How much advertising is too much?

[vftw]

Especially when I'm not making any money from it yet?

I have advertising from google and amazon. Do you think they are conflicting, and do you think there is too much in there?

Could you please check the index page and one of the posts (any of them). The ones at the top will have more content and are an indication of what future posts will be like.

The site is at: http://blog.vftw.com/

Thanks

[Scriptage]

Judging by the lack of comments on your articles you haven't got a very solid reader base; you cannot expect to make money from advertising if you aren't getting a lot of traffic.

Work on the basis that for every one hundred visitors to your site, one will click an advert; at a reasonable price of 10 pence per click you would need 1,000 visitors a day to earn £1.

The likelihood is that you will earn a lot less than this from this number of visitors; so if you aren't reaching this amount of hits a day you pretty much aren't going to earn a penny.

In order to draw in a bigger crowd you will need to come up with some unique articles because from what I've seen of your blog it's all been done to death elsewhere.

Regards

Carl

[KDLA]

I would say that if more than 25% of your page's real estate is taken up by ads, then you've got too many.

[Reli4nt]

Ultimately it always depends on what your customers are coming to your site for. If they are shopping and the ads are relevant then many ads will be well received.

Websites cannot be treated like an ATM (or a magical goodies creator) and the more you push ads the less people will respond. You may want to try building a loyal base with minimal to no ads and then introducing various ads or ad types as you grow. Your users at that point will either respect it and tolerate it (perhaps even value it if the ads are relevant) or they will let you know.

[vftw]

True I won't be making much money from it, but that's really besides the point. I'm not a professional writer and don't intend on becoming one.

If I could clarify my question, I'd like to know whether you feel that there is too much advertisement there. Does it get in the way?

Lets forget that my site is currently barebones and pretend that it has a couple of articles that you find a little interesting, but not intersting enough for you to feel you need to read them. Would you look at the adverts there be a factor in your decision to stay and read or go elsewhere?


For example, when I read some news sites like theregister or theinquirer, I hate that they have so much adverts, but I read on anyway. The reason is that I know they have stuff I want to read. But If I didn't know who they were, I'd probably take a glance at their headlines and leave unless something really got my attention. Whereas I actually find the layout at places like mashable quite pleasant, and would stick around to see what else they have.

Cheers

[tobiaseichner]

As long as the "useful" content makes the majority of your site, there should no need to worry about too many ads. However the acceptable limit differs from user to user. So if you are really in doubt, why not make some kind of poll and simply ask your users ?

My personal experience is that as long as you are getting paid by click-throughs only, the rates are higher with less, but well placed ads.

[Kimberlh]

Especially when I'm not making any money from it yet?

I have advertising from google and amazon. Do you think they are conflicting, and do you think there is too much in there?

Could you please check the index page and one of the posts (any of them). The ones at the top will have more content and are an indication of what future posts will be like.

The site is at: http://blog.vftw.com/

Thanks

Many time it is better to go with less advertising but to get good targeting affiliate programs. I use to have 25 different programs I use and really never made much money but after I got more targeted in my products I sell, then I started making money.

Plus you need to look at commission rate. Many company will give you a nice high rate when you sign up then lower it a few months later without you even noticing because the email commission rate lowers was in the fine print of a more interesting email they sent you.

When choosing ads to run be careful what you run. Like in my free printable scrapbooking section I offer one place that selling cheap artwork for scrapbooking who pay me a good commission that does not change because scapbooking is a costly hobby. They come to my scrapbooking section to get free stuff I offer and see the ad for artwork which saves them money.


Example: I looked at your blog and it seem to be about computer development stuff however in your amazon ad you have "Hallmark Blank Greeting Cards Half-f..." That is an ad that belows on a site like mine about greeting cards and not on a computer programming web site.

When I was at http://blog.vftw.com/view/category/browsers/ about web browser I found at ad about American Gangster
Denzel Washington,...
New $14.99
Best $8.97

That has nothing to do with web browser so it should not be on that page.

You need to consider being more targeting on your what you advertise.

Hope that helps
Kimberly

[Declan1991]

I'd agree with Kimberly, but I don't think your placement is too much. It's fine I would say, if you can now build up the readers. In fact, you may have gotten a new reader here, I'll add you to my RSS feeds for the moment any way.

[Kimberlh]

I'd agree with Kimberly, but I don't think your placement is too much. It's fine I would say, if you can now build up the readers. In fact, you may have gotten a new reader here, I'll add you to my RSS feeds for the moment any way.

I don't think his placement is too much, I meant people tend to do think they can make more money with more ads however in his blogs case it was the ad content itself that bothered me. (this is not meant personal to this his blog) but people in general tend to rely to much on content feed generators with some programs. Google is great for links but actually "product" I feeds such as the amazon need to be hand picked for best results.