Hope Writes

ASK HOPE: Blogging For Cash

Posted by Hope

Earlier this month, I blogged about how extreme advertising on a blog can erode and detract from you actual blog content.

Pattie posted in response and asked the question as quoted above. I thought her question brought about a valid point, so I wanted to clarify my earlier position, just in case you misunderstood what I meant.

In this earlier post, I was not bashing anyone who blogs for an income. Far from it. The main point I was trying to make was that there’s a difference between blogging for money and blogging for fun, then suddenly splashing advertising all over the place.

For example, let’s say I have three blogs bookmarked, all related to puppy training issues (I don’t even have a dog, this is just an example). The first blog (Blog A) is a personal blog of someone who got a new puppy for her family and loves animals so much that she decided to start a blog to write about her experience as she trains her puppy. Blog A contains no advertising, mostly likely because the owner hasn’t discovered Google Adsense, or the like. The second blog (Blog B) is also a personal blog that is very much like Blog A, except that it contains minimal advertising, and the blogger posts more in-depth information as well as product reviews. The third blog (Blog C) is what could be referred to as a “professional” blogger. He also writes terrific posts about training puppies, product reviews, and is a puppy training expert (has some type of formal training, maybe is a Veterinarian).

I visit all three blogs for very different reasons. Blog A gives me a personal, been-there-done-that viewpoint of the topic I’m interested in: puppy training. Blog B also gives me this same type of personal experience, but takes it a step further by giving me even more researched information about puppy training. Blog C provides educated, scholarly information about puppy training–all the “why” and “what” info I need–from an “expert” viewpoint.

If I’ve visited all three blogs for several months, I automatically expect that I’ll never see advertising on Blog A; see some ads on Blog B; and expect ads on Blog C. One day I visit Blog A and find that not only does she have some Adsense in the sidebar, but she has three or four huge block ads stacked one on top of the other at the top of every post in her blog. Can you see how this is an automatic turn-off?

Like I said, I have absolutely nothing against monetizing your blog. (Look around here…! ) It’s just a shocking thing when you’ve visited a blog for a long time and enjoyed it, then suddenly there’s more ads than there is content. And that was the point I was trying to make earlier.

It’s not about having or not having advertising on your blog. It’s about working it into the big picture and figuring out how to make it fit in so that it’s not so obtrusive that you start losing your visitors.

Take PPP, for example. While this is another way to make money blogging, I’ve seen bloggers use it in a way that is so tactful I would have never known the blog entry was for PPP, if I hadn’t seen the disclaimer. Now that’s a way of making your advertising fit into your blog!

If you are a blogger, and are earning an income from your blogging, what do you think? Do you try to make everything fit? Or do you blog and not worry so much about how the advertising is seen and accepted (or not) by your visitors? I’m interested in hearing more perspectives on this topic.

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