determine the number of links displayed per page, their location and color, in order to make Contentlinks™ most accommodating to user experience.
We are glad to answer any questions and offer optimization help.

Mika
Publisher Services Manager
http://www.kontera.com

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I hate those Kontera ads too. Also, I totally agree that getting your traffic first is the way to go. Any site or blog for that matter that I have put up and tried to monetize right away always seemed to drag its feet as far as traffic.

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I totally agree thet getting traffic first is essential to monetizing. If you build it, they will come. And hopefully with their wallets!

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Yes, I agree with Niel but I have seen lots of blogs looks crammed due to over putting ads.

IMO blog ads should be place with nice manner and ads relate to the blog subject as well.

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personally i dont think there is anything wrong with ads. I like ads especially related ads whether in my own sites/blog or on other people’s blog. sometimes there are really interesting service/product that we never know but found it through ads.
when a blog is very informative such as shoemoney, personally i dont even mind 1 popup per 24 hours… but if that happens… i’ll read my subscibed rss

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eventhough you raise valid points. sometimes if you are financially well off, it is allright to not bother about advertisements. I think they are a massive waste of time.

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I have my ads up! How come I only have $41 from adsense?

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Adsense is a joke. They don’t pay well.

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I agree, until you have traffic, ads are worthless anyway. I use one popunder on one site and that is a highly targeted popunder, in that its releated to the niche of the site.

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my blog is far from having the traffic for ads.

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I have been waiting for the right moment to place the ads up on my blog. My blog isn’t that old but it already has a page rank of 3. I started it in the middle of July of this year.

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Many people say that lesser the ads better the blog impression. This post has really been a good motivation to place ads on my blog.

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I agree, I got dugg one time and didn’t have ads on my site and kill myself for not showing ads to 70,000 people

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call 3162040592

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