While intentionally withdrawing from monetization might lose you a few
dollars a day, the advantages of doing so far outweigh the loss in monetary
benefits. Not monetizing at an early stage allows you to:
Place stronger visual and mental emphasis on your content, which ultimately
determines the size of your reader base.
Maximize the real estate on your blog. You can use the best spots allocated for
ads to display your popular posts, social widgets or other material.
Develop a unique and strong design for your blog. Without the necessity of
blending ads on a website, you can focus on creating a strong blog design and
template that draws attention.
Stress the importance of visitor satisfaction and demonstrate your emphasis of
adding value to a reader over profit motives. This possibly increases the
objectivity or weight of your opinions.
Increase your potential for getting incoming links. Bloggers are less inclined
to link to a website that’s plastered with ads and all types of junk.
Optimize your website for social networks. This is especially important
when you promote link baits on social websites like Digg and Reddit. For
example, an ad-free blog with a strong design is definitely more attractive to
StumbleUpon users who are not looking for specific material.
Retain search engine traffic. When most search engine visitors arrive at your
website looking for specific information, you have a chance to retain them as a
future reader when your blog appeals to them both through your content and
visual design.
Monetizing from the Beginning - A Good Idea?
Some have suggested that monetizing your blog from the onset allows your readers
to be accustomed to ads right from the beginning.
By exposing the reader early on, it builds their tolerance for advertising and
reduces the likelihood of creating nasty surprises that come in the form of
unsightly ads.
Here is the main reason why I think this reasoning is flawed:
New visitors arrive at your blog everyday - As more content is developed and
optimized, you’ll see more search engine visitors who have never been to your
blog before. Visitors will also arrive at your blog through links on other blogs
and websites. All these visitors are ‘untapped’ or not familiarized with the
advertising on your blog. As we all know, first impressions are important.
This doesn’t mean however, that you shouldn’t monetize your blog. You
should, but optimum results will only be achieved when you’ve built up a large
reader base or developed a strong daily traffic ratio.
When should I start to Monetize my Blog?
There isn’t a definite time frame because this will depend on the level of
traffic your blog receives. A good guideline would be to ask if your blog
currently receives enough traffic to make putting ads up worth the effort and
space.
Of course, you’ll have to define the idea of profitability. Will you be happy
with making a few dollars a day? Or do you want to aim for more traffic and
readership before fully monetizing?
This also depends on your blogging objectives. Is your goal to make money
through blogging by any means necessary? Or do you aim to leverage the exposure
that blogging brings to promote your brand/business/service?
Long term vs. Short term Monetization
Are you building a flagship blog and planning to make an authority in your
niche? Or is your blog just part of many others in your arsenal? You have two
options: focusing on one blog and making it the main profit generator or
creating many blogs to diversify your earning options.
Branding and content is obviously two of the main things you need to
emphasis over monetization, if you aim to create one strong blog that serves as
a base for all your future earnings.
Long term monetization really means drawing in readers like bees to a honey comb
and only after you’ve captured their attention, monetize them through gradual,
targeted advertising. Don’t underestimate the power of affiliate links when your
recommendation reaches thousands daily.
The most prevalent mistake most bloggers make is obviously poor ad/site
structure. As much as you want to make money, if your reader has to concentrate
on what is and is not an ad you have failed as a human blogger. I understand
integration makes some people a lot of money, but for the normal blogger - you
should seriously think about minimizing the ad content and focus on the
compelling content.
