How do you monetize your blog / website?

[Sean Quinn]

How do you monetize your blog / website? Do you have ads showing on the pages from Google Adsense or a similar company? or Do you have ads on the text of your website / blog entries?

 

[xXInfectedXx]

Never placed advertising on a forum that I have owned. I would use Adsense as I don't know any trusted alternatives. I displayed Ads on my YouTube channel with Adsense so therefore I know Adsense is reliable.

 

[Friendly Survival]

How do you monetize your blog / website? Do you have ads showing on the pages from Google Adsense or a similar company? :yum: or Do you have ads on the text of your website / blog entries? :yum:

I don't know how effective adverts are given that Ad Blockers exists. So generally I would think a cheap subscription or even creative means to monetize may be better to look into.

For example I didn't even know that websites that "mine" your CPU power in order to generate their money. I believe that's a good method IF the user is aware when they first visit (like how some sites do cookies notices).

Personally given that I will be providing hosting services it will be no harder than selecting what package you looking for. I am not going to charge for items/perks that should come with the servicing (offsite backups, DDoS protection, and/or etc).

 

[Mr.Bishop]

Never placed advertising on a forum that I have owned. I would use Adsense as I don't know any trusted alternatives. I displayed Ads on my YouTube channel with Adsense so therefore I know Adsense is reliable.

AdSense is reliable, but it is a very old idea that all the rest of the networks are Junk. Sure, there's tonnes of junk networks out there, but these days there is a ton of really quality ad providers. District M, Conversant, Appnexus, Rubicon, OpenX, Defy, RhythmOne, bRealtime... all of these are absolutely great to work with. If you set them up all using Header Bidding too - they compete with each other for your ad slots and revenue is at least 30% higher than you get with AdSense. Sometimes, depending on your niche it can be 50%-100%.

The only catch is that you need to have a certain scale of traffic before ads really can make you money. Having 1-2 million pageviews a month is considered tiny for most of the ad networks. However, at about 2 million+ you can start to make some really meaningful money if you do the setup right.

I don't know how effective adverts are given that Ad Blockers exists. So generally I would think a cheap subscription or even creative means to monetize may be better to look into.

For example I didn't even know that websites that "mine" your CPU power in order to generate their money. I believe that's a good method IF the user is aware when they first visit (like how some sites do cookies notices).

AdBlock is problem, but if you have an open discussion with your users about it, it is quite possible to keep the AdBlock rate at around 20%. Certain people will simply never want ads, and that is that. I've seen some successful places just have a really friendly message to those who run AdBlock to either Whitelist or consider signing up for a subscription.

I have actually worked with a couple of sites that were transparent with users and tried the mining thing through a banner ad. It made pennies per month at most, so it isn't very successful in the slightest. I honestly thing that this type of a thing being hyped up is just the bad press that advertising always gets.

I've been an Ad Guy for a really long time, and I think that advertising has a way worse reputation than it deserves. I mean sure, everyone hates ads... but they like free content too and there has to be a balance at some point. Ad Networks have radically improved their quality in the last two years as well, so most of the terrible stories you hear are from years ago when it was junk or its people who fell for some of the rampant scammers that are out there.

 

[Friendly Survival]

AdSense is reliable, but it is a very old idea that all the rest of the networks are Junk. Sure, there's tonnes of junk networks out there, but these days there is a ton of really quality ad providers. District M, Conversant, Appnexus, Rubicon, OpenX, Defy, RhythmOne, bRealtime... all of these are absolutely great to work with. If you set them up all using Header Bidding too - they compete with each other for your ad slots and revenue is at least 30% higher than you get with AdSense. Sometimes, depending on your niche it can be 50%-100%.

The only catch is that you need to have a certain scale of traffic before ads really can make you money. Having 1-2 million pageviews a month is considered tiny for most of the ad networks. However, at about 2 million+ you can start to make some really meaningful money if you do the setup right.



AdBlock is problem, but if you have an open discussion with your users about it, it is quite possible to keep the AdBlock rate at around 20%. Certain people will simply never want ads, and that is that. I've seen some successful places just have a really friendly message to those who run AdBlock to either Whitelist or consider signing up for a subscription.

I have actually worked with a couple of sites that were transparent with users and tried the mining thing through a banner ad. It made pennies per month at most, so it isn't very successful in the slightest. I honestly thing that this type of a thing being hyped up is just the bad press that advertising always gets.

I've been an Ad Guy for a really long time, and I think that advertising has a way worse reputation than it deserves. I mean sure, everyone hates ads... but they like free content too and there has to be a balance at some point. Ad Networks have radically improved their quality in the last two years as well, so most of the terrible stories you hear are from years ago when it was junk or its people who fell for some of the rampant scammers that are out there.

I only started using one when Minecraft Forums had likely leaked Adware onto my Windows machine. It took 96 hours to remove even with Malware Bytes on my side to cleanse it on the house thanks to their forum for this (at least at the time).

Even the best ad networks cannot ensure this doesn't happens to their ad viewing customers. So I say either provide some form of service within the community itself or finding alternatives may be best.

 

[Mr.Bishop]

I only started using one when Minecraft Forums had likely leaked Adware onto my Windows machine. It took 96 hours to remove even with Malware Bytes on my side to cleanse it on the house thanks to their forum for this (at least at the time).

Even the best ad networks cannot ensure this doesn't happens to their ad viewing customers. So I say either provide some form of service within the community itself or finding alternatives may be best.

When was it that this happened?

The big problem is when people use the really sketchy networks. I mean you're absolutely correct there are occasional attacks in the ad world, but forums are under attack and the same thing happens when anything gets penetrated by nefarious actors.

The real thing about ads is how much traffic you have - if its tiny traffic then the tradeoff isn't worth it you're correct. If you're running a forum that has 5-10 million pageviews per month, not doing ads properly is turning down four to five figure monthly revenues.

It also really depends on how you set your ads up. DoubleClick has malware blockers built in, so if you're using them they catch this stuff before it goes out to users 99% of the time.

 

[Friendly Survival]

When was it that this happened?

The big problem is when people use the really sketchy networks. I mean you're absolutely correct there are occasional attacks in the ad world, but forums are under attack and the same thing happens when anything gets penetrated by nefarious actors.

The real thing about ads is how much traffic you have - if its tiny traffic then the tradeoff isn't worth it you're correct. If you're running a forum that has 5-10 million pageviews per month, not doing ads properly is turning down four to five figure monthly revenues.

It also really depends on how you set your ads up. DoubleClick has malware blockers built in, so if you're using them they catch this stuff before it goes out to users 99% of the time.

It was a few years ago and I believe back then at least they uses Adsense.

In theory ads should bring you in bucks but remember you has to factor in ad blocking. Even if you "encourage" users not use to it you still has to INVEST for that too.

Save the hassles and do what I seen happening more often. Most ad blocking apps won't interfere if the community match up the ads to their niche. Aka gaming to gaming related ads. The more targeted the ads the better.

But I am so done with toilet paper ads (Yes that ACTUALLY I gotten from them every now and then) on Minecraft Forums.

The problem is that most communities expects an ad software or what not to "just work".

 

[Mr.Bishop]

It was a few years ago and I believe back then at least they uses Adsense.

In theory ads should bring you in bucks but remember you has to factor in ad blocking. Even if you "encourage" users not use to it you still has to INVEST for that too.

Save the hassles and do what I seen happening more often. Most ad blocking apps won't interfere if the community match up the ads to their niche. Aka gaming to gaming related ads. The more targeted the ads the better.

But I am so done with toilet paper ads (Yes that ACTUALLY I gotten from them every now and then) on Minecraft Forums.

The problem is that most communities expects an ad software or what not to "just work".

Yeah I mean things changed massively. I would almost guarantee though that malware didn't come from AdSense. Google is crazy strict on this... usually the problem is they try a new sketchy network which they don't set up properly in an attempt to get more money. Boom, they get sucker punched with Malware.

Toilet paper ads are a thing of the past in general, unless you've been searching for Toilet Paper recently on Google or Amazon. Then, ads are all targeted to the individual person. So everything is pretty relevant to what you like. There's a sidebar discussion of the philosophical implications of that - but lets keep this on track.

I agree though that the problem is people expecting it to "just work". AdSense "Just Works" but you're sacrificing a ton of revenue. Taking the slightly harder route, or hiring someone to do it for you (who will work on a % of ad revenue) can lead to major revenue increases.

This is something I've really realised the forum owners specifically don't quite understand. I know why, because things were so bad for so long, and Forums were totally ignored in the direct advertising days.... but again I really highlight the world is much better for ads now. I've been doing this for quite a while, and have had many forums with major increases in revenue due to this stuff.

 

[GamesToEnjoy]

I put Adsense at the header and footer of the site and also inside the posts.

 

[Mr.Bishop]

I put Adsense at the header and footer of the site and also inside the posts.

Ever thought of displaying extra in-line ads for people who aren't logged in?

Many non-logged in visitors on a forum are visitors from google. They're the people searching for your topic, and reading your discussions. You can put in loads of ads with a "register to get rid of this ad" marker and then hide that shit from registered members.

 

[GamesToEnjoy]

Ever thought of displaying extra in-line ads for people who aren't logged in?

Many non-logged in visitors on a forum are visitors from google. They're the people searching for your topic, and reading your discussions. You can put in loads of ads with a "register to get rid of this ad" marker and then hide that shit from registered members.

My website is about learning Kodi, so I don't see why people will want to register to such site, they only came in order to learn...