When To Monetize Your Blog?

Bloggers have varying opinions about when to put advertisements on a blog, and some will argue that you shouldn't..ever...they take away from the blog....well, of course, here at Making Money Blogging we don't share that opinion. I believe strongly that what we do as bloggers is entertain and inform people, and we all know that information and entertainment jobs typically pay quite well, so why shouldn't blogging?

A nice blogger who writes The Jerc Store posted a question in my comment box on my last post, asking me when is the right time to put advertisments on her blog. As I said above, that is something that depends on who you ask.

Do you put ads on right from the start, or wait until you have built up a readership and your traffic levels are good? I think it depends on the purpose of your blog. I have written about this before, a blogger should know going in what they expect from their blog. Is it fame, noteriety, or money or something else?

I have read good arguments for building your readership before putting ads on your site and can agree with them in some situations. In fact, some ad providers really don't want your business until you have a decent number of readers per day. I have been turned down for TextAds for example for one of my blogs because it was too new and not enough traffic. The other thing is, not all blog readers are interested in ads so putting them on your site can make it "too commercial" for their tastes. OK, but that brings me back to my first comment, what do you want from your blog?

If you want to make money, then you probably don't need to be too worried about the readers who aren't interested in your ads. If you are more interested in getting your thoughts and opinions out to the world, then perhaps you should avoid ads altogether. But ask yourself, what other media doesn't have advertisments and sponsors?

I don't think there is any reason not to put ads on from the get-go, not if your goal is to make money. Your readers will get used to them and if they are contextual, related to your blog, they may even appreciate them. But bear in mind, with a new blog, ad providers like Adsense can have trouble matching up ads to your blog because there isn't enough content to give them a good sense of what your blog is about. So with that in mind, unless you are very focused, you may want to wait until you have a few posts up and your theme becomes apparent.

I usually put my adsense code into a new blog the same day I set it up. New blogs don't typically get much traffic anyway, so why not get the code in there and start to play with how the ads look etc. It will give you a chance to get used to using the Adsense programs if nothing else.

Some bloggers will respond that ads should come later, after the blog has been around for awhile. That may be because in their experience their blog didn't start making any money until it had been established, with lots of posts. But the increase in earnings is probably directly related to the increased traffic levels that an established blog receives. Let's face it, blog earnings are almost always a product of traffic. If you have enough traffic you can make money, either through advertisments, or affiliate links or e-books etc.

So...what the hell am I trying to say....? I lost track....oh yeah....I personally do not think it matters if you put your ads on early in your blog's life, or later. I put them on in the beginning. Then I more or less forget about them and concentrate on building my traffic.

Write and post often, comment on other blogs, search for keywords, submit to blog directories, use Technorati and Digg and Delicious and the other social networks. Read other blogs in your niche, see what others are doing. Most of all, post, post and post some more.

After you have done all that, slip into your Adsense account and see how much money you have earned, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks to The Jerc from the Jerc Store for her question, I hope my answer proves helpful.

Feel free to email me your questions, I may not know the answer but I have an opinion, you can be sure of that....

By the way, special note to blogger from The Jerc Store, I don't see a visitor counter on your blog. It might be there, I just didn't see it, but if it isn't I suggest you get one. There are all kinds available, I use StatCounter and Site Meter and like them both. A stat counter will give you some useful information about your visitors etc.

Thanks for reading Make Money Blogging
Jack
Good luck blogging!
Jack

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