Some of you may have noticed there are now some AdSense ads on this site. If you only read the blog through RSS feeds, come check out the ads. I’ve gone back and forth about pursuing ways of monetizing this site. I have used Text Link Ads for quite awhile, but the most I’ve made with them is $25 in one month. Granted, I do not blog to make money; I am far from a pro-blogger. But, I do put a lot of time and energy into this site, and I would love it if it could help cover my monthly Media Temple hosting cost, some books for school and maybe a night out for Sarah and me every now and then.
What do you all think of the ads? Annoying? Can you put up with them? I’m particularly interested in what you think about the placement of them. I feel like I may need to do a redesign to allow for some ad placement so it doesn’t look like I just slapped them up there. Please let me know what you think.
Also – if you’re using Internet Explorer 6, I think my sidebar on the right is all the way on the bottom. Can anyone verify that? I don’t know what happened, but I’ll be playing around with it today.
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I’ve got no problem with the ads and they won’t change my pomo reading habits. Besides, I pretty much read by RSS. You have every right to get some money back for what you put into pomomusings. The ads do make the blog feel more commercial but not horribly so.
You commercialized bastard!!!!!!!!! Now, tell me, how can I can add some to my site?
So far, it seems as though your ads are manageable. I belong to a discussion forum that added “ads” a few months ago and they are so overwhelming and annoying, it’s hard to read the board. All that to say, I do not get the same vibe from your ads so great job! If you’re ever curious to see ads gone wrong, I’ll send you the URL :-)
Ever consider just asking for donations through Paypal, etc.? I’d pay for a part of hosting costs or date for you and Sarah for the benefit I get from your thoughts!
The ads are just fine.
The right columns are indeed on the bottom in Internet Explorer. :)
Go for it man. you’ve obviously got the traffic, and the committed readership. I think as long as ads are placed tastefully (as you’ve done) there’s nothing wrong with them.
cleave,
talk to timbo on this one. he has experience with these kinds of concerns.
I read somewhere recently (and now cant find it!) that many blogs take a nose-dive in number of hits after putting ads up, and that lasts for about 4 months. But, only a certain number of people are going to be annoyed by ads, and once they stop reading, will still be left with those who do not mind them, and you will (hopefully) continue to gian new people, so that after 10 – 14 months, you are back to where you were previously.
Ads look fine – I saw your note via RSS and had to look twice to find them, so I’d call that inobtrusive. wrt the IE6 thing, I’m browsing in Firefox on Linux, but I had the same issue on a site I was working on just recently… most instances were fixed by adding display:inline to the floated css elements, but I’ve got one instance left that’s a bit vexing :^\
I do think it’s a bit annoying that you can’t control the Google ads. You don’t really want us to boycott the Golden Compass do you?
@Steven – no, I don’t. I saw that one yesterday – and wish that there was a way to not have certain ads.
That is definitely one of the downsides.
cleave (and steven),
havent we gotten past the point of encouraging kids to read books that are not overtly christian? first harry potter and now the golden compass? what is this world coming to…
Meh, they’re just ads. It’s not like you’re endorsing whatever they say. No one thinks that the cast of 24 actually endorses the use of “Herbal Essences” just because there was an Herbal Essences commercial during the show.
I used to worry about the ads that show up on my site. I’ve never seen an ad that was grotesque or vulgar, Google doesn’t allow those kinds of ads. No one actually thinks you literally _endorse_ these products, you’re just selling ad space.
For what it is worth, you can control what ads do not show up on adsense ads. Under the Setup button there is a competitive add filter. In the box at the bottom you can add the URLs of ads you do not want to show up. I had a palm reading web site show up and I had a guy e-mail me and warn me of my eternal security for running such an add. I also had some ring tone ads run that are borderline scams. They paid better than all the other ads but I would rather lose a few bucks a day than have my readers get ripped off.
Adam,
I just put ads up on my site this week as well. I just posted about it and linked to this post by you.
How to put ads on your blog
Here is the synopsis:
Three reasons to put ads up on your blog or website.
1. Almost all publishers and media use ads.
2. This is a reasonable way to sustain content production.
3. You can try to market honestly.
Final advice about ads:
1. Some of this takes a little bit of computer know-how.
2. Continue to make it easy for people to find your content.
3. I think it would be great if more Christian organizations utilized internet advertising so that we could advertise them on our blogs.
I have been pretty impressed with Commission Junction.
Andy Rowell
Th.D. Student
Duke Divinity School
Blog: Church Leadership Conversations
I’ve also been fooling around with blog ads recently…Adsense has been the best option so far (good thing you can block ads, since there are some weird “spiritual” ones) but I’ve also recently heard about a network that pays per visitor. Something to look into, maybe. Sounds like you’re doing pretty well, though.