Hello, all you fan-tabulous bloggers you! This is the first of a series of weekly “Brittany on Blogging” posts I’ll be doing here. And while we will be doing weekly discussions on blogging topics, I wanted to start by asking you to answer a little question for me.
Friends, I’m torn. If you know me you probably know I’m a bit of a blog marketing junkie and I regularly read a lot of blogs in that niche. Hardly any of them have ads, in fact in those circles there’s a pretty strong stigma against them.
However, on the other side of the coin we have the parenting bloggers, and they almost always do have ads.
I get why you would want them. I do. Who doesn’t want passive income, even if it’s not much? But I currently don’t have any, just because I worry that it says something about my professionalism.
That said, even some of the biggest and most popular blogs (Forbes, Huffington Post, etc) have ads. So they can’t be all bad.
I suppose it really comes down to what your goals are, right? I have several goals for my various sites. For me, it’s mostly about establishing credibility… But sometimes I think, what’s the harm in making a little money while I do that?
I really do want your opinion.
What I don’t want to have is one of those blogs that screams “Please click this ad! Don’t stay and read! I just want your money!”
And I also don’t want to spend all my waking hours chasing down affiliate products to sell. And, I most definitely don’t want my blogging career to be all about reviewing products. I’d much rather make money with my business, NerdyGirl Writers.
That said, I do sometimes feel like I’m on a bit of an anti-ad high horse. And maybe that’s not really all that necessary. Maybe they’re not as bad as all my fellow marketing aficionados make them out to be.
So I’m putting it to you.
What do you think?
As a reader, how many ads is too many? As a blogger, where do ads fit in to your plans for monetization? Are you really making good money from them?
The more information you can give me, the more you can help me (and everyone else who reads this) know how to proceed in the most effective way possible. Please do take a second to leave a comment. I want to hear from you!
Thanks! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
P.S. If you’re looking for more blogging tips, you can find me over at my new site, Mommy Blogger Academy.