Website Advertising Should Benefit The Viewers Too

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The topic of website advertising is a fairly contentious one. Site owners/operators use advertising as a way to bring in additional income, while many visitors view advertising as wasted space and an annoyance. I vaguely recall reading a comment on one blog where the respondent was of the opinion that the only reason people link to their own blog when leaving comments was to get people to click through the ads. Obviously, there is a big disconnect here, but what many people do not realize is that ads can benefit them just as much, and maybe even more than the site owner who is hosting the ads.

 

Obviously, just by viewing this post, you can see that I am trying to benefit from hosting banner advertisements on my blog. There’s no denying that I am going to benefit from this activity, but, I happen to also be a web surfer, and read numerous other blogs and web sites as well which also contain advertising, so I can look at things from both perspectives. With that in mind, the ads that are on this site will also be beneficial to the readers as well.

 

Being a surfer has enabled me to take my personal experiences and preferences and use them in choosing what types of ads I decide to host on my blog site. Not only do I choose to work with companies that have relevance to the topics which I blog about, but I also choose to display ads which also offer discounts to readers that might happen to click through to the advertiser’s own website. Whether it be a free shipping offer, or a percentage discount or a dollar-off discount, many of the offers displayed on the blog provide a dual-benefit. There is also heavy consideration of the audience demographics that must go into the advertising plan. For instance, if you run a site that attracts a largely female audience in the 18-34 demographic, running ads for a car part distributor may not be the best use of time or space. Conversely, if your site centers on shooting down debt and the use of credit cards, partnering with a credit card issuer may lessen your credibility with the visitors you target.

 

Of course, there is also a business side to the whole concept of running a blog, or any other type of website for that matter–the hosting, bandwidth, and domain registration do not pay for themselves. Plus, the whole idea of running a business is to make money in general and showing advertisements is and easy way to accomplish that goal. Without a steady stream of income, expansion, upgrades, and overhead expenses are difficult to cover. More importantly, if you are trying to become reliant on your internet sites to be your main sources of income, and looking to quit your regular job then you must earn a significant and reliable income from your sites.

 

Quite simply, advertising is a necessary part of running a website, whether it be a blog, social networking, news outlet, etc. The key is to to keep the sites’ visitors as the main focus since they will be the ones to content as the center of attention and whenever possible customize the advertising in a way so that it not only pertains to the focus of the website, but can also provide a benefit to the viewers as well.

About Eric J. Nisall

Former NY'er, accountant & business consultant, founder of GreenBridge Advisors. Blogging about personal financial, small business topics, and other fun topics at DollarVersity. Fan of the NHL and everything hockey! Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and on Google+

  • http://liverealnow.net Jason@LiveRealNow

    I try to keep my ads from getting intrusive.  It doesn’t always work, but I don’t think it’s too bad.

    • http://www.dollarversity.com Eric J. Nisall – DollarVersity

      I don’t there’s anything wrong with ads themselves as long as the majority of the readers don’t complain.  If it’s too intrusive, and the overwhelming sentiment is negative, then it would probably be worth looking at other options.

  • http://twitter.com/prairieecothrif Miss T

    I too try to keep my ads to a minimum. I hope they are helpful for those who click on them but I also don’t want to bombard readers. 

    • http://www.dollarversity.com Eric J. Nisall – DollarVersity

      Yeah, being helpful is nice, but even if it is the most helpful resource in the world, I would have a hard time justifying making it an annoyance to readers.  Personally I have a hard time reading sites where there are ads in both the left and right columns, in the middle of posts, etc.  That’s a little too much for me.

  • Anonymous

    The only ads I have are sponsored posts.  My blog probably will remain the same for quite some time.  I don’t like blogs with intrusive annoying ads.

    • http://www.dollarversity.com Eric J. Nisall – DollarVersity

      I’m not a big fan of sponsored posts, since they end to be very generalized and bland, especially compared to my personal writing style.  I hate intrusive ads too, which is why I never used the ghost sign up form (or whatever it’s called), and I haven’t done any in-post ads.

  • http://formerbanker.com Will

    I haven’t put ads on Former Banker yet. I’m not a big fan of selling links since Google doesn’t like that and I’ve been burned in the past (site lost PR and rankings). I’m trying to figure out what direction the site is going to take before I decide what type of advertising will suit it best.

    • http://www.dollarversity.com Eric J. Nisall – DollarVersity

      Selling links has varying meanings, though Will.  If someone pays you to link to their site using anchor text that flows well with the content of a post, and hat site is legitimate, I really don’t see how Google could levy penalties.  Now, if it’s a crapload of links in the same post all pointing to garbage sites, then yes I would stay away from those. Most of the links in my posts aren’t paid (I only have 1 paid link total) but rather links out to other reputable sources that relate to the topic of the post which I use for reader benefit.