Technology

Why I Now Have Ads on My Blog

by theminimalistmom |

I solemnly swear you will never see pop up ads on this blog.

You may have noticed some changes around here.

Yes, over there on the right.

Advertisements.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I have started dabbling with ads on this blog.

Back in early 2010 when I had this piece published in the Globe and Mail’s Facts & Arguments section, I had a nice exchange with the editor about how to build a writing a career. I am sure she gets these questions all the time from others that have had a piece published. I am sure it gets repetitive. But she was very kind and sent me some ideas and told me the biggest factor for writers in making a living is diversity of income streams.

In her experience the writers that earned a consistent living did everything from freelancing, corporate work, online publishing and blogging. Everything from lucrative articles in magazines to self-publishing fiction.

I took note.

Right now I spend most of my writing time working on this blog and a book of nonfiction stories I hope to publish in the fall. I’ve taken on some freelance writing for a parenting website in the past but haven’t published anything there recently.

I’ve decided to put some ads on my site to earn a bit of revenue.

This will, hopefully, be one of several income sources for me as a writer.

Here’s what I can promise you:

  • There will never be ads within my posts. This is the most common email I get lately. Advertisers want to embed links in old posts and new ones for their products and clients. I’ve said no thank you to all of them.
  • There will never be sponsored posts on this site. This is the second most common request I get. You’ll never see “From Clorox: How to Keep the Counters Clean” or any such post here.
  • There will never be pop-up ads on this site. Man, those annoy me.
  • If there is an affiliate link I will disclose it at the bottom of the post. Affiliate links are links with a tracking code embedded in them. If you use that link and buy the book or product I have linked too I get a percentage of the sale price.

I’ve shied away from recommending a lot of products to help you simplify because, really, most of us just need some motivation and a free weekend.

There were some books that really helped me get minimalist-ish, but mostly what I want to say here is, you can do it. You can live with less stuff.

Take a peak through the archives here, take a hard look at your stuff and your spending habits, and then make a plan.

Don’t make it overly complicated. Get rid of more than you bring in. Simple.

Lindy from Minting Nickels had a good post up the other week about putting ads on her blog. She was also leery of ads and sponsored content. The comments on the post were positive and most of her readers agreed, just like me, that they didn’t really care about ads on her site.

Most of us are savvy online readers now. We barely notice ads in sidebar menus. And trust me, from seeing some initial stats from running ads on this blog, people barely click on them. You’re just too smart for it.

What will most likely turn my ads into income is people that find themselves here for the first time, see that this site and the message isn’t for them, and then click on an ad to leave.

As always, all of the posts here and the archives are available free of charge. There won’t ever be a paid subscription service or anything like that for posts.

I also want to say, if you’re a blogger with sponsored posts and in-content links: more power to you. I am always happy to hear of other writers that have turned their blog into an income source.

Eventually, in the next five years, I would like to be in the position to support my family through writing. I would love to give my husband the gift he has given me: time with our son and time to pursue a new career. This blog could be a part of that.

Are you disappointed readers? I hope not.

I hope you can see that the intention of this space, living with less stuff and how to do it in moderation for the rest of us that have homes and kids and like the occasional luxury, is still here. Loud and strong.

Deep breath. I’m going to open myself up here with a survey for feedback on this choice.

Let me know your thoughts and if a voting button doesn’t work for you please send me an email at theminimalistmom at gmail dot com.

[poll id=”1″]

 

  • Rachel – this is so wonderfully honest. I don’t have as big a following as you do, so I’m not sure advertising would make much of a dent, but I’ve thought about it from time to time. I love how clear you are about why you’re doing it, and I agree, we can all filter this stuff out pretty easily as long as it’s kept compartmentalized, as you’re doing.

    I am a freelance writer, and I agree with that editor about patching together various sources of income. It’s always funny when I describe what I do to people. Some of it is work I love (writing for nonprofits, children’s stories (ghostwriting), some fun books like Music Trivia), other times it’s grunt work –hack writing, jacket copy, etc. And of course most of the stuff I love to write (novels, stories, poetry, songs), I don’t get paid a penny for. It’s definitely cobbling together a living, so any way you can maintain it without having to throw in the towel and go “get a real (soul-draining) job” makes sense to me.

  • I’ve tried adsense but it doesn’t do that well on my site. It takes about 2yrs just to get to the $100 payout. I recently switched to a local based publishing ad network..and it pays much more …and it rakes in like 4 times the revenue I get via adsense per mth. You can try checking out GLAM or other higher CTR ad networks.. I say go for it if it helps you reach your goal. Ads don’t bother me a bit.

    • Thanks, Nancy 🙂 But don’t click on them unless your interested in the product. I’m thinking they will mostly be clicked by people that arrive here for the first time, see that my message isn’t for them, and then click on over for something to buy or look at.

  • Good for you! I don’t think you need to justify it. I write because I enjoy it, but it does take time away from other paid work I could be doing (not to mention that it costs money to run a website!). I think everyone has the right to earn payment from their work if they choose to. I’ve seen so many “serious writers” who don’t have ads on their own blogs, but are thrilled to land writing gigs on important websites that have ads plastered all over the place. I don’t get it.

    The people who DO turn me off are:
    – bloggers writing sponsored posts for companies when they have no experience with their product or service
    – bloggers who post articles written by companies, for a fee
    – bloggers including keyword links in their posts that are paid for by companies and screw up the quality of search engine results
    – bloggers writing content geared toward StumbleUpon, then putting ads throughout the article when it becomes popular
    – bloggers not disclosing when they are being paid to write something

    I know lots and lots of bloggers who earn thousands of dollars per month through their blogs by doing some or all of the things above. I don’t earn nearly that much, but I feel good about my website and how I’m treating my readers.

    p.s. Depending on your traffic, you might look into CPM ads as a possibility if you haven’t already–rather than relying on clicks, you get paid per 1,000 impressions. People can still ignore the ads, but their traffic is helping generate some revenue.

    • Hi Jen – Your comment about “serious writers” and writing for big websites was very interesting to me. I hadn’t thought of that before. But of course, it’s quite true. I mean, at the end of the day if you want to write for a large publication you have to understand that your check is coming from advertising dollars and your words will be on a page with ads. Even if you aren’t putting ads on your own site.

      Thank you for the suggestion on CPM ads – will look into it.

  • Very interesting reading the comments – no one minds the ads because they just ignore them! How are they going to make you money if everyone ignores them?? 🙂

    • Thats a good question – do you get paid for simply having them, or only when people click on them?
      If its the later, I would click on a few a week just so you would get paid!

      • Ha! I do get paid per click but please don’t click on them unless you are interested in the product. They have very sophisticated tracking and will flag your account if there is anything suspicious.
        I really appreciate the support behind the idea 🙂

  • First of all, it’s awesome that you care enough about your readers to agonize over it.

    I don’t have any problem with ads on websites at all. It’s par for the course, and really easy to ignore if I want to. If I didn’t want to see ads, I would probably read a book instead. 😉

    For my own site, I’ve struggled with which kinds of ads to take so it’s not too spammy or obtrusive. It’s a delicate balance, especially if you don’t have the perfect advertisers flocking to you.

    Best of luck! I look forward to hearing what you learn through this experience.

  • Ads on your site as you describe them don’t bother me — like you noted, I don’t even look at them and would never click on them. I REALLY hate visiting a blog that I enjoy and finding a sponsored post singing the praises of Green Works, etc. It seems disingenuous and I feel like I’m being manipulated. I’m here for the frank thoughts and discussion, not advertorials. You’re gracious to support others who go that route, but it really turns me off!

    Best of luck in making a few bucks this way, and I’ll go on reading and commenting without clicking! 😉

  • No judgment here. I have ads on my blog too. As long as they aren’t pop ups, I think it is a bit ridiculous for people to be annoyed.

  • I think that it would be unfair for us readers to ask you to continue to write so diligently, without asking for some sort of compensation.
    Right now this is the only blog that I read (I used to read some about parenting when my kids were younger), so I do not have much to compare on ads, but as long as you are writing, I will be reading – ads or not.

  • After writing that last comment, I remembered that BlogHer has settings to allow bloggers to opt in or out of all sorts of ad categories. I hadn’t logged into that section of the site in several years, but I just went and checked a box to opt out of ads with floating layers and pop ups. Thanks for the reminder 🙂

  • Good for you! I have similar rules for my own blog – no guest posts written by advertisers or sponsored posts where I get paid to write about how great product xyz is. I sometimes publish affiliate links, and I include a note mentioning that I get a commission if the reader uses the affiliate link to make a purchase. The majority of the small income I make from my blog comes from sidebar advertising. I’ve been with BlogHer for years (probably since 2007?) and they do sometimes have pop-up ads. I don’t like those, but they only come up on rare occasions, and overall my experience with BlogHer has been very good. Other than that, everything is just static ads on my sidebar. It’s a compromise that has worked well for me. I know how much time goes into writing and maintaining a blog, and I absolutely think it’s ok for a blogger to get paid a bit for that. I hope that your blog and your other writing become an awesome career for you!

  • I think it depends on whether you want to compromise your morals. Is it worth a few bucks to have some contradictory ads on the side? My suggestion is to figure out where this issue lies in your moral hierarchy and go from there. For me personally, I couldn’t do it. But everyone is different–just do what feels right in your gut 🙂

    • I don’t feel that placing ads on this blog compromises my morals. I’ve thought about this for a while and this is my choice right now. I could definitely see taking them down at some point if I was earning a modest income through other writing or if I went back to an office job.

      Of course, people vote with their readership and if people don’t want to visit this space because it has ads, that will be clear quite quickly. So far my longtime readers, and the poll on this post, have told me my savvy readers aren’t upset by this decision.

    • I think saying “it depends on whether you want to compromise your morals” is a bit lol. I’m pretty sure Rachel does not want to compromise her morals.

      • How is it “a bit lol”? If you are basically telling people to pare down their shopping and NOT listen to advertisers, but have an adjacent ad grabbing you to the nearest mall, that would be a dissonance in morals, in my opinion. However, everyone’s morals are different. I have strict morals and choose not to place ads. That’s just my choice. Rachel does not feel it is a dissonance, and it’s her choice. Neither is right or wrong. All I’m advocating is to have actions and words be in congruence, and when they don’t, you can either change your words to meet your actions or change your actions to meet your words.

        • Because saying “it depends on whether you want to compromise your morals” implies that by placing these ads Rachel has in fact compromised her morals. Which I don’t think is fair at all.

          I’d have had no issue with “It depends on whether you feel placing these ads compromises your morals”, which actually seems more in line with your comments overall.

        • One of the reasons I chose to place ads is that I get a lot of organic traffic from Google. People that end up here but my message doesn’t jive with them. They are the likely people that will click on ads while leaving this site.

          Most of my regular readers view my site through RSS and won’t see the ads. That was another factor.

          Megyn, I think it’s great that you have already committed to not putting ads on your blog.

          • I see Megyn’s point, but for me it’s too black and white. The fact is that even minimalists WILL purchase things. If they can make smart choices about what those things are, that’s the key to me. Hopefully over time Rachel will be able to find more and more of those products and services that are of value and in the mean time should have an avenue to offset the expenses of her hard work. It’s a hard decision, and one it seems was not an easy one for Rachel to come to, but bet loyal readers find the value in what she writes and will be supportive.

          • Chris- I agree, I could have worded it better. Thank you for showing me that.

            Kim@Little Stories- I agree, I do have B&W thinking. It works for me, but definitely not everyone else.
            Rachel- Is there a way you could tailor your ads? For example, solicit monthly paid ads for organizations/companies you believe in? This is something I have considered doing. I’m sure you could find some ethical clothing companies or non-profits who’d love to put an ad on your site!

  • If it brings in some revenue, great! Personally, I would be worried about ads appearing that would be in conflict with who I am and what I stand for. Do you have any options in what ads appear? Any yes, thank you for saying no to pop-ups and embedded links 🙂

    Love your blog! Thanks for keeping it real 🙂

  • Ads go right by me – I’ve never purposely clicked on one – I may have accidently but never stayed at the ad site any longer than to realize I hit the wrong button.
    I do tend to read blogs, etc in a RSS & you are correct – I only come to the actual website to leave a comment. I have made annotations that remind me which blogs/websites have pop-ups or streaming music or some other visual or auditory annoyance & for those sites – I just the read the post in the RSS and never ever visit the actual site or leave comments anymore. Eventually I give up on those sites all together in due time as once commercialism or sponsored posts start looming (and eventually they always do with those sites) then it’s time to declutter that particular blog/website as usually the content gets watered down (less about the person but more about the sponsor), posts get contrived & it just reeks of corporate takeover.

  • I just renewed a domain name for 3 years and paid for a year of hosting in January. $150. The costs do start to ad up and if you can find a way for the blog to pay for it that is ideal.

  • I don’t mind sidebar ads at all. Except for the secrets to removing belly fat ones.

  • Good for you!!! This does not bother me at all. Readers can just ignor them. They are on every blog and are just part of our online experience these days. I think you have a right to earn money for your work. You keep this blog up for us to read and enjoy (and I do!) with nothing but comments in return. So if I have to click on some adds every now and then to say thank you I will! Please keep up the work you’ve helped me simplify my home. Thank you!

  • Good for you Rachel. I’ve gone back and forth with placing ads on my blog and just can’t seem to make a concrete decision.

    I like the three column setup and think the ads work great here.

    • Thanks, Jenny. I’ve been mulling this over for a while too and tested out Blog Ads and Adsense (plus directly from me). I’ve decided the small income is worth it for me.

      It wouldn’t have been even 4 months ago but I’ve seen a big upswing in traffic and new readers recently.

      I love blogging here, and would keep it up if it paid nothing, but I am trying to work my way into 30 hrs a week of self-employment in the next 2-3 years. This could be part of it.

  • I totally support you making some $$ for your family (via ads) and dont mind your set up at all. I do have to say that I am SO happy you dont have pop ups or ads in on the site that move/rotate. It’s really hard to focus on the post when something is constantly flashing on the page. I think it’s frustrating when blogs or websites about simplifying are cluttered with ads…..a bit contradictory

  • I won’t see most of the ads because I read via rss, but it might be worth checking out how Soule Mama does her advertising. I’m not sure how adsense works, but mostly I hear no one gets much for it. If you curate and book your own ads they might appeal more to your readers and do better on the site. Just a thought and good luck.

    • Thanks, Jen. I know most readers view via RSS and if they come to the site it’s to comment.

      Soule Mama is a great site. I like how well her advertisers and sponsors mesh with her handmade home projects and crafting. I’ll keep working on finding those companies that fit with my message of less stuff, upcycling and services over stuff.

  • Ads don’t bother me, and if you can earn money from the blog, good for you! 🙂

    Re layout. I’d also prefer if the ads were at the bottom of the page and your text wider or the top.

  • Good for you! I don’t mind the ads, but THANK YOU for not doing pop-ups. Nothing drives me away from a site faster than a pop-up ad!

  • My only observation would be on layout as your post space seems to be shrinking (width ways) as other things take up the side of the blog…won’t put me off reading though!

    • Still fiddling with my site design and planning on reducing the bigger column so there is more post space. I am still learning about how to customize my theme templates within the style sheets. It’s a bit scary but fun. Learning a lot. Thanks , Claire.

    • The irony of Google Adsense ads. I think they pick up ad content based on subject matter. So when I write about no shampoo there are … ads for shampoo. Thanks for the understanding.

      • The way they do it is intriguing! I read another bloggers post and the exact thing he was against was advertised right next to what he wrote! made me chuckle! They’re picking up keywords I presume 🙂

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