One of my biggest frustrations is when I hear people in MMO say they will ad/increase monetization to their blog “after I gain subscribers/visitors.” This is the same mentality of those people who get into business but don’t want to be pushy salesmen. Somehow, there is an accepted fallacy that if one doesn’t push their offerings, people will be so thankful for not having a pushy salesmen they will remember and come back to the buy from the person that wasn’t pushy. While a very few people may come back to the not so pushy person, the introverted salesman will be losing twenty sales in the meantime.
It is not so much that one has to be pushy, but one has to give people the opportunity to buy. Being online, that means having adverts posted on one’s site. I really don’t see the big deal (what? maybe 80-90% of web sites we visit have advertising on them), but I see many people post online that they don’t want to put ads on their site, yet they want to make money online. This is hilarious as most of these blogs/sites are about making money online. You want to make money, you have to have advertising on your site(s).
One of my favorite MMO bloggers is Caroline Middlebrook. Caroline had issues with advertising too, but as she is blogging full-time, making money is an imperative. She measured her stats against online guru John Chow. She found although John Chow had ten times the visitors, he had thirty times the revenue. Between you and me, Caroline has the much better content. Her content is never fluff, always on topic and straightforward about MMO. Yet, John Chow with his humorous posts and noodle shots surpasses her income based upon ratios.
Reason is John Chow has advertising everywhere. I counted he has seventeen graphic advertisements, and nine text advertisements on his pages. He has all this without any of it seemingly too spammy, no more so than any other site. For those that worry about advertisements on their sites, his blog grows continually.
Ultimately, if one is trying to make money online, do it. Waiting for someday to happen, that day will never arrive. Advertisements are opportunities for you to make money, so you need plenty of them. Without them, no one can bring you money to your site.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
While I don’ think of having ads on your site is bad (you’re here to make money and this is one of the ways you can make some), I think that John Chow’s site does look spammy. So spammy that last year it made my computer freeze (it’s true that I needed to upgrade but even then…). There is a balance between hypocrites who say they are afraid to look pushy by displaying ads (while enviously eyeing their competition) and those filling every available space by slow-loading ads and annoying pop-ups. Whenever my Stumbling takes me to John Chow’s site, I feel like running away like mad!
October 9th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I was like that in the beginning. I didn’t want alot of ads because I thought it would be spammy. As time goes by and I read more blogs, I increase my ads. I am still exploring different ad types.
Great Post
October 10th, 2009 at 10:58 am
How do you monetize your customer base?
Advertising has been and will continue to be a sticky point for all businesses, large and small.
I agree with Marios that finding the line between pushy and effective is and will be difficult.
What has been successful for me has been to keep a certain percentage of my revenues focused on testing different advertising methods. This way, I continue to evolve and grow my business.
Keep in mind though, the more niche driven and personable your site is, the easier it will be to monetize. Very similar to why I like Caroline Middlebrook’s site as well… She has found her niche, found her voice and continues to test different monetizing routes.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
I’ve always felt the same way, but you’ve articulated it so well! I think overly pushy ads will cost you visitors at any stage so part of the trick is finding the line between pushy, but effective and just pushy.