I’ve always wrestled with the notion of advertising on my blog. FlowerDust.net has decent traffic, and many of the other blogs with the kind of readership I have advertises (or has “partners” or “sponsors.”)
When I decided to quit my full time job last August and write and speak as my way of bringing home the bacon (or chocolate bacon, if you will), I made the call and took the plunge.
I retracted my “I’ll never advertise on my blog” soapbox and opened the doors up.
Saddington even called me out on it.
I never was enthralled with the idea of advertising. Was it a little extra money to help pay the bills? Yeah. That part was nice. But I felt the need to always produce a high level of traffic and interaction in order to keep my advertisers/sponsors/partners happy. It should be noted they didn’t put that expectation on me…but I felt that way regardless.
Every month, I would have the same conversation with myself.
“I think I might buy back the ad space on my blog.”
“Why?”
“Because…I just don’t feel right about it.”
“Why?”
“Just because. It’s hard to explain.”
After a few months of this conversation repeating itself, I finally made the call. I decided to buy back the ads that had already been paid for, stop accepting new requests, and as of April 1, 2010, this blog will be ad-free.
I have nothing against blogs who advertise. I don’t think advertising is wrong. It costs money to have this blog. $40/month in hosting, and a pretty penny to keep it designed well and functioning. Advertising provided me enough money a month to pay for my health insurance and keep this blog up and running. When it’s part of what you do for a living, why shouldn’t you get paid for it?
For me, however, it just never landed right. And I’m one of those super weird people that if something is even a wee bit off in my gut, I have to go with what the gut says.
And if you’d like to know the specific reasons why I decided to go ad-free, here they are:
- I don’t want to contribute to the noise. People are bombarded with 3000+ advertisements a day. I’d like this to be a place that breathes a little bit.
- I’d like the focus to be the content. I don’t want to have to write when I feel obligated to. I want to write when I have something to say, and I’d like to think you’d like to read it without being distracted.
- The requests got to be too many. As far as sidebar ads went, the amount of requests were fine. But considering all of the book tours and product reviews and organization plugs, there wasn’t an easy way to determine what’s advertising, what’s simply passing on a good word, or how to be fair about it all. So I won’t be doing book tours or reviews or giveaways anymore unless it is something that is very near and dear to me. This was a hard line for me to draw, but I’m known as “the package lady” at the post office (seriously) because I get anywhere from five to ten books or products to review a week!
- What I do keep on my sidebar, I want to be highlighted. There are a handful of organizations which I am involved in deeply. These organizations have never paid for ad space, and they never will. They are an extension of who I am, and I’d like to bring attention to them.
So, there you go.
It was a hard decision to make, but I felt like it was the most responsible and the most true to my heart.
Thanks for letting me try something out for a while, and giving me grace to change it.