Uhm, K.

[JHedgecoth]

I noticed a few people here have... excessive.. ads placed on their blogs. Even though 40% of the page is decorated with ads, it's still possible to maintain steady visitors and such?

[Nathan]

Not really. You don't attract steady readers, you just make money off of one time visitors stupid enough to click ads.

That's why I don't use ads at all.

[sukosaki]

Yeah, ads are a total turn off. That is why you only see a small amount of ads placed in the BEST locations even on the largest blogs, websites on the net. You have to tickle the readers to get them interested, don't try and MAKE them click any ads, they will on their own if the information is relavant.

[teranceh]

Indeed, indeed. Hey dude, if you check out like Engadget.com and Gizmodo.com, you'll notice that they have really well-placed ads.

On Engadget they have a few ads displayed in the right sidebar, but they also have it filled with content information. You can hardly even tell it's ads. The only adsense-like ads you'll find are AFTER the break, when you click read more, or click on the title of an article.

They display the adsense-like ad just below the article and above the comments, a perfect place in my opinion. Can't miss it.

[selfhelp]

So, I used to agree with this statement wholeheartedly, but that was before I spent thousands of hours learning how to blog/producing content and not making a dime. My opinions evolved since to view ads as a necessity. If nothing else, they can be used to cover hosting costs. All that said, one thing I truly hate are popup ads. I'm also not a huge fan of the doubleunderline links that pop-up ads. Still, I wouldn't mind hearing what you think about my ad displays on webpublishing.me. I just recently added the top block that appears under the blog title. Too much? Thanks!

[stephen todd]

Originally Posted by selfhelp

So, I used to agree with this statement wholeheartedly, but that was before I spent thousands of hours learning how to blog/producing content and not making a dime. My opinions evolved since to view ads as a necessity. If nothing else, they can be used to cover hosting costs. All that said, one thing I truly hate are popup ads. I'm also not a huge fan of the doubleunderline links that pop-up ads. Still, I wouldn't mind hearing what you think about my ad displays on webpublishing.me. I just recently added the top block that appears under the blog title. Too much? Thanks!

You're on the right track - don't listen to the complainers - let them work for nothing if they want

why should web sites be any different than newspapers, magazines and TV - they contain advertisments - and in large quantities

you only want 1 adsense block - and that's below the header and above the post - best performing size is 336 X 280 with a graphic image placed to the side of it to draw eyeballs to the area

you second adsense block contains lower paying ads - and also reduces your payout from primary adsense block - try removing 2nd block and see if adsense earnings improve

remove any other ads that don't pay their way

[klutze]

You won't see to many returning visitors. With ads, sometimes less is more.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by klutze

You won't see to many returning visitors. With ads, sometimes less is more.

Yeah, but what the professional bloggers who own a domain are saying is that without ads they might not be able to pay for hosting. In that case fewer ads means no website.

So in short, do what you have to to pay for hosting while making a non spammy site.

[stephen todd]

Small guys are being squeezed off the Internet - it started years ago

The commercial setups have a site owner who wants to make money on his investment, a website manager to pay, a SEO guy to pay, a web guy who actually works on the site to pay, writers to pay, domain and hosting fees, etc.

How do you think this is paid for? Advertising of course - get real, no ads - phooey

[The Envoy]

Originally Posted by stephen todd

Small guys are being squeezed off the Internet - it started years ago

The commercial setups have a site owner who wants to make money on his investment, a website manager to pay, a SEO guy to pay, a web guy who actually works on the site to pay, writers to pay, domain and hosting fees, etc.

How do you think this is paid for? Advertising of course - get real, no ads - phooey

Aren't we talking about blogs here? And blogs are usually managed and written by one person.