Blogs that Sell Out

Today’s gripe about the blogging world is about blogs who sell out to advertisers. More and more I see that blog authors are too quick to accept money from anyone out there to line their pockets. I don’t have a problem with a golfing blog mentioning some golf equipment, because at the end of the day it is somewhat related to the content of the blog. Hey, we all want to make money online, but there are some who just push it too far. Also I don’t see a problem with people making money, why would I, I make plenty from my blogs, but I do try to make it less obtrusive. Here are a few examples of bloggers cashing in a bit too much :

Example of advertising posts taking away from a blog

Just this week I saw a some posts [1][2] from one a new commentator on the blog, Houndsgood.com. While the content is great, it’s about dogs, and it’s regularly updated, this person seems to want to make a quick $15 on advertising skin care products and some sweep stakes to win USB flash drives. I’m sure there are lots of opportunities out there to get some sponsors, I know my dogs blog has some sponsored posts, but they are still in line with the topic.

Don’t over push your advertisers

Again I’ve seen a lot of bloggers praising their sponsors to high heavens, virtually every few days. Take sponsor to host his blog 2 weeks ago, he has mentioned them 5 times. Granted one was to say he was moving, and one was to announce a contest, I still feel that reading about TopHostingCenter.com is starting to get a little bit boring. In fact this was one of the reasons I’ve removed him from my RSS feed reader (not that he cares I’m sure).

Taking care of advertisers

It’s true that the advertisers are the folks who pay the bills, but you need to remember that you shouldn’t let them run your blog. For my advertisers I make it clear that review posts will be honest, upfront and impartial , and if they don’t like something they can either take down the whole post, or suck it up. This is one of the reasons why I ask for payments in advance of me reviewing something.

As for banner advertisers, I try to keep them prominent enough, without distracting or tricking people to click them. Also I ask my advertiser for banner that are not to flashy and are more or less in line with the style of the blog or website.

Taking care of readers

This post is really all about taking care of your readers. I mean if you don’t look after them, they don’t have any reason to return to your blog. They are the reason in the first place that you are getting advertising (be it based on your RSS subscriber count/Alexa Ranking/UV/etc). Without readers your blog will stop to get advertisers.

Tips for getting blog advertisers

Too many bloggers try to get advertisers on their blog when they are only getting less than 500 Unique Visitors (UV) per day. They start to sell these little square banners for $5/month, just so they can make a little bit of cash. Now if it your aim to make money online, and the $5 is making a difference to your bottom line, I’m sorry to say, but you still have a long way to go. I would say forgo having ads until you are over the 1k UV per day. And then start to approach advertisers directly, like online per stores for your pet blog, or golfing holiday agencies for your golf blog. Present your traffic to them, and the keywords that bring people to your blog. Of course start of small, and work up, offer your ads for 1/2 the price you think they are worth. Remember it’s better to have 4 advertisers paying $40/month, than 2 paying $80/month. Advertisers can be like sheep at times, if they see that there are respected companies advertising on your blog, it can be the case that they are more likely to take you up on your advertising offer.

Try and get your advertisers to work with you, and you will, in the end, be successful with your monetization strategy for your blog.

btw. anyone know why tylercruz.com is down ?