Well, as you can see, I’ve been experimenting with various advertisements on Writeside.net and Writer’s Log.
I have Google Adsense and Auction Ads on the main site. There’s also Text-Link-Ads, but they haven’t managed to sell a spot on my site yet!
On this blog I have Amazon ads. Recently I also signed up with Kontera (with a referral from OpenDesigns). In Kontera, in their own words:
a contextually relevant keyword…on a web page from within Kontera´s vast network of publishers…is automatically turned into a link to the most relevant ad.
This means that some words on this page will show up with a double underline. Hovering on those words with pop up an ad. Moving your mouse away will take the pop-up away. I know that some people will find this annoying. (There are Firefox extensions to turn off these ads, by the way.)
I debated on a number of ways I could generate revenue from the site, to at least cover part of the hosting costs. A number of people who have used my free templates have offered money (one man donated £5 to Battersea Dogs’ and Cats’ Home!), and I thought about (and rejected) the idea of having a “donate” button. I think having ads is better, but I would like to hear opinions if you have any!
~PD
No popups! 😈
I can’t blame you for wanting ads. I’ll probably one day have to do the same with MW, although I would probably put up a donate thing first. But then, my host has a program that lets people donate funds directly to your hosting account.
Good luck!
Having ads on your blog is not a bad idea at all; but I think, you should wait till you get at least 100,000 page views a month.
Then only you could earn some decent money to really justify any possible annoyance caused to your readers 🙂
And sorry, Plz don’t have Kontera or whatever…It’s irritating to say the least.
Hi Rajesh,
Thanks for your comments. I used to find Kontera irritating too, but I got used to it on various other sites, and I’m hoping the same will happen for readers here. But I will keep your opinion in mind. I’ve been advised to try it out for 30 days to see if it works. If I find it’s not generating more revenue than Google Adsense, I’m not going to continue with it!
I don’t really like the idea of a “donate” button. What do you think?
if you give something for free, it is perfectly fine to ask for something in return. 🙂 so why not a donate button ?
and kontera is not bad either.. i am planning to put it on my blog. 🙂
it works! Although the links it generated didn’t feel too interesting…. Maybe it is because this post is about ads? You should write a new post about something interesting… Or I suppose I could go visit an older post and see if it makes funnier ads.
I heard Kontera earns more than Google Adsense, I’ve been wanting to test both for weeks now, as soon as I get some spare time I’ll get into it and test them both like for a month or two.
Why would you wait until you get 100,000 visits per month? “Some say why put ads, they’re annoying”, I say “why not” if others do, and it could turn into a little income to pay the hosting bill.
Thanks for your comments! 🙂 It is hosting costs I’m looking to cover. I also intend to separate my work and personal sites in the near future (when I have some breathing space to work for myself!), so hopefully people coming to my blog will not have ads to contend with!
Hi Payal,
No, you don’t need to have a Donate button here.
You are doing enough public service through your writing 🙂