Today’s blog ads are ugly. They typically don’t fit within the design and are stuck in the top or middle of posts forcing the user to scroll around them, or fake them out for clicking, making them think they are part of the post.

Ads aren’t “bad”, though they are often used badly.

I have had a ‘real’ job for 14 years, but then the opportunity arose to change my job to writing full time. I actually rarely call myself a ‘problogger’ – I’m a freelance writer.

Some of the money I ‘earn’ comes directly from advertising. Some of it is paid to me by other companies but they themselves make money from advertising. What is so wrong with that.

Of course commercial TV companies use advertising to make money, as do newspapers and print magazines. It’s how they raise the revenue to make programmes. Non-commercial stations are either run on the generosity (and richness) of the owners, or they’re a national concern (like the BBC) and are paid for by collecting a license fee from each member of the population who uses (or could potentially) use their service.

As I said, my main motivation for writing is not the money, but as I spend 10-12 hours per weekday doing it, why shouldn’t I treat it as my real job?

I host my own websites, and did host them when I was running them part-time whilst having a ‘real’ job.

“Also, most paid hosting does not cost that much and certainly doesn’t require advertisement to cover.”

Maybe not for small websites, but why don’t you ask a few people in the technorati top 100 who have professional paid hosting, how much their bandwidth bills are? Or ask ‘real’ websites (ie not blogs) what their hosting costs are. Significant enough to need to seek a financial return.

“Advertisements rarely give a large gain”

Sorry to name drop, but maybe you should take to the likes of Darren Rowse (sorry Darren, your example is the most obvious) who make significant money from AdSense, Text Link Ads, etc. I don’t think anyone would have paid him what he earns now to write for their blog.

I think we’re going to disagree on this, but I can almost guarantee that I wouldn’t get paid for my Shiny Media or Blog Herald work if they didn’t run, and make money from, ads.

The information these sites provide is still free to the reader. That’s how it’s done. I don’t think any of us really like ads that much, but they are currently a necessary part of our media landscape – any media.

Andy Merrett, no I do not boycott websites with advertisement, I simply do not click on any, because I despise it. Yes, the same idea goes for TV channels. The only reason TV has advertisements is so that they can gain money and have a profit. There is also a thing called hosting your website yourself if it is to large or whatever for a free host. Also, most paid hosting does not cost that much and certainly doesn’t require advertisement to cover.

I have nothing against earning money from blogging in the sense of getting paid for the content that you produce solely for the fact that you are producing content as a sort of wage for it. I do however, oppose to using advertisements for the sole purpose of gaining money,

Advertisements rarely give a large gain and most of the time, it makes the website less attractive. Advertisements is intrusive just because they exist.

How about getting a real (as in real life offline) job and use blogging as a.. hobby if you will?

As a side not, the link to Flowery delivery service is not an advertisement, it is a request by the author of the theme in exchange for using it and is a result, part of the copyright and not advertisement.

What would you rather have; money for the premium content you provide or money for clicks on advertisements, which isn’t necessarily related to the quality of your content? I know what I prefer.

“I am personally against all types of blog and website advertisements.”

Then you will no doubt to boycotting all the sites that use them? Gonna be a very quiet Internet

“Its only purpose is to use visitors to earn money.”

Is that like TV advertisements only using viewers to earn money?

“Bottom line, if you can’t afford a paid host, don’t use a paid host.”

You get what you pay for. Large sites wouldn’t survive on free hosts. Also, many free hosts impose their own adverts!

Ads make website ugly and it doesn’t really make anyone intelligent click on them.

Some advertisements work. They must do, otherwise people wouldn’t advertise. It’s incredibly insulting to everyone to say that people who click on ads are unintelligent. What’s unintelligent about seeing an advert for a product or service related to the content you are reading, and clicking on it?

“If you receive a lot of clicks, you can safely conclude that only unintelligent people are visiting your blog,”

I think not.

By the way, I see you are providing free advertising for a flower delivery service on your blog.

I may have fallen into a troll trap, but comments like this make me very angry. Why is it somehow OK to earn money in traditional publishing and media, and yet there’s this backlash against anyone who dares to earn money from blogging.

My livelihood comes from blogging, Moridin. If the ads on the sites I write for or own ceased, I’d lose my income. Sure, if I had a couple of million pounds sat in the bank, I’d blog for free, because I love it. I also have to support my family. Your attitude has made me quite cross.

Blogs should be used for personal development or to spread your message to the world. One should blog for oneself, not for the sake of others. If not, it will be increasingly stiff and boring, resulting in a bad blog with ads that no one clicks and now, no one even visits the blog.

Save the blogosphere, do not use paid advertisements!

Personally, I get a little more peeved at sites who embed stuff like affiliate or clickbank products BEFORE the loop and posts (like above) but, then use those TinyURLs or clickbank references that when you mouseover you can’t tell where the heck you could go if you linked to them. I would much rather see the 100 character URL pop up in my bottom taskbar as I float over a link, than a made-up one.

I think if you found a site with good content, and did not pass it along to your readers BECAUSE OF ITS LOOKS .. well .. what does that make us? Special? You can’t judge a book by its cover (you can, but shouldn’t) .. and maybe if you (anybody in general) started passing along links to these sites – maybe traffic and new visitors will make them realize eventually that they do have something important to say or is useful to society – and the readers can either say something or not say something.

What would I do? I wouldn’t have changed the screen image. I would post the URL and then send an email to this person .. “Look! We don’t like that!” .. Instead, he’ll just see less traffic, and spend more money trying to build up traffic and not getting quality traffic, he’ll have to keep up with the ads on the space to pay for it.

PS.. nice to see you here Lorelle .. I’m a long-time reader and fan, but not a stalker :D