Why I Don't Have Ads In This Blog

You should all know by now that I rant.

Sometimes my posts are all long winded fantasies, or narratives of things that had struck me through the day. And when I was wondering whether or not to continue posting things up about Judo a couple of friends had to remind me that this was my blog, and I could do anything I want with it.

It's the age old blogging paradox: should I write for myself? Or should I write for my readers?

Right now I'm about 80% writing for myself, and 20% of my efforts are spent making sure my rants and raves are readable by you guys.

And as a general rule of thumb the more you write for your readers the more successful your blog would be. I don't need to give examples - just take a quick peek around the blogosphere. Personal blogs like mine are read by my friends, or by people who are interested to see how I'm getting through this roller coaster called Life. They don't come here for a quick read, a five minute stand to laugh about the latest stupid thing I've seen.


And it's because of that I absolutely refuse to put ads up in this blog.

Reasons

1. My personal blog is myself.

This blog is a 100% self centered effort. Everytime I post something up I think to myself: when I'm old and married and with grandchildren which part of my youth would I want to reread about? So I try as much as possible to write up on the stuff that matters to me, that captures the spirit of the times (zeitgeist is the proper word, I think). This means balancing melancholy with positive writing; happiness with sadness. I want to read it when I am grey and think: so this was me.

2. You can never make reasonable money through ads in a personal blog.

If you write for yourself as I do the grand total of money you'd make is probably 40 dollars ... over 4 years. If you're running a topical blog, however, with a clear focus and an industry driven niche ... then there's a chance for you to make a pretty penny. More than a pretty penny, actually - problogger Darren Rowse earns about 5 figures every month from his blogs; Shoemoney at one time earned 100k from Google adsense. But overall ... you rant, you lose. Xiaxue and Andrew Ho and Kenny Sia can never make as much money through blogging as, say, Boing Boing and Techcrunch. It's just a reality of life.

3. If I put up ads in this blog I'll be forced to treat it like a business.

Which I don't want to. Refer to reason #1.

4. I'm honoured by your presence.

Readers of this blogs are usually my friends. Why would I want to piss you all off by plastering ads everywhere? It's like a pal inviting you over to dinner and then suddenly shoving an Amway catalogue in your face. Euch. I'd only put up ads if this was a blog that serves up extremely high quality content - with disclosures and interviews and breaking news all day, everyday.

5. Been there, done that.

Been an adsense publisher for 3 years now. You definitely need a topic to write about ... your life is not a commodity easily sold.

Alternatives?

If you seriously want to put ads up on your personal blog ... don't go for Adsense. Or Nuffnang. Or Adverlets. All these pay you CPC, that is ... when your readers click on an ad you earn money. This just doesn't work well for low traffic blogs like this one. There just isn't enough Seach Engine traffic to power it.

So what leh?

The first thing that comes to my mind when I'm thinking of a low traffic blog is Text Link Ads, because they pay you a steady amount every month for just displaying ads on your blog. Of course you'll need advertisers to buy the links, but quite a few low traffic bloggers I know cover their hosting costs every month through TLA ... and with just one link purchased. Some even have leftovers for dinner. Or lunch. Or a week's groceries.

And of course the other ad network that works like TLA (and is undeniably the best for making money) is Blogads. Which is invitation only. Figures.

Case Closed (swt!)

Someone once said that regarding ads there are 3 schools of thought:

1. I do not put ads on my blog because I am an ethical, morally upright person. Ads are bad! BAD! They're the scourge of the earth! The harbingers of doom for all mankind! Grr! Rawr!

2. I put ads up in my blog coz I wanna make a quick dime from me blog. L33T! You noobies my chequebook is gonna pwn you!

3. I don't mind ads. I feel there is no obligation to put ads up in my blog, and I do not (usually) discriminate against blogs that display ads.

I'd say I'm from the third group. Now ... which one do you belong to?