I received the following message from a reader this week:
Quick question. I love the way you monetize your blog and promote your business through it (good luck with the current auction). BUT, I have noticed you don’t use Google AdSense (much) and I wondered why…. I also wonder how you get so much traffic too, but that is a different question. Last month my blog made $28 from Adsense, I don’t tell you this to show off, but because I just can’t believe it made anything! With my traffic levels it is really surprising. So how come you have so much traffic yet you don’t use Adsense.
Interesting question, particularly knowing how openly I wear my love for Google on my sleeve. Even my primary business, HRSEO, is only vaguely promoted. The question goes to advertising in general. Here’s my answer:
- Flower child mentality. I never got into blogging to make a living from it. Granted, the opportunity to make some money via advertising arose, which is why you see the 125 x 125 banner on the right and occasional “Blog sponsored by” text at the bottom of posts, but my hope is it’s not too distracting. And less real estate creates greater value anyway. People who want to punk my current eBay auction miss the point that the auction started at 99 cents. The market creates the dollar value. My main goal was to stir some conversation and have some fun.
- Clutter sucks. An overabundance of advertising cheapens a Web site and kills usability. Where would you rather go, Google or NY Times.com? Both make money via advertising. But one cares a lot more about its users.
- Cheezhead drives other businesses. The $28 or so I might make, at the risk of cheapening my presentation, isn’t worth the revenue I drive that goes to HRSEO.
- Differentiator. If it makes sense, some SEO deals I do include banner space on Cheezhead. This is a great differentiator for me when compared to a regular SEO firm also bidding on the project.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against making a buck. You won’t save the world if you can’t pay the rent. And I think blogging will eventually garner some nice cash opportunities for the best of the best.
For me, however, my blog is much more than an advertising medium. Hopefully I can keep my eye on that ball by keeping ads and sponsorship exposure to a minimum. Anyone else in a similar situation has to look in the mirror and be comfortable with their own decision.
In the end, I like to think the market will determine the winners and losers. It usually does.
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Blog sponsored by onrec Expo 2006 - Chicago (See, I put an ad in there. Too intrusive? Hopefully not.)
June 7th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the insight Joel. I agree on most of that, especially the part on clutter sucking. I like the clean freshness of your blog. But I disagree that Google cares more about it’s users than the NY Times. There is a time and place for what you want and I think the NY Times provides a beautiful interface that reflects it’s newspaper style (I really like the fonts they have chosen). Where as Google is just for search. But I do subscribe to your point, there certainly are a lot of sites where the advertising gets out of control. When I read a blog I am looking for insight and content. The fresh layout is nice, but if you did have ads I doubt it would stop me from reading your blog. I still watch live Sports despite all the advertising. And fact is that sometimes the advertising is relevant to me and I am interested.
June 8th, 2006 at 6:33 am
NYTimes.com was just the first site I could think of with an abundance of advertising (in my opinion). There are surely better examples.
I appreciate the fact that you’d still read my stuff regardless of ads. The thing to remember is that people make up their mind about the quality of a site within 1/20 of a second. Almost 40 percent of all my readers are brand new visitors. I don’t want clutter to scare them away before even giving my content a chance.