Ads or no ads?

[Jessica]

So I was thinking that I wanted to put a small ad on the side of my blog. Nothing big, but something to do with books or something like that (with adsence). Is this a turn off? It wouldn't pop up or anything, just be there to give me a very small help to my book buying addiction. So what do you think? Should I have an ad or no? 

 

-Jessica (Peace Love Books) 

[Confuzzled Shannon]

I debated with this for three years after I screwed up with adsense and now I have ads from various places. It is really up to you I mean you could take a poll and ask your readers what they think but it basically comes down to do you view this as your job or is it just for fun. I have been viewing my blogging as more serious and have put a lot of effort over the years to point I validated that it is okay to want to make money off the blog.  Of course I am still working on the how tos of that... I hope if you do you do better then I am doing right now. 

 

Confuzzled Books

[Kelli Wheelwright]

I say hold off until you are established.

 

KW

http://www.ekfamilybooks.blogspot.com

 

[Joss Arden]

In my opinion, there's a right way to do ads and a wrong way to do ads. If I'm visiting your blog and I feel overwhelmed by ads, I'm going to be extremely annoyed. But I'm fine with small, unobtrusive ads. I don't know...it's the sort of thing where I know it when I see it.

 

Also - have you tried affiliate marketing? Many bookselling outlets (including Amazon, but there are others) will give you a share of the profit when people click links on your site and purchase products. If it's not something you're already doing and you're interested in picking up a bit of money, it's something to think about.

[Sophie Gonzales]

I have a couple of small affiliate ads on my blog - The Book Depository and Amazon.co.uk. I think as long as they're small adverts that aren't overwhelming, you should be fine. And I'd definitely recommend affiliates over adsense - I used adsense on another blog I used to have and didn't like some of the products it advertised.

[Kelli Wheelwright]

Except if you live in California... we got booted from Amazon Affiliates :(

 

Kelli

http://www.ekfamilybooks.blogspot.com

 

[Mary (BookHounds)]

Yep, Amazon doesn't like the fact that CA wants them to pay sales tax like everyone else.  I used to make about $10 a month which helped pay for my blog mailings.  Oh well.  I haven't found anything to replace them yet.

[Lynn Boston]

Jessica, 

I am trying my site with smaller ads down the side.  It seems like our minds, today, are becoming a bit immune to the "noise" around the edges and if there is not something there, then the site might even seem to be a bit plain.  But we'll see.  I would experiment some and then perhaps ask your site visitors for feedback.

Lynn

[Jinny Chang]

I have a couple of ads on my site, with adsense. I think it's perfectly alright to have ads on a blog as long as it's not in your face -- book blogs with marquees flying and book badge things distract me WAY more than ads. It doesn't hurt to have it up -- although just so you know, with Adsense, you won't get a cheque from Google until you make $100 first, so depending on how popular your blog is, that could be a while.

[parchmentgirl]

I say if the ad is attractive and relevant to you content, go for it. My blog has had lots of ads right from the beginning, but they are attractively designed, tastefully placed (so as not to intrude or distract from the content), and relevant to my content. I've only had one person ever respond negatively to my ads.

 

Kate {The Parchment Girl}

http://parchmentgirl.com

Twitter: @parchmentgirl37

[Katie Parker]

I too do the Amazon affiliate thing. So far I've made...4 cents. But I've only just started, so I'm hoping that goes up!

http://boookish.tumblr.com

[Katy Walters]

I think it makes the blog more attractive. Gives a certain professonal finish to it. 

 

http://katysreviewsandnews.blogspot.com/

 

http://sciencefiction-paranormal-katywalters.com

 

[Terry Morris]

Some of the ads are a bit ugly. You definitely do not want them to overwhelm your blog. However, sometimes you can find ads that perfectly suit your site. Amazon affiliation is a good example of this. Sometimes you can also find book of-the-day or picture-of-the-day gadgets that suit your theme. Each day they show a new picture, eg a book cover, together with their ad. These gadgets are not always easy to find in the gadgets list, though.