This is a common question a blogger have after they start a blog to make money. In this guide you will find a lot of insights on when you should start adding ads and how you should go about it.
But first, answer this question:
Are you one of those budding bloggers who is not monetizing his blog and is skeptical of doing so?
If so, I have also walked in your shoes. In the early days of my blogging career, I did not take advantage of AdSense or any other ad platform. Perhaps the reason many of us stay away from monetizing our blogs is that we are protective of our image, and we fear being judged by our readers. Moreover, a lot of us don’t know how much money one can earn from AdSense.
I was talking with one of my budding blogger (BB) friends, and he told me that he has an approved AdSense account, but he is not putting AdSense on his blog.
- Me: Why?
- BB: Because it’s a new blog, and putting AdSense on it might make my visitors think that I blog for money.
- Me: Then why did you apply for AdSense when you are not planning to monetize your blog?
- BB: I will monetize it when I have good traffic.
- Me: What difference does it make whether you monetize the blog now or later? Will the perception of your readers be different at another point in time?
Our conversation went on for a while and came away with a suspicion that many other bloggers share my friend’s feelings about advertising on a new blog.
My question remains, why wait to monetize your blog?
Making money from your blog doesn’t make you a less passionate blogger or a greedy blogger.
It is simply taking advantage of an opportunity to earn money from one of your passions, and to develop your dreams. Ask yourself if that is a disgraceful thing.
If you have a blog that can be monetized, start monetizing it now. Chances are good that you may not make more than $10-$100/month, but at least you are earning some money doing something you enjoy.
When an advertisement that is related to your content and your niche runs on your blog, whether on the sidebar, or on the header, or elsewhere, you are helping your readers by providing a place for him to obtain a product he may be interested in purchasing.
For example, on ShoutMeLoud I write extensively about blogging, web hosting and making money online.
I share my personal views and experiences. Many readers are here because they like to read about my experiences with different products that I use, and it is very possible that they would like to try these products or related products.
They are reading my posts, after all, because they have an interest in the niche that I write about. So this is why I keep web hosting and WordPress theme banners on the sidebars and headers of my posts.
When should you start using AdSense?
There is no right or wrong time to begin monetizing your blog if you have an interest in doing so.
And as long as you do so in such a way that you will not be hampering the readability of your blog, there is no reason why you should not start monetizing as soon as you feel your blog is ready. Bear in mind that it is best to place only one or two ads on a page.
While it may seem counter-intuitive, fewer ads = better CTR = more money in the long run.
If you are having trouble getting your site approval on AdSense, you can try applying for these AdSense alternatives. However, if your traffic is low, these ad networks are suitable for low traffic blogs.
So if you have an AdSense account and a blog, start trying some ads on your blog. If you don’t have an account yet, you can follow these tricks for AdSense approval and apply for AdSense.
Start with one or two ad units, and stay focused on the quality of your blog, delivering good information to your readers, and producing a quality blog overall. You never know – you may end up making a living from your blog!
What’s your opinion on when one should add ads on their blog?
Feel free to share your thoughts with us using the comments section below.
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