While I was browsing through the web I came across Darren Rowse’s 29 Debates Bloggers have about Blogging and their was one debate that caught my eye distinctly “#27 -When To Start Monetizing – From Day 1 vs Once You Have an Audience” when I saw this, I knew I had to add my rants on this and encourage my community to come join in with your opinions about this.
I’ve discussed this topic with many bloggers. If you are a desperate to make money online, desperate to the point you decide to try to start monetizing your blog from day #1 with no community, you’re going to lose money. When I asked my readers are they victimizing their community with banner ads, I explained that you’re actually losing money. A lot of new bloggers try to monetize their site with banner ads hoping to make money quick, however they are destroying themselves in the long one.
Why desperation to make money blogging, actually kills your blog
You’re not taking the time to build a community
When desperation takes over to make money blogging, the importance of building a community around your blog does not become of importance to you. Your readers, the community around your blog, is what you should focus on. After you’ve devoted the time to building a relationship around your community, the money will follow.
You’re killing your credibility
What I’ve noticed about bloggers desperate to make money is that they’ll do literally ANYTHING to make money. If you’re willing to take it to the extent of lying, or misleading your readers for some quick cash, just quit blogging. Credibility and keeping it real is a key essential if you want to make money online.
You’re victimizing your community
Lot’s of bloggers believe that having ads on their website is the quick and easy route to make money online, however it victimizes your community. New bloggers think that the best way to monetize a website is with ads, with the desperation of money you cluster your site with ads.
Money is the bonus of a successful blog
When I discussed this topic with my friend, Shane Hudson, over a skype conversation he brought up a great point. That money is only a bonus to a successful blog. When you blog, you will come to realize that the money comes after the work has been put in. What desperate bloggers do not realize is, blogging is not something you wake up one day and expect to make money from. You have to wake up and work for long and hard to build and establish a successful blog, and the money will be your bonus.
Group Discussion
What’s your thoughts on this? Do you believe that desperation to make money blogging hurts your blog? The overall point here is that if you’re a new blogger trying to monetize your blog from day #1, with no community, you’re going to lose money. Share your thoughts below, I’d love to hear them 
Ready to make money online?
William Veasley (4)
Colleen (3)
Devesh (3)
evan schulte (2)
Kharim (2)
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
That was my problem in the beginning! I started to monetize my site from the first week. I earned couple hundred $ but a lot of time was taken away by tweaking banners and affiliate links. Then I decided to cool down and provide more value than thinking about how to earn money as fast as I can. That was definitely a good decision.
I made the same exact mistake with Google AD Sense, but we learned from our mistakes which is the good thing ;D
Hi Rob, I agree that it makes little sense to obscure your content with excessive banner advertising, but I don’t believe that ads should be dismissed entirely. In one of your recent interviews, Rhys Wynee seemed to agree:
“Absolutely, to begin with you shouldn’t focus on making money, by all means stick an advertising page up there (as it’ll help prepare your readers for the influx of ads), maybe stick up adsense in those boxed, however you shouldn’t look to monetize your audience straight away.”
I’ve tried customizing the ads to make them blend with my site, but realized that that didn’t make much sense at all. I didn’t like the way they looked, so I removed them. I’m now experimenting with a single tower banner on my side panel. Since I’ve only recently begun to blog seriously, (almost daily) I figure that this is the time to experiment. I’m always interested in what you and your commenters have to say. Keep up the good work! Ray
I personally do not believe in promoting others ads at all, and if you check out this article you can find my view point why – http://www.robswebtips.com/victimizing-community-with-banner-ads/
Glad to hear your input about the article
I’ve actually found that you make more money with less advertisements. For some reason Google Adsense pays out more when you have less Adsense ads on the page. But that might just be me!
Mid Mo Mortgage´s last blog . . .Feb 5 – Free Credit Report Websites Under Legal Fire
Wow, I never knew that. But that’s probably because I don’t use AdSense LOL
Yes. Alot of times we think that the minute right after we register our new domain for our blog that we can signup for affiliate networks and GOOGLE adsense and Bamb! “We in the money!”
Nope. Like many things on the web, making money online is a science. There is a certain balance of promotion, resources, etc. that has to be given to your visitor as well as other critical elements that enable a person even to consider clicking through to one of your affiliate links.
Understanding the science behind being a Problogger only renders the correct results.
Rafiq – Web Design Tutorials´s last blog . . .6 Inspirational Web Pros Under 18 years old
Desperation to make money definitely hurts credibility – people don’t want to be sold to. Most of us find ads annoying, yet I can still say that I was guilty of this when I first started out. With so many articles encouraging you to sell, sell, sell, it was easy to get caught up. But that conflicted with my personality – I’m a lousy salesperson – I hate sales pitches. I wanted to write to help and encourage others – I passionately enjoy that – so of course, now that I know better, my goal is to blog first, and if the one item I’m promoting there sells, then it’s a bonus – but if someone’s life is changed for the better because of something I wrote, then my mission was truly accomplished.
Thanks always writing these thought-provoking posts. It really helps me to stay focused on what matters most to me.
Kiesha @ Highly Favored´s last blog . . .Married, but separated…should you date?
Ayy, we have to admit, sales pitching is not for everyone. It’s all about your business model. If your business model is focused towards providing non-sales pitched content to people and still provide a quality-written article and in return an affiliate sale if you’re lucky. Then their is nothing wrong with that business model.
Glad you’re enjoying my thought-provoking posts, my goal is to make people think deeply when they read my articles.
The funny thing is that when you do a business plan for a brick and mortar business, thy counse you to budget for supporting the business for 3 years. Basically we plan to struggle for 3 years for offlne businesses.
But we want to have instant success for online success and try to monetize our sites months before its ready to be monetized. We have need to get realistic online business plan and expect for a long period of growing our businesses and credibility first.
Paul´s last blog . . .Are you a Social Media Spammer?
Trying to make money from the very very beginning definitely hurts your blog. And blogs that do this are doomed to ever be something great. If you want to make money you have to forget about making money, at first.
Focus on what WILL make you money by giving great content you actually care about and showing that you care about those who take the time to visit your blog and those who leave good comments. Once you’ve established a following of people that appreciate what you do and you’ve all gotten to know one another, then let them know your plans and keep on going.
It’s all about experimenting but if you want to make money at all, be honest and up front, focus on the content and the who of the content, and focus on consistency over the long hall.
That’s my thoughts!
Eric´s last blog . . .Real Or Robot
Haha I have to say I agree with you Eric, you stole the words out my mouth.
It’s all about honesty, and keeping it real. No doubt.
Still speechless you stole the words out my mouth! LOL
I just had a guy ask me today how to install Adsense in Thesis and he doesn’t even have his first post up yet. Money in blogging comes through helping people, growing an audience and diversifying income streams. No where in there do I see focus on Adsense before content. #fail
Robb Sutton´s last blog . . .Interview: Darren Rowse – Problogger – Community Builder
Wow lol, that’s horrible that people expect to monetize their blog and make money with no readers. That’s a definite failure.
P.S: If you helped him I’ll take away your coffee
Umm…what can I say? I’m even dumb-founded, I think you should even make this some kind of a report and distribute it for free so that every blogger in the blogosphere can read this. The whole blogosphere needs this, the newbies and everybody.
Some blogs are just so cluttered with ads that you wouldn’t even know which ad to click to help the person make money. It’s pathetic, honestly.
Shirley´s last blog . . .The New Twitter Hovering Feature – The Twitter Hovercard
Glad you liked the article Shirley, so you think I should turn this article into a report, case study or eBook? Interesting, I might have to do that.
Yeah, I think with some additional quality content this could do for a very good and valuable report or you could extend it into an ebook by adding more quality content
. Because most bloggers in the blogosphere who don’t know this need to know this 
.
Shirley´s last blog . . .The New Twitter Hovering Feature – The Twitter Hovercard
I second that and would even write a blog post similar and link straight to your blog if and when you do because I feel this topic is so important and it’d definitely be a way to actually start helping people see the truth.
Truth: Money is there. You CAN make some of it. There’s endless amounts of it… BUT you have to go about doing it the right way and just placing a few ads up and saying click here when no one knows you exist just isn’t going to work. Period!
Lie: You can make money by tomorrow and the big guys know nothing. Read every ebook possibly and start putting up ads like crazy. Surely someone will come and click on them and you’ll start making riches by next week!
If you believe the later you’re just doomed to fail so quite trying now. If you like what the truth is then welcome to paradise blogging! lol
Sorry that just kinda came out of no where… Good luck and let me know what you end up doing man!
Eric´s last blog . . .Real Or Robot
Oh Eric you know I love your random comments
LOL
I’ve written down on a piece of paper to remind me to write about this, who knows, it might even be tomorrow’s article
This article seems to be well liked, and I think a follow-up will be very beneficial.
This comment is well liked because it’s popular in the fact that making money online is what a lot of people are really after, they just have no clue how to actually make it a reality for them.
I think doing a blog post on this topic would definitely be a benefit to your blog and something that would help even more people a lot further in the process.
I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us!
Eric´s last blog . . .Real Or Robot
The other side has a point too, to a point…
You build a nice strong community for say, 6-12 months. A community now accustomed to your ad free blog…..BAM! banners go up…you will feel the backlash.
IF you ARE going to monetize your blog, do it from the start; just don’t over do it.
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed!
What you’re saying is do it at all from the start and gradually add more as you go and see how the reaction is. That might work well though I also think you can build up an audience and ask them how they’d feel about monetizing and then gradually do it after so long also.
What do you think about this strategy?
Eric´s last blog . . .Real Or Robot
I don’t like the strategy and here is why.
I’m personally against banner ads, so I wouldn’t recommend them. And as for the slap in the face for the community, it’s all about making a smooth transition.
You start off non-monetizing your blog, with the exception of affiliate articles if you believe they will provide value. You build a readership, and you build an established trust with your community. By providing great content and continuing to show your readers that you care, they will understand when you finally release a “paid” product and they will have no problem buying it since they know you provide valuable information.
Another example of this is Neil Patel from Quicksprout, on his blog he never monetized it at all. He had his blog for roughly 2-3 years, and he finally released his get out of poverty course for $87 (I think) per month. Since he has built a strong trust and community, and he’s known for providing valuable information, his readers did not find this a surprise, and they did not mind buying his product.
How is that rant for ya guys?
Awesome rant, and a very valid point…I waited nearly 2yrs building before I monetized also.
You have to think of probabilities though, how many newbies can you count on one hand that are going to wait 3yrs?
They ARE going to want to monetize quickly; they ARE going to want to use banners, this is what they see, this is what they know. You and I (now lol) and a handful of others are rare. I mean hell man, what are the first two blogs they are drawn too….Problogger and John Chow. Helloooo. lol
IF this is what they are going to do, they should at least be shown how to do it right…1-2 small banners right from the jump.
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .UPDATED – Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed!
Exactly right, if you’re going to monetize that way, have something in place right alongside the first article.
You have a valid point, but then 3/4 of them say NO!…what-cha gonna do, start over with a new audience?
What you could do, also right from the start, is mix freebies with paid…offer an email subscriber a free months banner for subscribing via email, etc etc….you have some paid AND look like an awesome guy.
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .UPDATED – Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed!
I feel that as long as your readers know what you’re about, when you put something out there to sell to them they won’t mind. There’s all different kinds of ways to do this and as I’ve heard and seen everywhere, every blog is different and unique in its own way so this might not work for everyone.
I feel it’s worth a shot try something as long as it provides value to your readers, though everyone has their own opinion.
Eric´s last blog . . .Real Or Robot
Very good points here Rob, and I would say for a blog like the one you are running here, they all make sense.
On the other hand, it depends on what type of blog/site you regard to. For example, I have many niche blogs and sites, where my main goal is to make adsense income from a visitor, and building a community really isn’t the target, but if you are trying to brand yourself in a niche, then building a community is definitely the biggest factor, and like you mention above…the money will follow.
Emma
Soccer rebounder´s last blog . . .Practice Partner 6? x 9? Soccer Rebounder
I agree, but yet I disagree. If you want to be successful with ad sense, you’re going to need a lot of traffic. And if you’re only desperate to make money online, or rushing into making money online, your readers aren’t going to be interested in coming to your site. Get the path of coming from?
Yes totally, and I feel the same way, BUT…my main goal with adsense sites is to get free organic traffic, then make money from it, I’m not saying I just put any old content on the sites, and take no pride, but I don’t really focus on the community building with these kind of sites, which may result in leaving money on the table in the long run, but like we have already mentioned…Time is the killer!
Soccer rebounder´s last blog . . .Practice Partner 6? x 9? Soccer Rebounder
I have to disagree with not building a community. Take my site for example, I’ve built a community and look, readers are constantly coming back and commenting on articles, and engaging in comments. This triples my traffic, and keeps my site active through out the day.
If you want to make money online, would you rather try and make $3,000 in 3 months and never make a single penny again, or make $100,000 in 12 months and let the income continue to be recurring. This can be done by building a community on your blog. By engaging with your readers and forming a community, you will do well with ad sense.
Very true, and well said. But with some kinds of niche marketing, it doesn’t make sense, or isn’t necessary, most of my adsense websites are based around unique visitors from search engines, as I have found that adsense works better for monetiziation with unique visitors, rather than repeat visitors.
If you have the same people returning to your site, then over time the traffic may increase, but so will their awareness, and they will automatically ignore ads such as adsense. I never use adsense on personal sites where my goal is to build a community, in my own opinion that is not the best option, adsense is a totally different game…
Hope I have made some sense
Soccer rebounder´s last blog . . .Practice Partner 6? x 9? Soccer Rebounder
Good points you made their. However if you build a community around your blog, your readers will encourage others to visit your blog, link to your blog and drive more traffic to your blog. With link backs from others, that’s also going to help you rank in search engines which = more traffics + the traffic that your readers are referring to you.
Get my flow?
Yes I get your Flow Rob, and for any other site I make apart from adsense, they would all be taken into consideration. Great advice to anyone.
Thanks for the discussion – Emma
Soccer rebounder´s last blog . . .Practice Partner 6? x 9? Soccer Rebounder
I have made a few important points here. I made some of those mistakes and instead of giving my readers a truely valuble content, I tried to sell them, this is the reason those blogs never were popular.
Dor´s last blog . . .Even Bloggers Get Writer’s Block
I kept putting up and taking down my adsense ads. I’m a newbie but I really can’t see any reason for me to put up any ads atall just doesn’t make sense because I have no readers. Actually I had one reader and he left a comment and because it was the VERY first comment on my blog I got too excited and made a blog post about it and can you believe it i thought I was ready to monetize !!!! lol
wasim´s last blog . . .Successful Bloggers
Haha it’s a learning process Wasim, just make sure after you see the mistakes you fix them. That will set you aside from the thousands of bloggers out their.
I initially monetized my gaming blogs, and soon realized I wasn’t really making any money with Adsense. All it did was make my blog look like garbage.
I am now blogging for fun, and trying to help other gaming bloggers learn from my mistakes. I am not worried about monetizing my blog right now.
Brian Inman´s last blog . . .Putting Your Own Spin On Your Gaming Blog Articles
That’s great to hear Brian, do you ever plan on monetizing your blog?
I wish I had read this article before I made my first blog. That’s ALL I thought about is the “i can make money online blogging it seems easy!” attitude when I first started. While I’m still making money from the site now I think it could have grown larger in it’s time, as the niche is very specific and trust is necessary. You never cease to amaze me with your great advice and opinions Rob.
Josh Katherman´s last blog . . .Best Blogging Practices
Yea it’s so true, making money online is not easy! And I used to think that, I saw one of the people I look up to who make $300,000/year, and even though she kept telling people it took hard work, I thought it was a easy come thin. That’s why I always include in my posts, making money online is not easy. It can be done, but it takes time.
I have to disagree with you guys. Money is what this whole thing is all about. Adsense ads work by itself. It will drive your visitors to related ,if not exact, topics. Of course you have to do an excellent content in your blogs to build a community. Why will you wait if you can earn now? In fact you can earn substantial money without being indexed by google.
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I have to disagree on you with that one Jennifer, and you should read my How banner ads victimize your community post. That will explain the effect of ad sense and banner ads. >
This a great article, because many people for some reason think they can instintly become rich off of their blog. But in reality it takes ALOT of hardwork & dedication.
Im giving my self a 2 year span to build my community, is that a reasonable time span?
Thanks again,
William
That’s a great time span William, and I think you will see pretty good results if you put in the work
Rob is right. I waited 1/1/2 before my first monetization attempt and even then I only did 1 or 2 things for like the next 6 months. lol
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .Would You Like a FREE Banner Ad Position?
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