Let's talk about ads on blogs.

[Charlotte Garnatz]

At what point do you add ads, to your blog? At what point do they become profitable?  Do you just go with Google Ads or do you seek out other advertisers?  Do you ever get complaints from your readers because of the ads on your blogs?

Lots of questions, I know.  I have had my blog for a little over two years and have kept my blog ad free.  My readership is steadily growing, partly because I am now unemployed and have very little to do but read & review.  If I can make any money doing this, then great, sign me up & show me how.

What has worked for you?  Any advice to share with me would be appreciated.

[Bibliotropic]

Granted, I'm only a newbie at the bookblogging game, but I don't mind small ads on sites so long as they aren't obnoxious in-your-face things. Sometimes it's obvious that sites exist practically as a host to ads, that the sitemaster or blogger has no real interest besides making money and content just happens to appear on the site because it's the best way to bring people in to increase ad revenue.

But I have no problem with people making a little money on the side from their hobby. Heck, if somebody gets lucky enough to have all of their bills and the like taken care of by ad revenue, more power to them, and there's no small amount of envy there.

It comes down to a balance between content and revenue. People just have to ask themselves which they care about more: providing content, or making money.

I use AdSense on my blog. It's small and new enough that nobody's ever complained, but that's probably because all of two people have ever commented! *chuckles* But as I myself am not a fan of huge ads and blatant buy-my-product schemes, I won't put that kind of ad on my site even if I do get offers. I'll try to stay unoffensive. It may result in me only making a few pennies a day through AdSense, but heck, that's a few pennies more than I had yesterday!

[ForstRose]

I'd add to the above to say make your ads relevant to your audience. My blog is relatively clean of advertising other than the books I promote via a variety of methods. Although neither route has been terribly lucrative I did post a paypal button for readers to contribute toward the cost of giveaways especially the postage and materials necessary to sending out the books to winners and created a Barnes and Noble Affiliate Account that I use for book links in reviews and other posts where a specific link is not required by the person arranging the tour or review and providing the copy to me. Again neither one has truly brought in any significant amount of money. To me as a reader irrelevant ads or content either tempt me to click and leave your site or worse become an annoyance that causes me to choose other sites to read in an effort to manage my limited time more productively. Because I want to make my site attractive to readers as well as encourage readers to make repeat visits along with recommending the site to others, I have decided that I should consider my reactions as a reader to what I put on my blog pages and act according to how I'd prefer to read other blogs. I recognize that for some people the ads are considered necessary to maintain the practicality of keeping a blog going and spending so much time on a hobby, as such I don't complain about them on other blogs but be aware I might be turned away by too much advertising and lack of relevant content when reading other blogs.

[Sarah]

I agree with both your commenters. A few ads don't bother me, but when I click on a blog that is obviously mostly about ads, I don't even read the content. I have thought about adding a few ads, but I'm just not sure if I want to go that route either. Great topic!

[Lesa]

Thank you for starting this discussion! I've wondered this very thing. Really, I've always found ads to be tacky. Especially on smallish blogs and even if the pro-bloggers have too many ads-- I think it is tacky.
Like the above commenters, I don't stay at a blog that is all ads and no content.

That being said, I did try to become an amazon associate because that makes sense-- visitors can link directly to amazon to buy books. That doesn't seem tacky since books are the topic.

It didn't work-- Has anyone else had problems getting Amazon to work on their blog? If anyone knows how to make amazon associate work please let me know. Do I need to add something to my computer-- certain browser or blog layout? I use one of the freebie blogspot layouts.

It would be great to make a little money for a hobby-- as long as it is done in a tasteful not greedy way. For me personally, if I could get the amazon to work, I would use it now. I don't know if I'd ever do other ads but I might reconsider if I had 100+ followers-- or maybe 200+.

Lesa

Baja Greenawalt's Cozy Book Nook

[Sarah]

I have the amazon widget on my blogspot blog and it works fine. Not sure why it isn't working on yours. But I've only made like $6 from it so far, and a lot of that is because I went through my own link to order books for Christmas!

[Lesa]

Thanks-- yeah, I'd probably be my best customer too-- books are great gifts.

When I signed up for amazon, I followed instructions to link a book but when I published... it wasn't there. I've wondered if it has to do with the post editor. Only the old editor works on my blog. Do you use the new post editor? Also, I thought I might need the firefox browser. Which browser do you use?

Hope you don't mind the questions. It bugs me to not know why it won't work.

Thanks for your help!

Lesa

[Maw Books]

It's my understanding that it's against Amazon's policies to use your own Amazon link. Just a warning. They can disable your affiliate account if they realize that's what you're doing.

[Sarah]

You mean you're not supposed to buy books for yourself through your own amazon link??

[Maw Books]

No, you're not. It's in their rules and regulations somewhere. I've always wished I could do that for myself but they are preventing people from setting up their own affiliate accounts just to get the kick back. I always choose a different blogger's affiliate account when I make Amazon purchases.

[Sarah]

Wow! I had no idea. Guess one really should read the agreements!

Sarah at SmallWorld Reads

[Maw Books]

Ads should be relevant and not in your face. It's usually really easy to see who is blogging just for ads and who is putting in ads to support their blogging.

If anybody is interested in using Chitika ads, I found found success using it as opposed to Google Ads. I make about $30 a month which is better than nothing. Ads show up only to search engine users and not your regular traffic or other referrals. So it's nice because most people won't see it. It is a per click per program but I've found a high rate of click overs. If you find you like it and want to use it you can sign up under my affiliate: https://chitika.com/publishers.php?refid=mawbooks

[Traci]

I've always wondered if there was a targeted place that existed like Chitika. I'll look into it.