Mostly Lisa Backend advertising only $100,000. Any takers?
One of the hot topics discussed at the first Vancouver Tazzu WordPress Camp was blog monetization. Guest speaker, John Chow, talked a lot about how much money he makes from ads on his blog… a staggering $100,000 a month. Yep! His side bar ads go for $500-1000 a piece. That’s some serious monetization!
And anyone who is a serious blogger will know that good, original content does not just happen. It takes hours and hours of time and resources. Time and resources that you are probably taking out of your work and play time. I think every blogger gets to the point where they want some a wee bit of monetary compensation for their blogging time. But… any blogger who also places blog design, content, and their readers ahead of monetary gain will find it really hard to slap up a load of spammy, crappy, ugly ads all over their beautiful blog.
As you can see, I don’t use Google Adsense. Why? Cuz Googly Ads look crappy and they annoy me personally, and let’s be honest, I’m the person who spends the most time on this blog. Gah! So sick of my face. It’s huge. Also, Google Ads don’t make any money if people don’t click the ads, so you have to embed them right into your posts. For me, it’s just not worth it. I want my readers to come here and be entertained, not to be sold Viagra. We all get enough of that junk in our inboxes to last a life time.
So what are the options? Well, I’ve opted for sponsored sidebar ads. I only put up ads of sites I respect or feel are of an interest to my readers. I don’t feel that they are intrusive or take away from my blog so I’m happy. And so far my sponsors have received a of link love so they are happy.
Another option is OIO Publisher, a direct sales platform, which John Chow swears by. Basically the company finds the advertisers and you just choose the ads you want, customize the size and position of the ad and badabing you’ve earned some $$$. Unfortunately the plugin costs $37 dollars, but hopefully you will make that money back pronto. You can view a live demo of the OIOpublisher Direct Pro WP Plugin. I will take it for a test ride in the next week and let you know how it works out.
I’d love to hear what you think on this topic. Does monetization ruin a blog’s integrity? Are Google Ads the spawn of Satan? Or are you like, yeah money! If you are a blogger that has monetized your blog, it would be great to hear about your successes, failures, and experiences. I courage you write a blog post about it or leave a comment.
PS. Contact me re: $100,000 adspace asap. Kevin Rose has already offered $105,000 to Digg my butt.
Christopher Blunck
May 2, 2008 at 3:18 AMMy wife wrestles with this same problem. She has a mildly popular personal finance blog with 350-400 subscribers. She thinks she could grow it if she put more time into it, but with a full time job that’s difficult to do. Especially when we have 2 kitties she can play with!
I’ve always been a fan of the “premium subscriber” model. Given your photographic experience it might actually be relevant. If you have regular subscribers maybe they’d be willing to pay to become “Friends” of yours on Flickr, where they’ll have access to higher resolution photos, more sets, etc.
The same thing goes for your vlog and for blog. Maybe people would be willing to pay to come to see more detailed articles of yours.
After all, it’s better than teh Cialises.
Scuba Steve
May 2, 2008 at 3:27 AMWow was that an eye opener when I opened your blog this morning. As I clicked in my favourites, I looked at my other screen for email and them BAM there it was, your butt staring at me in the corner of my eye. Well, I think $100,000 is too low personally so I think Kevin has the right idea at offering more. As for monetization of blogs; I think that you are right and people spend so much time at them to amuse and entertain people that it does seem only fair. I am afraid that many many people would likely never get to know MostlyLisa if they had not known her before charging because most are out for the free ride. Those who stay the course get the rewards as they say. A reasonable fee would be understandable.
Michael Mistretta
May 2, 2008 at 4:50 AMI believe that people should get paid for there work, and that goes for bloggers as well. Google Adsense and flashing ads are for people that care more about money then their content.
I’m actually interested in the way The Deck Network.com handles ads. They are picky about the ads they choose, and only allow one per page. This a) doesn’t detract from the content and b) gives the advertiser exclusive access to that one page. Great idea IMO.
Nate
May 2, 2008 at 5:11 AMThat is one nice ass for advertising…if only I had $100,000
:'( Your adds are also very classy and blend well with the page so hopefully Lisa add space is on the rise.
August
May 2, 2008 at 5:27 AMThat’s a heck of an adspace! Is a certain amount of you walking at the beach + pictures in the blog included?
John
May 2, 2008 at 5:31 AMYou obviously put a lot of time and effort into your blog and the quality shows. Certainly you deserve to be compensated for your work. As I read the other blogs that I follow over the next couple of days I’ll look for how other bloggers are handling advertising and post again if I see an approach that you might be interested in.
John
Raul
May 2, 2008 at 7:30 AMAs you know, the fact that I’m hosted on WordPress.com doesn’t allow me for monetization. I’ve been mulling over a lot of questions regarding where my blog is headed, and the question you ask (which I thinks is a very important one) on monetization opens up an interesting can of worms.
I think you’re taking the right approach – Ad space that blends in nicely with your blog, ads that your readers will like and are not intrusive. Still, who wouldn’t want to make $100,000. But the truth is, the main thing I got out of John’s talk (for me anyways) was BUILD THE TRAFFIC. And you’re doing a fantastic job of that.
My traffic just went up 200% in the past couple of days, and I think that was the result of posting frequent content that may pique some readers’ interests. Some people wanted to see about WordCamp, some people wanted to read about Flux and some people like reading my recipes. And I provide all of that.
Your blog is awesome, you’re awesome and you’re going in the right direction, in my humble opinion.
Justin
May 2, 2008 at 9:31 AMI think it’s a double edged sword. Ads of all kinds are the bane of existence but on the other hand receiving a bit of money for something you enjoy doing is always a plus. I currently run AdSense (yuck, I know) on my site only for search engine visitors. I’ve never been able to find the right combination of ads and quality design. I’m currently re-thinking and re-envisioning my entire site and trying to make that happen is in the cards… we’ll see how it’s executed though. Nice thoughts.
Luc
May 2, 2008 at 9:57 AMIf you’re open to the idea of butt-sharing (ad-wise), I’d like to suggest a “Mostly Lisa Butt” site, where people can buy a pixel of Lisa’s butt for $10. Assuming that your butt is 10,000 pixels (300×350), we can easily raise $100K.
Now, to protect the investment, you’ll have to assure the buyers that you won’t dilute the size of their property, that is, you won’t engage in any activities which will reduce the effective size of the ad.
James Wilcox
May 2, 2008 at 10:09 AMI don’t think JC makes $100k a month, he probably meant $100k a year. He averages about $30k a month currently. Still very impressive figures for a blogger. At least he never has to work another day job in his life.
Casa87
May 2, 2008 at 11:10 AMI offer a virtual pizza for the ads (student doesn’t have 100.000$).
I think ads is usefull only for pay the cost of the host and the domain name, sometimes for buy new geek gadgets.
But too more advertising kills the blog. More you put ads less visitor you have (and pagerank fall).
In all case you need to monitor on the subject of them (it must correspond to your blog contents).
PS: Do you prefer I write in English or in French ?
crunchy carpets
May 2, 2008 at 12:10 PMI for one don’t believe John Chow. Sorry.
I also think that his type of blog and the whole Google Ads rule the world thing is something we all need to get away from fast.
It would be nice to get back to content quality instead of cut n paste and all these get rich quick and pyramid type schemes.
We need REAL advertising agencies out there respecting GOOD quality content rich sites instead of all this monetizing crap.
Sorry…
Jay (Twitter @qthrul)
May 2, 2008 at 2:53 PMI took off Google Adsense as well. It was a nice learning experience to see what it can do.
Between clicks, conversions, and bounce rates, the booty analogy might be interesting.
If one starts a dead lift, squats, and sprinting regimen would you increase the number of those wishing to sponsor on the advertising space?
Or, if one starts a regimen of donuts and Guinness, does this drastically increase the advertising space available but simultaneously lower the cost for advertising and/or sponsor demand?
Duane Storey
May 2, 2008 at 3:05 PMI tried advertising for a few weeks, then got sick of how it detracted from my content. So I’m a Zion pure-bred now, born outside the matrix.
Rebecca
May 2, 2008 at 3:11 PMIf a business would like to advertise I get to approve all artwork and make sure they are Vancouver-based and selling something I would personally be interested in or would want to promote. I’m 100% upfront about what is a sponsored blog post or “Ad Space” and honestly, the only bill it pays is perhaps the hosting cost for my blog for one month, which isn’t much to say the least.
What I like best though are donations to the blog like contest giveaways, which are really great. I get to promote a local business AND give something back to my readers.
John Chow
May 2, 2008 at 5:34 PMHi Lisa. A correction on your post. While my total internet income from all sources is over $100,000 per month, the blog accounts for “only” $30,000 of it.
Crunchy Carpets – It doesn’t matter to me whether you believe me or not. Whatever you believe in is true in your world, just as it is true in my world. The only different between you and me is I serve more people.
Miscellaneous Ramblings - I’m Rich Edition | John Chow dot Com
May 2, 2008 at 7:38 PM[…] by my speech at WordPress Camp, Lisa Bettany has came up with a very innovative way to make money online. Canada’s sexiest blogger is offering “Backend Advertising.” […]
crunchy carpets
May 2, 2008 at 9:19 PMWell John..my Wet Coast site has a higher page rank than you, so Google must think I am doing all right with my original content and no maximizing this that and the next thing.
Duane Storey
May 2, 2008 at 9:48 PMPage rank is kind of irrelevant — even Google knows this, which is why they are actively trying to change it. Kudos to John if he can make that kind of coin each month and is happy with the results.
Raul
May 2, 2008 at 10:17 PMI appreciated John Chow’s commentary, he also dropped a very nice suggestion on my blog (which by the way was totally unsolicited, and that makes it even nicer).
As I’ve said before, some of us do not monetize, some who do use a variety of strategies. The secret is I think to be respectful of everyone, I believe.
I for one love seeing every blogger make the best of what they do (it would be also lovely to see everyone get along, but that’s utopia too).
As all of you who read my blog know, I blog because I love it even if I make ZERO dollars out of it. But I do not condemn monetization. I think there’s room for everyone on the blogosphere. Enough said.
Norhafidz
May 3, 2008 at 12:17 AMActually, John Chow brings me here and I was drive by the extraordinary ad space you got there :). I would put my ads there if I have 100,000 :P
Personally, I think monetizing is good for bloggers but not until a point where it distract your visitors and make them uncomfortable. You should respect your readers too.
BlogTopf.de - von Paul Neumann
May 3, 2008 at 3:29 AMBackend Advertising…
Wer auf der such nach exklusiver Werbeflächen ist, findet nun eine recht interessante und reizvolle Werbemöglichkeit. Die kanadische Bloggerin Lisa Bettany, welche im Blog Mostlylisa, bietet ihren knackigen Hinterteil als Werbefläche f…
Steve McGrath
May 3, 2008 at 3:58 AMHi my fellow Canadian,
I don’t care if see a few ads anymore. Blogger have the right to make some money.
Most of my traffic comes from Google anyway so, I get more clicks on Adsense ads. That’s something that I noticed since I removed most of my other affiliate sidebar links from my blog. I started to use the Scratchback plugin since yesterday to see how it would perform on my blog. Now, they could tip me(Scratchback), click on an affiliate link in a post, download my free ebook or click on an Adsense ad.
Adsense is good for most but not perfect. They do pay a lot of money to publishers each month. :D
Tip for Adsense: you could use the plugin “Who Sees Ads” to only show Adsense to visitors that find you from search engines. Those SE visitors will click on them. You regular reader won’t see them. Besides, they don’t click on your ads anyway. ;)
You are funny:
“As you can see, I don’t use Google Adsense. Why? Cuz Googly Ads look crappy and they annoy me personally,”
Yet, you put a link to Adsense. Yes, it’s very funny :D
Does this mean that you won’t read a blog if you see Adsense on it? ;)
simplewelt.com
May 3, 2008 at 4:50 AMHaha, funny, but I don’t have that budget.
http://simplewelt.com/2008/05/werbung-muss-innovativ-sein/
beanieville
May 3, 2008 at 4:58 AMLisa is HOTTTT and this room is gettin too warm as well.
Your ad special just got some of our readers piqued:
http://beanieville.blogspot.com/2008/05/6-hotlinks-for-weekend.html
beanieville
May 3, 2008 at 5:02 AMI don’t advertising on your butt but my wife ain’t gonna like it. lol
Melvin
May 3, 2008 at 5:11 AMGreat point Lisa… I think as long as you’re monetizing it unobtrusively and you know as long as you’re readers are not gonna mind it then its fine.. And about Google, well as shoemoney said there are pretty tons of things that is gonna be greater than doing some adsense…
What really ruins a blog integrity is a paid post, every time i read a paid post that does not have a disclosure, it really pisses me off..
anyway, that the best spot I have ever seen ;-)
michael wilson
May 3, 2008 at 5:17 AMWhy is everyone taking about money and ads. What is clearly the topic here is very simple. That’s one cute little arse.
Yes google ads suck. Lisa’s page is well designed and the ads suit the blog perfectly.
The important thing to me is the content. I enjoy reading lisa’s blog for it’s humour and various social network matter.
Lisa should earn money for working hard to create this blog regardless of what people think. If you don’t like it you don’t have to click on them.
The ads don’t look like ad’s anyway. There actually look like another part of blog.
And once again… nice arse.
michael
Chris D dot ca
May 3, 2008 at 6:18 AMIn regards to Google AdSense, unless your specifically post about Viagra, Google wouldn’t show ads for it. Just so ya know.
The Guide to a Perfect Blog
May 3, 2008 at 9:39 AMhehe.. very nice blog Lisa. I like it and I also like you.
make150aday
May 3, 2008 at 10:14 AMdo you have to go this far?
whats next–on bra? that would fetch even more.
There was one time when pregnant women were advertising on their belly.
Anyways –nice and unique way…
p.
May 3, 2008 at 10:38 AMI’ve never been to your site before, John, so I clicked the link to see what it was all about. My honest opinion, from first impressions, is that your site is a bit too busy. There’s an ad at the very top of the page that greets me, while I wait for the rest of the page to load. Then, when the page finally loads, there’s an ad right next to your header graphic. And then along the right side, there’s a bunch of ads. There were also banner ads in between some posts. Please don’t take offense, but like I said, it’s a bit too busy for me. Lisa’s site, however, is more to my liking. While she also has ads on the right side, they’re more simplistic and don’t detract from the main reason I visit: her posts.
p.
May 3, 2008 at 10:49 AMOh, and to answer Lisa’s question, monetization doesn’t ruin a blog’s integrity. If you can make tons of money off your blog, why not? The problem I see is when you compromise your integrity to make money. When you no longer post about what matters to you and start to post for the sake of generating click-throughs and cash in from the Interweb, then I’m going to lose interest. You might as well just stop posting and start auctioning off ad space on your body.
P.S.
Lisa, just for fun, you should put your ass on eBay and see how much it can get. Just make sure there’s a $100K reserve bid. I can only imagine how your item description would read.
Friday Five Addition — ImageGuy.com
May 3, 2008 at 11:03 AM[…] Lisa Bettany is one of my favourite local blogger. She has a very unique and creative blog. Her videos are funny, her photography is great and she’s cute as a button. Yesterday she posted a rather cheeky idea to make money. Check it out! […]
Motion Groove
May 3, 2008 at 11:50 AMNothing wrong with Google ads, I used to make over 200$ a day with Google ads that I had on a bunch of my websites. I guess it depends on if you want to make money from your readers.
Look at it this way, if you could blog all day and make money from it would you? I would, as long as I enjoyed what I was blogging about, better than a 9-5 job. That’s what I think anyways, I work for myself as an online affiliate marketer and love every minute of it.
Love the blog by the way, you top header is funky. Keep up the good work!
Mostly Lisa
May 3, 2008 at 2:23 PMWOW. that post got some people talking. it’s a hot and spicy topic that is for sure.
@Christopher — premium subscriber eh? sounds like an interesting concept, but i’m not sure i want to make people pay to be my flickr friend or limit my posts for other readers. but, if you like you can send me some biscuits in the mail and i’ll tell you the last three letters of this comm_ _ _.
@scubasteve — i would never charge people for viewing my blog. that is ridiculous. plus, there s so much of me to share. uh. so sick of my face vacantly staring back at me.
PS. on your snorkeling question, I heard that Cayo Coco is ace, but that’s all I know. sorry.
@Michael — I really dig how the Deck Networkhandles adds as well. really clean. thanks for that.
@Nate — me too! cuz this techmama needs a new TB External asap. gah. too much video footage.
@August — nope. those are extra. Zoink!
@John — thanks! it’s not like i want compensation, it’s just that i’d like to grow my blog and amp up the quality of my vids and pump up the design a bit, and that requires the efforts of other people which i would really like to pay.
@Raul — aww gee thanks and congrats on the traffic boost!
@Justin — i’ve been talking to a lot of web savvy people and they all seem to be undisturbed by google ads. i think it’s becoming acceptable now. and if you have a design that lends well to ads why not?
@Luc — don’t worry. i eat a mountain of biscuits everyday.
@James — yes. John corrected that. thanks.
@Casa87 — i agree. self host a blog is an expensive hobby and i think most bloggers would be happy to just make enough to cover their hosting fees. Vous pouvez écrire en anglais ou en français. J’aime les deux! Mais mes autres lecteurs de ne pas comprendre parce qu’ils sont pour la plupart des anglophones. Quel est le meilleur mot français pour «mostly»?
brb. hunting for biscuits.
Tesseract
May 3, 2008 at 3:43 PMWhen I started my blog/website a week ago (it seems like such a long time has passed) my first 2 product reviews on rare or rarely used camera equipment got people emailing me (not commenting) about where can they buy the items I was reviewing and one even suggested I put of links pronto.
So I did, and I set it up as affiliates links where I could (about 50% of the links are). I’m in it for the fun of sharing and talking about photography; but money is good. I was just surprised when I told people about it they almost demanded to have the links.
So that was an interesting entry into blogging I did not expect.
Make Money Online with Homebizseo
May 3, 2008 at 4:49 PMThat is a great advertising medium. It will b e a somewhat of an inconvience to walk around in a bikini all day everyday for 1 month…….But then again that’s alot of money. ohhhh what we will do to make money online.
Casa87
May 3, 2008 at 5:03 PMDo you host your blog yourself ?
Le meilleur mot français pour mostly est “la plupart”, mais dans la phrase mostlylisa ca veut plutot dire “Lisa, principalement”.
I will try to post in english (with less faults, if possible), and write the same text in French (Tu parle tres bien français).
Mostly Lisa
May 3, 2008 at 7:49 PM@crunchy carpet — that style of blogging doesn’t suit everyone that’s for sure. but i like to look at everything with an open mind. even if i don’t necessarily agree with over monetization of the blogosphere, i will definitely give John Chow credit for being so honest about the money he makes off ads and what type of ads he’s running. he doesn’t try to hide it or deceive readers, it’s all out there in the open, which makes it up to the blog reader to decide whether they want to click or not to click.
Mostly Lisa
May 3, 2008 at 8:11 PM@Jay — haha exercise vs donuts… always such a hard decision.
@duane — whoa. that was soo nerdy. keanuuuuuuu.
@Rebecca — i honestly think your site uses google ads and sponsored ads really well. they don’t detract from the uber blog design at all. oh your drupal is so dreamy!
@John Chow — sorry for that! thanks for the correction. i won’t get in the middle of your heated debate with crunchy..
Jesse(The Penny Saved)
May 3, 2008 at 8:15 PMHuh, well, everyone knows Canadians are naturally good looking…obviously you use your looks for evil, whereas I use mine for good. Then again, there aren’t 100,000 slobbering female internet geeks dying for a glimpse of my ankle (that I know of).
Ann
May 3, 2008 at 8:42 PMI can’t believe people really click Google Adsense Ads. As in, on purpose. I’ve been to countless blogs with ads and to me text ads are the most annoying. Which is kind of ironic considering how people blast banner ads all the time. I think that if the ads are for sites that the blog writer finds interesting personally and think their readers will like, then by all means go ahead. But leaving the choice of ads up to a random computer generator, bad idea. And if you can get $100 000 for your butt, then you had better take it haha
AK
May 4, 2008 at 6:22 AMthat sure is a good pplace to place your ad. COuld act in real life a well :-)
The web could be an ok media but real life ads could be worth it :-)
http://www.india-dictionary.com
Figur8
May 4, 2008 at 6:52 AMI started blogging because I like to write. I got interested in blog monetisation because I thought it would be cool to get paid for doing something you love. I mean, how many people are out there doing jobs that they hate just so they can bring home the bacon? I think that’s sad.
I think of blog monetisation sort of like getting paid for your writing – just like how freelance writers get paid for writing articles. However, I do agree that ads like google adsense make a blog look ugly (btw, Lisa, I love your blog design and I like how clean it is), unfortunately some of us with less well-read blogs don’t really have a lot of options in terms of blog monetisation because it comes with the territory. Personally, if I could make some decent money hosting nice ads on my blog, I wouldn’t bother with the ugly ads either.
Honestly, though, to those people who are against blog monetisation – well, nobody’s forcing you to read a particular blog. If the ads offend you, don’t go there.
Monetizing your ASSets
May 4, 2008 at 1:20 PM[…] I think Lisa has done it big time viral with her backend advertising tactic after offering an ad spot on her […]
bennyliew.com
May 4, 2008 at 9:11 PMHi lisa, great photos you got there! great work!
Investing & Passive Income
May 4, 2008 at 10:19 PMI don’t understand what you’re selling?
are you willing to wear the ad on your butt permanently for 100K, or just a picture of your butt with the ad on it on the site permenantly?
if its the later, then i think 100k is too much. maybe $200/mo.
Brooks
May 5, 2008 at 9:16 AMI think if people want to be paid for their content and their effort, then it’s fine. I like the way that you selectively choose the types of ads and advertisers that you place on your site. Bloggers fuss over their sites so much…they are like kids for some of us! (Not that I have or want any!) So, what’s wrong with getting paid for it. I know Bloggers who put more effort into their blogs than their day jobs. As long as it doesn’t detract from the user experience or make the content harder to get through and consume, I say go for it. Besides, let’s say that people want to take a trip like Lisa did. Perhaps people would like to know what airline she flew, what hotel, was travel site, etc. etc. Maybe Lisa had great experiences with all of those service providers. If she’s comfortable mentioning or including that detail in a way that is “Lisa-fied”, and people subsequently purchase some of those services – and have the same positive experience – then Lisa should be paid for that because everyone wins. At the end of the day blogs that have unique, interesting and easy to consume content are always going to have a strong readership. Lisa and John Chow both do it in their own way – and that’s the key. I like both of their blogs as do many others. So in conclusion, I think that people should do as they please and just remember to be original and real. If you do that and create interesting content, the rest will follow. As for monetization – that’s a personal decision that I respect either way.
BVN
Kevin
May 6, 2008 at 2:12 PMI love Capitalism, and if you can get $100,000 for it, then I think you should go for it. If you can get $500,000, then go for it. The real question is, is that picture your your actual rear, or is that just an example of what we’ll see?
Also, (you may have answered this and I missed it, but..) are you selling a permanent ad on your site? What does the advertiser actually get for $100k?