Saturday, November 13, 2010

When to monetize your site

I have heard this debate for a very long time. Exactly when is the right time to monetize your site. Some people say that you should have ads on your blog right from the start while others will advise you to wait at least for some time until you are getting some targeted traffic.

If that is so then why do I see new sites littered with ads all over? If it has no monetary benefits why do it? Doesn't it look like a waste of time and even a poor way of marketing your blog (considering people just hate ads)? Not really, everybody has their reasons.

A smart guy once figured out that you can get your site indexed very fast if you run some Google Adsense. Just that coupled with a few high quality links to your site and the Google bot will be after you. It doesn't seem a hard thing to do and since it works, it's worth a try.

If it is your desire to make money blogging then it might be a good idea to let people know that right from the start. I didn't say you go put Adsense everywhere, no just a lonely ad somewhere, not for making money but for passing a message. There are readers who get disappointed when their ad free blog soon starts showing some adverts. You don't want that to happen to your blog right? Just let them know what you are up to right from the start.

So now I have told you the pros of having adverts in your blog from the very beginning, here are the cons. For one you won't make anything, not a single penny. It can be very disappointing. I have this friend of mine who thought he can write a few posts and then start making money from Adsense. I let him try it. When it never worked he assumed the promise of making money online was the proverbial pie in the sky. I tried to convince him otherwise but he was adamant and gave up. With this attitude you simply can't make money online.

When you have set up a new blog you want to get lots of subscribers, loyal readers and the like even before you think of making money. Now when you put ads all over your blog even before your site is indexed you look very inexperienced. Like I said above you can have a little ad at some lonely corner for purposes I have mentioned, but if you cover every little space with them you will be doing yourself a lot of disservice. Around this time you should be thinking about marketing your blog and optimizing it for the search engines before you think about the checks.  They don't come easy so work for them.

So when is the right time to monetize your blog? I would say there is no such thing as a right time. It will all depend on what you have in mind. However take into consideration that you want to have a successful blog. Make sure what you do what works for you and not against you. After all we'd like to see you blogging happily to the bank.

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