So instead you’re forcing people to see the advertisements whether or not they click through to your site, by including the ads in the RSS feed? 
I haven’t seen any other sites do that, and at least so far I’ve found it pretty annoying.
I haven’t seen any other sites do that
There are plenty of feeds with ads in them. At many sites, the only full RSS feeds are the ones with ads-- the ad-free RSS feeds are abbreviated.
For example, see the “syndication” column in the left column of http://lifehacker.com/ , as well as http://www.boingboing.net , http://blog.outer-court.com/ , and many many others.
I don’t like ads either. But they’re inevitable. That said, I do try very hard to be respectful in the way that I advertise.
I got here a little late, but this jsut goes to show that you never know when somebody will show up and READ a blog! As I am expanding my blogs and needing to earn revenue, I was glad for the information on the extra levels that one can get. I’ll eturn one day with some results! In the meantime: thanks. Come visit me too. Mary
I don’t believe that using advertising on your site / blog is selling out (though I don’t use it). It all depends on the integration of the ads and their format, and how intrusive they appear to readers.
I noticed your ads only a while ago (maybe since they don’t show up on new posts), and found them to be extremely well integrated into the design, almost enough that it made me want to click them 
That said, I do try very hard to be respectful in the way that I advertise.
And you’re doing a great job. I’ve just noticed that my Firefox’s AdBlock lets your ads through - and I will keep it that way - they’re decent and non-obtrusive.
Way to go!
Hi Jeff,
Marketers Al and Laura Ries have a great book on this topic: The Death of Advertising and the Rise of PR. They confirm what you’ve said here: that people are immune to advertising and put far greater trust in social proof and word of mouth.
Great post!
Liz
Direct link text link ads (no no-follow) can quickly run you into trouble with Google. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/
I’m tired of all the emails asking to put links on my site.
A CPM of $1 for Google Adsense might make sense if you don’t use the competitive ad filter but I’m disappointed if I have a CPM of less than $5 and occasionally hit twice that!
One strong theme from this post that resonates with me is ad relevance. If you have ads that are relevant to the content and the audience, then you are providing a service for some readers who may be interested in what the ads offer. From the advertiser’s point of view, it makes more sense and is money better spent.
During a motoring TV show, it probably doen’t make sense to advertise Barbie dolls. The same sort of thing applies to ads in blogs.
Got any more info on the time-delayed ads that only display on articles after they’ve aged for a week ?
Hi. This is a useful post.
I have a question I hope you can help me with for levels four and five, what is the time duration? I am trying to set up a marketing scheme for my blog and until this is set, I have had people contact me - ‘leave this link for three months on this page for $5’ - ‘leave this link on this page for one year at $50’- ‘leave this link for the life of the page for $100’ etc. What has been your experience? Thank you.
One question that I am very interested in is what levels of traffic/success do you need to start chasing down direct advertising, such as text links, etc. One of my sites (I won’t mention it lest everyone think this is spam) was a social networking site before social networking got cool that has around 300 regular members. Obviously that’s too low, but I’m thinking about wasting some more time on the site and just wondering what level of membership I need to target?
How much traffic do you realistically need before you start to see returns on Google adsense advertisements?
I know a guy who makes several thousand a month off of 8,000 visitors a month. I’ve got 2 thousand yet I’m only recieving $3. What gives?
I’m willing to click on those ads to boost revenue for projects, but only if you post a weekly Ad revenue update
I’d like to think I had something to do with this idea, which is why I think it’s super awesome.
I ,for one, welcome our new advertising overlords. If it means that we get a steady diet of thought provoking content regarding software development from Jeff as a result? Great. Where do we sign er uh click.
Given your 4 points of advice above, I probably will not even see these ads (not that I would be able to follow them at work anyway). But I don’t see it as a problem, really - for all that you go on about usability, I trust that you won’t make an eyesore out of it.
Just, please, don’t use animated/flashing/seizure ads.
Before netflix was super popular, I discovered it from penny-arcade.com. They do “sponsored” ads where the vendor approaches/pays them. Then the guys that run the site choose if the ad should be on their site. I never felt that the ads were a bad thing - I actually ‘trusted’ clicking through the ads because:
I think that while direct sales ads give you the most control over content, this may actually be BAD in a blog.
The best way to be unbiased in you real content as it relates to the ads is to have no control over the ads.
Here is a better solution:
Contract with an ad supplier. They will find relevant ads to the community that you write to, and keep it G rated if that is what you want. That way, when ACME Corp does something stupid, you are free to write about it, even if they have advertised on your site, because you didn’t have anything to do with the deal.
If you are going to monetize then there is no excuse or shying back. The only thing that needs to be looked at is the relevancy.