I have 400 RSS subscribers and about 15,000 visits per month on my site.
This week I put up my first AdSense ad.
The reason why you shouldn't try to monetize right away is one of focus. Too many people think of blogging as a way to make money and the focus on the money first and the content and community second.
If you do that, your content will suffer and you'll never make the money.
In addition to my lone adsense ad I put on the site this week (no one has yet made a peep about it), I've begun the process of applying to affiliate programs and other ad networks.
It is all rather a pain and takes time. I'm going to do it right and not half assed. I've set a goal of making the ads on my site be a reflection of my site.
The one problem I have is that I will have to eventually get a new WordPress theme. I have gotten a lot of comments on the look of my site, but it just isn't designed for ads. I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep the basic feel of my site, avoid looking like another web2.0 site, and still try to optimize ad space.
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