How To Advertise on Your Blog Without (Completely) Selling Out

With regards to "As a courtesy, turn off ads for Digg, Reddit, and other popular referring URLs. " you might want to consider the Adsense for Content Programme Policies at https://www.google.com/adsense/policies which state:

“Any AdSense code must be pasted directly into web pages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the code or change the behaviour, targeting or delivery of ads. For instance, clicks on Google ads may not result in a new browser window being launched.”

Hiding the ads based on a referrer would seem to come under that category.

[)amien

@Damien - it can be done with server-side code which works around that issue.

I’ve been hosting advertising from Project Wonderful (http://www.projectwonderful.com/) for a while. They run a sort of continuous-auction process for ads - advertisers put up a bid of a per-day price for your site, the highest bidder at any time gets their ads displayed, and you get 75% of the revenue.

I’ve had mixed success - the model is a good one and works well, and the ads displayed have for the most part been pleasant and interesting, but there’s a huge predominance of webcomics, and even though I get about 30k pageviews/day (from about 1700 users), I typically earn about 50c a day.

That said, for a single-subject site such as mine, I have no doubt it beats the ads that Google AdSense would deliver me.

Jeff Atwood:
I documented how spyware can do a drive-by infection of your machine through your web browser. To be absolutely clear, I never clicked on any advertisements, or downloaded and executed any files. All I did was open a GameCopyWorld web page in an unpatched, original circa-2001 version of Internet Explorer 6.0.

I sense a certain, umm disconnect, in this? I run firefox/ubuntu, so I ‘suppose’ this wouldn’t happen to me. But you just got through telling how bad this stuff can be??

This rocks, Jeff!

Nice. I suggest you get feedback from us on what projects you plan to spend the money on. I can’t think of any right now!

Like most people I know I run with adblock on. I’ve gotten so used to it that when I use the SQL books online and it brings me to a place like
devx.com (I think it was this one) and see all the Animated ads splattered around I can barely read the content. I’m sure with the bandwidth that this site uses up some revenue would be appreciated.

I sometimes feel bad for visiting non-commercial sites that most likely survive based on ad revenue and not contributing.

I disagree with the positioning of 1 and 2 on that list. I think that they should be flipped around. CPM is a guaranteed amount per M (roman numeral for 1000) clicks, whereas Affiliate programs require your viewers to actually buy something from the sponsor.

Jeff,

How will you be selecting which projects to donate to? Would you poll your readership for candidates or did you have someone in mind?

This is the first time I have ever read your blog Jeff. /hat tip to Pete @ nerd Guru. Great post!

I just have to point something out as I have done every time this particular point comes up other blogs:

“Lack of Professionalism. In traditional journalism, there’s strictly enforced separation between the writers and the marketers selling ads.”

As a person who has paid for advertising, and dealt with magazines and other forms of media for many years now this just is not the case in my experience.

Advertiser influence on editorial is there in every form of media. The “strict line between editorial and advertising” in any form of traditional media is a myth.

pressure from advertisers ranges anywhere from just a little good will from the publication you spend tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars with to out right “if you don’t tell our story this way we are pulling our ads”.

Not to mention the unspoken understanding that every form of media has “if we bad mouth these guys we just might lose their ad business”.

It’s easy to bash someone who doesn’t advertise with you and never will. It is much more difficult to do so when you need those dollars to feed your family.

Not condoning it, I just know it to be true.

That was a very insightful entry. It’d be nice if you donated money to some non-.Net projects as well.

@Rob Conery,

Yep, Sam Ramji will be involved (even if he doesn’t know about this just yet :slight_smile:

ai

While I usually enjoy your blog, and DO find some very useful information here (Spyware, don’t run as Admin, etc.), I would have to say that you seem (of late) to be writing well constructed posts that get (are supposed to get?) post responses. “Pandering” would be too strong a word – but I definitely think you have a habit at times of writing for responses (One is the loneliest, EULAs and ilk), rather than not writing something until there is a more “meaty” topic.

Personally, I’m surprised that you’ve waited this long to put ads on your site. If for no other reason but to recoup bandwidth costs. I mostly read the site through bloglines so as long you don’t pollute the rss feed, you can put as many ads as you like on the website :D.

Where are the ads?? Oh yes - I’m using adblock :slight_smile: Frankly - you don’t always realise how bad it feels to be submitted to ad-bombing until you manage to escape it. Life is so much more peaceful without ads: stop watching TV for three full months and you will understand what I mean. That beeing said I’m not opposed to moderate advertising - as long as it doesn’t make noise, raise a window, or blink in your face like a christmas tree :slight_smile:
Cheers, --daniel

You have my vote for the ads. I run adblock but only to get rid of annoying ads on sites I regularly visit (like facebook). Google Ads have actually been useful.

Wow Jeff, that’s fantastic – way to go!

:slight_smile:

A lengthy but informative explanation for adding ads that I’m a little tempted to click the ads when it come out.
Well, you deserve to make some money out of the site. Just keep the ads clean and relevant though.

I’ll never understand bloggers who place their own personal desire for an additional few grand of income over basic respect for their readers.

Jeff,

Try a low-wage job, or moving to a third-world country. That should improve your understanding. “An additional few grand” is a BIG DEAL to some people, myself included.

Writing takes time, and writers need to be paid to take that time, one way or another. I see nothing disrespectful about it.

The thing about AdSense is that, while it’s the lowest earner (though I feel those figures are overstating this; $2 CPM isn’t unusual even for a low-earning niche) it doesn’t annoy the users much. Graphical and flash ads, by contrast, are eyesores at best, and at worst are actively distracting. And text links are generally an attempt to manipulate Google; if they catch on that you’re using them nasty things may happen to your page rank.