I‘ve been discussing with a lot of bloggers why I’ve removed banner ads from my site, and why they should to. Short, simple and to the point, banner ads are destroying your community, whether you realize it or not. Now of course you’re going to want to know how and why banner ads are destroying your community, so I’m going to share with you how. I’m also going to share how your actually LOSING money from displaying banner ads on your blog.
I’m really encouraging group discussion on this article, so drop a comment with your opinion on this subject.
How you are destroying your community with banner ads
Loosing readers attention
When you’re plastering 125X125, 120X60, 250X250 or any other size ads on your blog you’re losing you readers attention. When readers come to your blog, what are they coming for? Are they coming to see what’s going down on your site, or are they coming to your site to click a banner ad?
Think about it. . . when you’re reading an article on a site, doesn’t it get quite distracting when you keep seeing “hey click me to learn how to make money blogging” pretty distracting huh?
You’re damaging your credibility
Unless your promoting affiliate ads, the sites that pay you to advertise you probably have never heard of them before right? Why would you want to go ahead and promote a site that you know nothing about. Wouldn’t you want someone to click to a site that will give them some value?
You’re losing readers
When you’re putting ads on your site, you’re basically telling your readers “hey check out this persons site, because they paid me $10 so leave my site and go see theirs” whether you want to admit it or not, this is exactly what you’re telling your readers.
Bad news. . . you’re losing money from banner ads
How you are “unknowingly” losing money from banner ads
When you promote others sites, sure you get $20-30 per AD block, but have you noticed you can triple that income? Write an affiliate article for your website and create a 125X125 banner ad for that article on your site. Now, you’re not only promoting your content, you are driving traffic towards an affiliate post. Do you see what I’m getting at? Say I sold advertising for $30 for a 120X60 ad spot on my site. However, I decided to put my own banner in the slot and link it to an affiliate article I wrote about Hostgator (just an example). For the whole month of using that 120X60 banner I gained 2 affiliate sales from Hostgator. That’s $100.
You can do the same thing for your product, or affiliate products you promote. Simply learn to create viral traffic circulating through your site.
Group Discussion
You’ve heard mine, now what are yours? Do you think banner ads are good for your community? If so why? Do you think banner ads are bad for your community? If so why? Do you love your community enough to remove your ads? And if you don’t, that’s fine, we all know you’re greedy as and you want to make money. Try to really think abut these questions and answer them with great detail.
Drop your comment below, I encourage discussion in my community, so don’t be shy.
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Rob,
From a usability perspective, you are 100% correct! I am a beginner when its comes to blogging and monetizing blogs but pretty mature when it comes to SEO and internet marketing.
I remember reading a blog post quite some time ago about bloggers having more conversions from embedded text than banner ads anyway. When a user visits a blog, they are coming for a intended purpose. If they ad is not aiding the intended purpose in anyway than it is completely ignored.
Great Post Rob.
Look forward to gaining alot of insight your experiences.
Web Design Tutorials´s last blog . . .Top 10 Web Design Firms in Maryland and Washington DC
No problem, glad you enjoyed the article. Have you ever had banner ads on your site? If so how did that work out for you in terms of your community? Or have you ever experienced a time when you were being a victim of banner ads on another persons community?
That is a really good point. I do not have any banner ads on my blog, and the only ad I do have is at the bottom of each post, promoting a product I use and recommend.
Tom | Build That List´s last blog . . .Do I Need My Own Product Before I Start List Building?
I like that Tom! At least you’re only promoting products you believe in. What made you decide not to display banner ads on your site though?
I wanted the focus to be on building my list (as that is the focus of my blog). So I didn;t want to distract people from this goal by displaying banner ads.
Tom | Build That List´s last blog . . .Do I Need My Own Product Before I Start List Building?
I’ve been mulling this over and over again – I’ve drastically reduced the ads on my site and I’ve even removed Adsense from my sidebar and placed at the end of posts that people on see them if they read the post and are still looking for more information. But I’m even considering getting rid of them there as well.
I’ve put hard work into writing quality posts everyday, so much so, now the thought of someone leaving my site for a few dollars is becoming a little nauseating. My blog is my mission and my ministry, so I find myself getting pickier and pickier.
I think your right and as hard as this bullet is to bite, I think I’ll begin removing the rest of banner ads and will use this strategy you’ve shared here.
I’d rather make money steady money from one source that I truly support than to loose countless visitors for a couple of dollars every blue moon.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on this one. Very insightful.
Kiesha @ Highly Favored´s last blog . . .A Christian’s Guide to Social Media Interactions
Glad you decided to keep your readers in mind Kiesha! If you remove the banner ads from your site, keep me updated with how your community likes the new changes
I will definitely do that – you inspired me so much that I left this site and wrote probably the best and most honest article promoting an affiliate link that I really have benefited from ever. Now if they click off my site, it’s to receive something that really can help them. We’ll see how it pans out.
Kiesha @ Highly Favored´s last blog . . .A Christian’s Guide to Social Media Interactions
I’m glad to hear I inspired you
and I LOVE how you’re being a smart, honest affiliate. You’re readers will love you for that, and your credibility will rise.
I finally reached the point where I removed all AdSense from my primary travel blog, in favor of selling banner ads, and now this perspective!
In favor of banner ads, if you’re site has a strong brand (or is perceived to) and/or traffic, then banners can make you money. I think it’s a matter of setting expectations with the advertiser. I state up front that I don’t allow animated or flash banners because I find them too distracting as a user. So that leaves us with static ads.
Then, I push them to the perimeter of the content so they’re not as intrusive.
I think you’re missing one other benefit to banner ads – they can lend credibility to a growing site. For example, on http://gobackpacking.com right now, I’ve got a video advertisement for a “Visit Britain” campaign. An ad campaign that big isn’t going to deal with unprofessional looking travel blogs. I reviewed it and actually enjoy their videos (this is my 2nd from them), so I’m happy to accept them as a sponsor.
Dave´s last blog . . .The Beaches and Nightlife of Boracay Island, Philippines
Strong points you made here Dave, had to think a minute before I hit back with a response. However, I am a strong believer that you can always make more money without using banner advertising, than you can with banner advertising. You can either promote a product you own, or promote towards an affiliate product that you strongly believe in. If you wanted to make money in return for removing the banner ads, I think that option is the strongest way to go.
As far as the lending credibility, I didn’t understand your statement on that completely, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. But if you’re saying that by advertising other sites your lending credibility towards their (the advertisers) site, I think that is wrong. Many people are familiar with ads, and they know that you have to pay in order to receive the spot. So, what would make their site anymore reputable if they paid in order to get their banner placed? If the banner was placed their just because you firmly believe in the site (and their not paying), that’s a different story.
I look forward to hearing more from you on this, I love a good debate.
Yes, ideally there’d be no advertising on your site, and you’d only focus on promoting your brand, community, and products. But in reality, it can take years to get to that point, and earning an income from text links or banners in the meantime can serve to motivate a blogger (at least that’s been my experience).
For example, I wouldn’t be in the position to launch a membership site this week about helping other travelers make money from blogging if I hadn’t been able to double my income each of the past 3 years that I’ve been blogging. As a result, I was able to remove some affiliate banners on my site, and use the one’s I created for my product instead.
So I agree that the endgame is definitely to promote your own products, but I think a little extra income in the meantime, from a variety of methods (banners being one of them), can help get more people to that point.
In terms of credibility, I was suggesting that my blog gains credibility when it has big name sponsors like Britain’s Tourism board, or STA Travel. Some of my text links are from casinos like The Wynn in Vegas.
Dave´s last blog . . .The Beaches and Nightlife of Boracay Island, Philippines
I understand text links and banner advertising are a source of income for beginner bloggers, but the question still lies on the table though – What are you focusing on more, your readers, or the money? Making money blogging takes awhile, and I’ve seen that when you build a relationship and following first with your readers the money will come in the long run. By destroying your community trying to make money from banner advertising, you’re really losing out from money in the long run. So that lies under the reasoning of. . . are you in it for the short term or long term?
In response to your membership site, yes I agree that a person would be in no position to do so. However, they could launch a free eCourse, eBook or membership site, promote affiliate links in it and earn a income + credibility. After a descent following + income, you can carry out with that product.
In response to the credibility, I think you would not really build credibility from your readers, the gain from the readers possibly is you have high traffic and a CTR (Click thru rate). You would gain credibility from your advertisers because they would see higher-end sites have interest in your site.
Are you against text links also? Not very intrusive are they?
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For…
I’m not against text-links as much as I am banner ads, but I still think it’s more community-friendly to promote your own content. Just my outlook on it
Good stuff, Rob. You’re an absolute superstar. And as we already chatted on Skype, I killed one of the ads on my site because of your advice. Thanks!
Nicholas Z. Cardot´s last blog . . .The Marathon of the Blogging World #1
Rob the superstar. I like that name
I’m glad I encouraged you to remove an ad, I’ll be keeping in touch to hear how you are liking the changes, a long with your readers 
Good article, Rob. You got a point here. I will have to rethink the number and placement of ads on my blog.
To answer your question – a few banner ads on a blog don’t bother me too much as long as they are not too flashy and out of context.
Marko´s last blog . . .Systemize Your Time for Blogging
Glad you enjoyed it Marko. How many ads are you currently displaying on your site?
And I can agree that banner ads don’t effect me THAT much anymore, but 1) that’s because I’m SO used to them. 2) However, I would be more comfortable seeing no banner ads 3) I don’t know if its just me, but I hate the sites that are their banner slots are filled with “Advertise here”
I don’t have too many ads on my site at the moment. Two in sidebar and one in header and adsense text links below the post. I may reposition them tho’. Will give it a bit of thinking.
Agree with you on point 3 completely
Marko´s last blog . . .Systemize Your Time for Blogging
I know you’re probably tired of hearing me ramble LOL but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t add my two cents in about ad sense ads. With ad sense ads you do not know which ads you are promoting, because Google relates the ads to your content. And I’ve personally seen a lot of sites that are not worthy. So I’d recommend using static banner ads over ad sense. However, I’m against both types of ads
I’d personally recommend static banner ads first. What’s your thoughts on this?
I’m aware of the adsense situation and have already thought about replacing them with something static.
Marko´s last blog . . .Systemize Your Time for Blogging
Smart move Marko
Nice post man. I do believe that banner ads are not really good for your blog and that they hurt your readership in the long run. But on the other hand there are blogs, such as Problogger, that prove that you can indeed succeed even with banner ads.
Anyway I have removed banner ads from my blog. I actually think of removing every ad from my blog.
Julius Kuhn-Regnier´s last blog . . .My Pathetic Believe about Social Media
In response to the Problogger comment, here is my input on that. Darren Rowse is able to pull this off because he is an A list blogger, and he is a major authority in the blogging niche. He could delete his theme, use a basic Wordpress theme and still do well. But, I’ve heard many readers complain about his banners though. And, by me knowing Darren personally, I believe if he promoted his eBook, forum and job boards, using that banner spot he would earn way more income.
I strongly agree with your great points. At first, bloggers are too interested in a rush to make money fast which is not realistic. They don’t consider the most important things about their blog or website as a priority. After some time and research they realize that it has to be user or reader friendly and not obnoxious with ad placement. You want to have your website looking nice and easy to navigate. Great article Rob.
Build Web Traffic´s last blog . . .Build Web Traffic With Article Marketing
It is a shame that they try and rush into making money blogging. However, the one thing that saddens me after seeing that banner ads are destroying their community, they deny it and keep trying!
First, thank you. This is quite timely as I haven’t put in my theme yet and this is something to think about before hand.
Second, lets be sure I got this right. You’re not against banner ads as a whole because you’re advocating using them for affiliate products/articles…you’re simply against selling ad space to other sites; correct?
If I’m correct there, you might have made that clearer. I read, BANNER ADS ARE EVIL – USE BANNER ADS FOR AFFILIATES OR YOUR OWN PRODUCTS…..WTF?? LOL
Third, I must personally disagree with one point you made, “Unless your promoting affiliate ads, the sites that pay you to advertise you probably have never heard of them before right?”
Oh so wrong (sorry, lol). OK, generally speaking you’re spot on, yes. However I did “personally disagree”. I can’t speak for others, but I promote ad spaces the same way I promote anything, if I don’t know the person/site in question, I research it…if I don’t like what I see, I respectfully decline the money.
Fourth, do you have personal experience to back up the claims? For example, is that Hostgator example real or just an example?
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For…
Let’s see if I can “clear” this up a bit
*Cracks fingers*
2: I’m against banner ads that link out to other sites. I just believe they destroy the community. But I’m for community-friendly banner ads that are in your community. For example: If I we’re to display a banner in Robswebtips sidebar, it would be to promote my eCourse or a article I think is worth my readers checking out. In short words, if you’re going to display banner ads, use them to promote YOUR content, and keep traffic circulating through your site. (I wonder if that makes sense)
3: I mean to imply that use the banner to promote an affiliate article on your site, (product review, affiliate post etc. . ) don’t link directly to the site, but link them to your article. However, I was directing that to people that we’re caught up in the idea that THEY MUST HAVE banner ads or else their losing money. I offered a suggestion they can use to keep circulatory traffic going through their site, and they can still profit from it.
4th: I can back-up claims for Hostgator, I’m an Hostgator affiliate and a good percentage of my income comes from their affiliate program.
So what do you think of those compelling statements?
Got it! IF you must have a banner, keep it to yourself. I do think if you have such affiliate banners, you should write some brief text above it, telling readers it’s attached to an article for instance.
You gave me a really cool gift idea also. Actually you gave me a few good ideas if I use the theme I’m thinkin’ of using.
Dennis Edell´s last blog . . .Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For…
I’m glad I’m giving you some ideas Dennis! Keep me updated with how they work.
Great post man.. like the idea of pushin the 125×125 ad to a post on your site where reader can get more info first.. very nice
John Paul Aguiar´s last blog . . .Just Released: New Twitter Dummy Guide
Thanks a ton
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I never thought of it that way and I really appreciate this viewpoint. I think so often we hear about how banner ads provide the most money and having an opposing viewpoint that is so well written is definitely positive.
But I wonder if this is true for all niches? I am a beginner so I wouldn’t know.
I currently have an Adsense banner ad, and thus far it is successful for the traffic that I am getting. And I wonder if maybe I am wasting my time…
I would love to hear more comments by some of the big names to see what they think
Elyse Doerflinger´s last blog . . .Wordless Wednesday – Mystery Lady
I think it is true Elyse, this does apply for all niches. And I’ll be the first to tell you banner advertising is not the best way to earn a passive income blogging.
Look at all the bloggers that make six-figures or even ones that make five-figures, sure some might use banner ads to boost their income, but none of them make a full-income solely from advertising. The 1% (random % guess) of people who do have thousands of visitors monthly.
I am a strong believer that if you take the time to build a relationship with your community, instead of trying to beat around the bush and have the easy way out, you will prosper in the long run.
Hope that helped some
dude ur a genius!
Seems like you enjoyed the post ;D What did you like about this post? Or if you disagreed with it, whats your input about that?
Websites that are spammed with ads really annoy me.
But you know what’s worse than banner ads? Pop-up advertisements. Any website that has one, even if the popup is only trying to get you to register, I automatically boycott. If I see them in Google results, I find a different website.
If everyone did this, we could get pop-ups out of Internet culture completely
Mid Mo Mortgage´s last blog . . .Feb 4 – Senate to Vote on Job-Creation Legislation Next Week
Wow, had never thought of that. Great idea. Thanks!!! I wonder if linking to a one page video with the article blow would increase conversations.
Interlinking in your site is a great idea! That will definitely increase conversions.
The idea of replacing banner ads with your own is genius. It’s like cutting out the middle man and going straight for the full profit instead. In fact depending on the niche you could make even MORE money by promoting your own products as an attractive banner ads where you make 100% of all profits instead of a commission. Running someone elses banner ads is almost like making a small commission off of a larger commission off of an original product. For instance if you run ads from google, make .75 total, google takes .40, you take .35 and if the advertiser is skilled in adwords, makes more than .75 from the referral to their site. Deep thinkin rob *thumbs up*
Josh Katherman´s last blog . . .Best Blogging Practices
I wish I knew this information back when I started. My first 6-7 months online, I kept banner ads plastered on my site. And it finally hit me that I am doing so much better without them. The thing though is, we can’t look back on what we “wish” we knew, we are now grateful that we have this information and we will use it to improve our blogs. Right?
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