Content and ads: Thoughts

[Melody]

Ads:

As far as I am concern, ads cheapen blogs. It makes you look less serious about your content, and ads do not win over the trust of your readers. I don't think any new blog should ever have ads. Okay, if you're time.com or the alltop.com, then you're big, professional, and you get to have ads.

Why are so many brand new blogs just cluttered with ads? The trivial amount of money you earn is far more miniscule than the damage you do to your blog.

Content:

It makes me crazy that only a few people here are serious about content. If you are really serious about a topic, and writing out of passion, you won't have to worry about anything other than making great content.

All of these million threads about backlinks or whatever seem silly. I know that my experience are not totally typical, but I have only focused on having great content, and so far that strategy has worked. I could give a lot of details in the ways that I have had successes but I do not want to sound boastful. If you want to ask me questions about my blog, that's fine but I don't want to brag.

Content should be in correct English. It should be meaningful. It should be accurate. It should try to be at least a little unique. I know that's very hard to do. But if your blog has something to offer that isn't found elsewhere, this will drive other people to your blog.


Whew! Feels good to get all that off my chest!

[ChickenFreak]

I agree entirely. So I'm going to rattle on for a while.

I agree that ads devalue the content. A brand new blog with ads communicates that the blogger is just out to make money.

And, yes, I realize that most forms of publication are just out to make money. But you can't make money from an audience _until you have an audience_. And to have an audience, you have to have something to show them.

I understand that some bloggers are indeed excited about their blogs and their content, and they're figuring, hey! If I can make a couple of dollars, too, what's the harm? But if the blog is brand new, and no one yet knows and trusts it, there can be some harm. If you're blogging with no ads, it's clear that you want to express yourself, that you value what you have to say. Add an ad or two, and that message is muddied a little. Add a bushel of ads, so that you have to shoehorn your content into the space that's left over, and no matter how enthusiastic you are, you give the impression that it's entirely, exclusively, about the money. And that's going to turn readers off.

So what if it really is entirely, exclusively about the money? Making that perfectly clear is still going to turn readers off. Commercial television gives the illusion of being excited and proud of their product, even though, yes, their product is there to get you in front of the screen when they show commercials, and if not enough people are in front of that screen when that commercial is shown, the program is outta there.. And commercial television designs their program to appeal to viewers. To make them want to view.

To get people in front of your ads, you have to give them a reason to be in front of them. You have to give them a good program, a good magazine article, a good newspaper article, _a good blog post_. The people, not the search engines, are your audience.

[QuirkyJessi]

Why are so many brand new blogs just cluttered with ads?

I know there's much more to your post, but to address this question specifically:

It's because most of those new blogs are created with the hopes of making money. That's the main reason they're being started. The numbers may be minuscule, but when a person suddenly thinks they can make millions off a blog, they're going to start trying right away because that's the only purpose.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by QuirkyJessi

I know there's much more to your post, but to address this question specifically:

It's because most of those new blogs are created with the hopes of making money. That's the main reason they're being started. The numbers may be minuscule, but when a person suddenly thinks they can make millions off a blog, they're going to start trying right away because that's the only purpose.

But ironically, the blog that might have a real chance of making money won't be started with that purpose. As far as I am concerned, it's not a blog, it's just as ad when the content is meaningless and there are a million ads.

In every forum there are threads about (1) how do I get more traffic and (2) SEO and (3) how do I increase my pagerank?

All of those things will happen with great blog content!

[QuirkyJessi]

Yep, which is why most of them will fail!

[Sykez]

Before I saw this thread, I started up my blog for my money but after a while I just though it's not all about the money. I never knew good content brings visitors. Thanks!

[stephen todd]

Originally Posted by Melody

Ads:

As far as I am concern, ads cheapen blogs. It makes you look less serious about your content, and ads do not win over the trust of your readers. I don't think any new blog should ever have ads.

I take the opposite view - if a blog has no ads, then it's an ego trip for an amateur

A blog with ads is a commercial venture, and they will likely have something of value on the site

Of course, a blog with hardly any content, just ads, is pathetic, and will be abandoned by it's creator when it doesn't make money - so it will disappear when the site owner realizes it's costing money rather than making money

[Melody]

Originally Posted by stephen todd

I take the opposite view - if a blog has no ads, then it's an ego trip for an amateur

A blog with ads is a commercial venture, and they will likely have something of value on the site

Of course, a blog with hardly any content, just ads, is pathetic, and will be abandoned by it's creator when it doesn't make money - so it will disappear when the site owner realizes it's costing money rather than making money

That's an interesting way of looking at ads! I totally disagree, but you've thought out the reasoning behind your supposition.

[ChickenFreak]

Originally Posted by stephen todd

I take the opposite view - if a blog has no ads, then it's an ego trip for an amateur

A blog with ads is a commercial venture, and they will likely have something of value on the site

I have to disagree with you on two levels.

For the first level: If I assume that you're correct that nothing worthwhile ever happens without the reward of money, it's a stretch to say that that reward must come _directly_ from the blog.

I read a number of blogs by professionals, blogs that increase that professional's visibility and reputation. An example would be a blog by a lawyer, who's increasing his visbility by writing useful articles on general legal topics. Or a blog by a chef at a restaurant, who's providing recipes and cooking advice in order to increase the visiblity of his restaurant.

If those blogs had advertisements, I think that that would reduce the career-enhancement value of the blog.

But the second level: I disagree that nothing worthwhile happens without payment.

Most hobbies, for example, don't result in the hobbyist being paid. Sure, there may be businessmen catering to the hobbyists who do get paid, but do we assume that since they sold something, they have greater knowledge and are better communicators?

If I have to choose, for example, between a blog by someone who's been carefully crafting his own model railroad layouts for thirty years, and has a widespread reputation, but doesn't include ads, and one by a hobby shop owner who sort of knows how to plug the tracks into the power supply, and does have ads, I'm going for the first blog.

To put it another way, people blog for a reward. The reward may be money. It may be ego. Or it may be providing knowledge, or participating in a community. The knowledge and community doesn't vanish if there's no money changing hands. A good blog doesn't suddenly turn lousy if you toggle the "monetize your blog" checkbox to "off".

[rypher21]

making a site/blog ads farm aint good..the essence of blogging will lose..
leading to failure..