I Need Your Advice – Ads On This Site?

This blog has been up and running for some time now. Fundamentally it’s a channel to redirect people to other projects I’m involved in – Afrigator, Cerebra, 27dinners and my speaking and writing gigs.

The site is up for a bit of a rethink and refresh – one of the key decisions I have to make is whether or not to sell advertising space here. It’s a toughie because I know this site enables other commercially-viable interests and I’m really lucky to have anyone reading it in the first place. Putting ads here may seem like selling out. On the other hand, not earning the extra pocket money from a few ads on a site when there’s no argument against it would be stupid.

So my question to you is – would you put ads on www.mikestopforth.com if you were Mike Stopforth? I’d really value your thoughts…

  • http://www.adii.co.za Adii

    Glad to have sparked these thoughts! :)

  • http://saulk.co.za SaulK

    In Economics we would weigh up the opportunity cost. Basically what do you gain from the one option vs what would you gain from the other.

    For example: Would the revenue you get from ads be worth the potential downsides? Downsides could include people finding your site tacky and leaving or them not taking you serious enough due to a lack of perceived professionalism linked to fugly Google ads or some flashing gif file. If you make your living off this site is it worth sacrificing professionalism for (literally) a few bucks?

  • http://www.galasoft.ch Laurent Bugnion

    For what it’s worth, I’ve been pondering adding ads to my website for quite some time now (for at least 2 years). I keep pushing it further because I don’t really like the idea of making money everywhere. I am really not a fan of ads in general. On the other hand, like you say, why not make some pocket money? I am still undecided.

    OK, I hope that this helps you choosing. In fact, I realize I still really don’t know if I should go for it, let alone you :)

    Maybe I will just do whatever you choose to do! :)

  • http://justinhartman.com Justin Hartman

    If I were Mike, and clearly I’m not :), I wouldn’t put ads on. If your idea is to make some pocket money ask yourself if it’s worth it – really?

    While ads are a necessity for many business models I’m not sure it’s worth it on a blog unless you’re getting 1,000 uniques a day.

    Just my 2 cents worth.

  • http://www.jasonbagley.com JBagley

    Mike, I’d go for it. Sell targeted ads – 125×125 ads or the likes to companies / individuals you approve of. Similar to The Deck

    I wouldn’t go for Adsense on a blog like this – ads that spammy feel to it.

  • http://www.mikestopforth.com Mike

    @SaulK – thanks for your thoughts. I wouldn’t be interested in text ads or flashy gifs at all, but small targeted ads (as @JBagley indicates) seem to be reasonably nice-looking and hopefully would not detract from, but rather add to the ‘professional’ stature of the site… as with a RRW or TechCrunch (as if I can compare…)

    @JustinHartman – I guess it depends on what your definition of pocket money is. If Mike Stopforth had had some interest from potential advertisers, and that pocket money could potentially pay his car repayments… would you feel any different then?

  • Tim

    Hey Mike,

    We (me & the other co-founder) had a similar dilemma with blogging service http://www.iblog.co.za. One idea we thought of, was some kind of new blogvertising model, where other bloggers/websites can pay to be associated with more popular blogs – almost like friends on facebook – but from a commercial angle. What we like about the idea is that it’s less in your face than traditional advertising.

    I think something like that would be more suitable for http://www.mikestopforth.com

  • Douglas

    To be honnest, I think this is a no-brainer, Mike. The point is that if someone is willing to buy advertising space on your site, you would be an idiot not to sell it to them. So long as the ads are not intrusive (such as popups) and do not take away from the initial aim of the site, why not? You’d be crazy to literally throw away money!