Comments on: See how easily you can make more money from your forum

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:44:48 +0000

Gallito – Yes, some sites do go overboard with their ads and probably don’t realise that they could actually make more money by getting rid of some of them!

By: Gallito

Gallito — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:25:32 +0000

I think the biggest thing we can all take away from this article is that the number of advertisements on some sites are absolutely outrageous. As a marketer myself I always scoff at the pages that have 10+ advertisements per page, while at the same time I find myself wondering how much money they are making as I somehow did inf act navigate to that site.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:25:22 +0000

Conor – Many people make the mistake over saturating their pages with ads. Not only does this distract a visitor from your content, it can actually result in you earning less money as you drive away visitors and serve ads that are less profitable.

By: Conor O'Driscoll

Conor O'Driscoll — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:42:58 +0000

Nice post. I particularly agree with the idea of cutting down the number of ads on a page.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:49:22 +0000

Demon – I don’t think I have said that PPP is wholly negative, but I do believe it can negatively affect your reputation. Blogging is completely different to watching a TV show – successful bloggers build a relationship with their readers; TV shows do not. PPP can be a good way of monetising a blog, but it shouldn’t be overdone.

Yes, most readers accept that advertising will be necessary in return for the free content but you shouldn’t get too ‘ad happy’ and overwhelm your site with advertising, paid posts and paid reviews. If your readers think that all you are interested in is making money from them, you will lose authority and you will lose some of their trust.

By: bookmarking demon

bookmarking demon — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:00:33 +0000

When you work PPP does it really hurt your blogs reputation? I mean after all, don’t we all watch our favorite TV shows even though the host sponsored reviews? Think about it, it’ s the same thing. If a blogger wants to blog for a living then why shouldn’t they have sponsors like every other company or organization or what ever. “And now a word from our sponsors” as the old TV commercials used to start.

It’s this phony snobbery in the blogosphere that deems PPP as some sort of shameless groveling but it’s actually just like a commercial. Hey, people need to get paid right? If every day you are putting out a post or two and you offer your readers some real value then they should support you by not condemning your sponsored posts. Do your readers want you to starve? Will they respect you more if you are broke?

I say let’s put an end to this blog snobbery and let real people (who need money) blog and do sponsored reviews.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:32:14 +0000

Chris – Ha, I like the vision of the ‘GoogFather’ handing out PR penalties! If blogging is your day job, I don’t see a real problem with developing blogs solely to milk them as places for paid posts in the future.

However, the fact you mention that you don’t do the same with your personal blogs shows that you still feel that paid posts can and do discredit a blog and its author.

If you don’t care about your blog’s perceived authority, then sure – building up a blog and milking it until it’s dead is one way of making money. It’s certainly a cycle I had never considered (and don’t have the time or inclination to try).

Good on you for reminding everyone that making money does take work, though!

By: chris (work at home)

chris (work at home) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:06:00 +0000

Martin, I do agree with you that doing a lot of PPP will have a negative effect on your blog, namely you get slapped by the “GoogFather”. You end up with a PR0 or PR1 when you used to have a healthy PR4 or 5.

It all depends on which blogs your do your paid reviews on. I do it in cycles. I start 10 or 15 blogs across various niches (to be able to cover a wide variety of topics for reviews) and build them up for three months or so. Now, these aren’t my personal blogs that I don’t want to mess with. These are blogs for work.

I set up 10-15 of them, build them up and use them for PPP and other related sites until the next PR update. So for about three months I can make real money with these blogs…then they are trashed PR wise. But that’s ok, because I’m always building up another 10 blogs for the next quarter.

Finally, after a few Google updates, my initial (slapped) blogs start to recover and become useable again.

So it’s this cycle of building expendable blogs. It makes money but it takes work…then again what doesn’t?

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:47:57 +0000

Ryan – I couldn’t agree with you more. As soon as the ads distract a visitor from your content, you are in trouble. Indeed, by cutting down on the number of ads on a page you increase the exposure (and potential earnings) for those that remain.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:22:45 +0000

The issue I keep coming up against is not overwhelming my visitors with ads. I’ve read stories about people making a pretty decent living running forums and think “hey, I could do that.” But then I go to their forums and they’re so plastered with ads that I have a hard time finding the content. Personally I’d rather make less money and keep the ads from being so intrusive.