When to Monetize? Your Thoughts

[Peter S C]

Many of us on this forum have blogs. And many of us have been inspired by Steve's account of earning $1,000 per day from his site.

I'm wondering what people's thoughts are on when to monetize.

If want to make money from your blog, should you just bite the bullet straight away and try to make money? Or should you wait until you have build up traffic to your site? If so, how much traffic?

I'm interested in hearing your experiences with your own blogs. Also, I want to know what you see other people doing right and what they are doing wrong.

My own thoughts to follow....

[Peter S C]

When I first started a public blog, I used Blogger which makes it very easy to add Adsense to your blog. As a result I stuck a few ads into my sidebar and posts to see how they would go. Not much happened.

About the time I moved my blog to Wordpress, I began reading The Google Story by David Vise. This book made me rethink my approach to monetizing my blog (somewhat ironic since Google's Adsense seems to be the most popular source of income for bloggers). Throughout its history, Google has focused on solving problems with the monetization of ideas and products coming later (if at all). This inspired me to primarily focus on writing quality articles that add value to the reader. The only currency I would want (at this stage) in return for my efforts would be increased traffic and recognition (via comments and feed numbers).

The following are what I want to happen before I try to monetize:

• Prove to myself that I can consistently write quality articles that add value (I am getting close to this)
• Have approximately 500 rss feeders and 500 unique hits per day

In regards to others' blogs, I see many where their efforts to monetize destroy the appeal of the blog and others where it fits quite comfortably. There seems to be a very fine line between these two.

[ZHereford]

That's very interesting Peter!

Are you saying that Google penalizes you if you monetize too early?
I don't have a blog but I am building my personal development website. I'm actually afraid that monetizing will junk up my content and you're right, I go to read some blogs and I can barely find the article. It's somewhat (okay quite) annoying. By the same token, you're there to generate some income.

I'm can't wait to see some of the responses to your question about how much traffic you should have before you monetize.

[Peter S C]

Re Google: Google have created a "Google Economy" which is fantastic... from what I can see many people are making good money from Adsense. However, I see many sites where people go overboard on the Adsense without having much actual substance to their site. I think these people could actually use the story of Google's success to help themselves. I have written more about this here if you are interested.

Re how much traffic: I'm very curious to see people's responses as well. I'm sure there will be a variety of responses as there is no one correct answer. My blog is still somewhat new so I am still quite far off the numbers I quoted. It's not something I plan on doing for a couple of months at least.

[ZHereford]

Very interesting article Peter!

What a novel concept "....Google tries to first find ways to solve problems..."

Actually that's the way it should be - provide value first, and then work out how you'll be compensated. I guess that's the answer, it's just figuring out if you've provided enough value.

[Bloggeries]

There is a good article on my forum about it but generally in the beginning don't bother putting ot much. Put some here and there but don't go full until you have the traffic. I twould be liek spending alot of time on a billboard, tweaking it, customizing it on an abandonded highway no one travels. Put SOME up and concentrate on it proportionally to your traffic growth. Traffic growrth is much more important.

Best of luck!

[Bloggeries]

Originally Posted by ZHereford

That's very interesting Peter!

Are you saying that Google penalizes you if you monetize too early?
I don't have a blog but I am building my personal development website. I'm actually afraid that monetizing will junk up my content and you're right, I go to read some blogs and I can barely find the article. It's somewhat (okay quite) annoying. By the same token, you're there to generate some income.

I'm can't wait to see some of the responses to your question about how much traffic you should have before you monetize.

The adsense is an applet on the side and it's offered by GOOGLE. Therefor in google's eyes it will not junk up your content. I really would not worry about that in the slightest.

[ZHereford]

Originally Posted by Bloggeries

There is a good article on my forum about it but generally in the beginning don't bother putting ot much.

Thanks for the info Bloggeries!

Can you put a direct link to the article you're talking about? I looked and I have no idea which article you mean. Thanks!

[Bloggeries]

Originally Posted by ZHereford

Thanks for the info Bloggeries!

Can you put a direct link to the article you're talking about. I looked and I have no idea which article you mean? Thanks!

Tips for Not Monetizing your blog too soon!

[John Wesley]

I don't think putting up Adsense is worth it until you're getting at least a 1000 visitors a day. Even with that much traffic, the amount you make will be very small.

One thing I've done is started putting ads on my older posts, but not on my front page and latest posts. This way, regular readers or newcomers from the social media sites aren't annoyed by ads, while the archives are able to generate a bit of income.

[ZHereford]

Bloggeries thanks so much!

I've been agonizing over if/when to start and how. This article was really helpful. I trust that Peter will agree.

[ZHereford]

Originally Posted by John Wesley

One thing I've done is started putting ads on my older posts, but not on my front page and latest posts. This way, regular readers or newcomers from the social media sites aren't annoyed by ads, while the archives are able to generate a bit of income.

That's a great idea John.
p.s. I was just visiting your website where I posted a comment. What a small cyberspace world!

[John Wesley]

Yes, thanks for you comment, ZHereford. Seems like we have the same taste in blogs.

I think monetization can go either way. If you want to do it, you might as well go all out. According to Steve's experience it doesn't have any negative effect on traffic.

That being said, if I visit a blog for the first time and see nothing but Adsense, I usually don't come back.

[ZHereford]

Originally Posted by John Wesley

That being said, if I visit a blog for the first time and see nothing but Adsense, I usually don't come back.

Quite frankly, neither do I. If there's too much, I find it a turn off.

[Peter S C]

Originally Posted by John Wesley

One thing I've done is started putting ads on my older posts, but not on my front page and latest posts. This way, regular readers or newcomers from the social media sites aren't annoyed by ads, while the archives are able to generate a bit of income.

Great tip there John. In fact, that is thinking exactly like Google. Consider the Google homepage, do you see any ads there? No, its only once you have hit the search button.

[JohnPlace]

According to Brian Clark of CopyBlogger, subscribers are the single most important element to a successful blog. I think I agree with him, since your subscribers are your list, your fan club, the people who have given you permission to market to them.

In my opinion, anything that distracts people from signing up (including clicking on - or being distracted by - ads) isn't worth it in the early days of blogging. I agree with John that it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to monetize until you've got some decent traffic.