Should you put Ads on your blog?
Hi folks!
Today we are going to talk about one of the "do's and don't's" of starting your own blog or web site. This is going to be a series of posts over the next few weeks that will help give you some insights on what you should do, and things you should not do.
It is my hope that this series of posts will help those getting started in their 1st year to not get penalized by search engines, and help you build a solid presence naturally.
so lets get started with the 1st topic: Advertisements.
Advertisements are a double edged sword. I understand everyone wants to make money from their blog or web site, but early on having Ad's on your site can really hurt you.
Google for example will often punish sites that put up ad's within the 1st year or so of the sites existence with its "Page Layout Algorithm" If your site has any of those annoying pop up ads, it gets even worse for your search engine ratings.
As with everything, Rome was not built in a day. The best way to monetize your blog is to work on writing quality content, and appealing to the crowd you are targeting.You should also think to the future, and come up with a long term plan of what you want your blog to be. You can make money in other ways besides Ad's.
However, trying to use ads to make money off your blog is probably THE WORST way to try and make money. Click-through rates are very low the typical average is around 0.1%. So as you can see, unless you have like 500,000 or more monthly views and those users are not using Ad blockers, its probably not worth it to put Ad's on your blog or web site.
There are also other factors to consider:
1. Lack of quality control- You don't really have any control over what ads appear on your site. These ads could sometimes hurt your goals, or even worse, be links to malware via malvertisements that could break your users trust.
2. Web Site loading Time - Putting ads on your site makes your users web browsers load up various scripts and files from other servers online. this can have an impact of slowing down site loading speed. Google does use site loading speed as one of its ranking criteria, so you should be careful about putting things on your site that could slow it down.
3. Low Earnings - The low earnings of Ads could also be seen as "Low earning per lost reader". This is because the links in these ads send users away from your site, thus you may earn 2 cents for sending a reader to another site. that doesn't seem like a good deal to me. your site and your content is worth more than that.
4. Lack of control over display options - Most advertisers want to me front and center to your readers. So they are going to push ad formats that make their messages stand out on your site. This can often be counterproductive to the mission and goals of your site. Keep this in mind when thinking about putting ads on your site.
5. Loss of user trust - As i talked about in number 1, Ads can cause a loss of user trust if they become too intrusive, to much a focal point, or attempt to trick your users via bad advertisements via malvertising. This would be best to be avoided.
Conclusion
I have no ads on my site, i am instead working on my content and furthering my long-term goals. I would highly recommend evaluating what you envision your site or blog to me, and then working towards those goals. Those who are creating a blog soley to make money off advertising will most likely fail or burnout. Its more important to be driven about the topics you write about, and give people good solid information. By doing this you may eventually get into some form of affiliate marketing, product reviews, etc that will allow you to make some money, but won't compromise your position or your goals.
At the end of the day, your long-term vision should take precedence over advertising. By following your vision you are much better prepared to succeed.
I hope this article helps folks out there. Looking forward to your comments. Feel free to follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Have a great day!
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Artemus Jones at the English language Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]
