Goodbye CPC Advertising

Posted on April 10, 2007 by Nate Whitehill

I read a great article last night by Mitch Harper about why you shouldn’t monetize your blog too early. He has some great points and it led him to remove all CPC advertising from his blog.

Earlier that day, after reading an article by The Paper Bull about him saying R.I.P. to Konterra, I started thinking about the pros and cons of CPC advertising networks on young blogs…

I’ve been using Konterra for over a week now. My CTR is about 1% and 13 clicks has netted me $0.84. Is it really worth it? I then checked my blog’s Adsense earnings over the past week. My CTR is even lower and I’ve made about $1.50 over the past 7 days. Again, is it really worth it?

The answer is, hell no. Just like Mitch and The Paper Bull, I am not blogging to make money. I blog because I enjoy the community, being inspired by others, and hopefully, inspiring others myself.

Too many people just slap Adsense on their blogs and expect to be rolling in cash like Daddy Chow. It’s never that simple. John Chow, for instance, averages minimum 150,000 unique visitors per month, and that is without traffic surges from social media services.

Us newbie bloggers need to stay focused on pumping out that awesome content again, and again, and again, until we have a large and very dedicated subscriber base. After that, maybe we should start thinking about slapping on a few CPC advertising networks.

I am not saying don’t have advertising on your blog – ReviewMe and private advertising are much better methods of earning well deserved ad revenue, but is it really worth it to annoy readers with Adsense or Konterra for just a few bucks a week? I don’t think so.

From here on out, I will only be selling private ads and eventually sponsored review posts.

Some food for thought, perhaps. By the way, thanks Paper Bull and Mitch for these clarifying and insightful discussions.

What do you guys think? Should newbie blogs stay away from CPC advertising networks?
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  • http://thepaperbull.com The Paper Bull

    Thanks for the mention Nate.

    I’m also convinced at this point that direct case-by-case advertising best fulfills the mandates of revenue stream without sacrificing personal integrity. I’m almost at the point of obtaining site sponsors but that too will require selection to make sure they’re congruent with my pages.

  • http://www.ryanjparker.net Ryan J. Parker

    At the end of the day it’s about the purpose of your blog. You’ll generate some revenue either way, but without much traffic it’s not likely to even cover what you pay for hosting.

    On a personal blog it’s really best to hold off unless you have a ton of traffic to make it worth it. After all, this type of blogging is just a release anyway, right? ;)

    Fix the tab index already. :p

  • http://www.ryanjparker.net Ryan J. Parker

    Argh, I’m subscribed again (without wanting to be, mind you). Please remove that plugin unless it actually lets me unsubscribe this time. :p

  • http://www.ryanjparker.net Ryan J. Parker

    Sweet, it works! ;)

  • http://www.everydayweekender.com Everyday Weekender

    I think you make a good point.. content should be the first priority!

  • http://bitbol.blogspot.com mike

    I agree 100% that newer blogs shouldn’t use ads. The focus needs to be the content because that is the reason that people even come in the first place. When people focus only on the ads, it is obvious and the content shows that content isn’t their priority.

    When people get greedy like that and focus on the money, it makes me trust them less because they are only motivated by the money, not the topic. Not to mention it is annoying to have to search through the ads to find the content.

  • http://trailblogging.com/2007/04/10/advertising-online-income/ advertising online income

    [...] reading what Nate Whitehill, Mitch at HarpzOn, and the paperbull have each said about the lack of success through CPC [...]

  • http://www.zoomstart.com Shane

    Good move Nate.

    Kontera is just annoying. And AdSense embedded in the content is annoying too. It’s better to keep it clean, build traffic, and then build in your ad choices in a way that keeps the blog readable and enjoyable.

  • http://natewhitehill.com Nate Whitehill

    Yeah I had to upgrade the plugin and now it does work! Sweet!

  • http://www.ufcdaily.com Kris Karkoski

    Although not necessarily a “blog” my UFCDaily.com site was built on wordpress and I built CPC ads into it from the beginning so readers would know what they were getting into. I think a site should be launched with ads or without ads and stay that way. I still think CPC ads have a great place for all blogs and aren’t going away anytime soon.

  • http://natewhitehill.com Nate Whitehill

    I agree – a mini site should of course have ads, but for a personal or business blog, CPC ads, most often, just detract from the quality of the blog.

  • http://www.careerramblings.com Jane May

    no harm in experimenting as well.

  • http://www.careerramblings.com Jane May

    We’re testing it out also. We haven’t gotten the desired results, but it is diversifying our income stream. After a month, we will assess it’s effectiveness and worth on our site.

  • http://www.careerramblings.com Jane May

    That was my hesitation with it.

  • http://www.meridiancrest.com Scot Smith

    This is something that I’m also testing out right now. I think my presentation is fairly clean so it’s not like I’m bombarding readers with a million CPC ads (like some blogs). I’ll see if it’s worth it’s troubles in a couple of weeks or so.

    – Scot

  • http://www.meridiancrest.com Scot Smith

    Sometimes it’s not always about profits– even though it is a bit about money. What I’m saying is that sometimes people use these type of sponsorships to pay for blogging-related fees such as hosting.

    If the content is readable I can get by Kontera/etc. And, you can always subscribe to the RSS if you’re truly annoyed.

    – Scot

  • http://www.meridiancrest.com Scot Smith

    Nate,

    What specific plugin is this using?

  • http://www.takemorerisks.com/monetizing-new-blogs-is-it-really-worth-it.html Monetizing New Blogs – Is It Really Worth It? » Take More Risks

    [...] Nate wrote this excellent post a few days earlier weighing the pro’s and cons of monetizing young blogs. As you may have noticed I still haven’t placed any permanent ads on Take More Risks. Much like Nate, my income from CPC ads didn’t justify the negative impact that the ads were having on my site’s image. I couldn’t help thinking that if the ads discouraged bloggers from backlinking to my work then I would actually be losing money. How much is a link worth after all? $10? $20? My Adsense earnings over a two week period didn’t even reach $3. [...]

  • http://andreasbard.com/blog/fellow-entrepreneurs-wrote-3/ AndreasBard.com » Blog Archive » Fellow Entrepreneurs wrote (3)

    [...] Was it a mistake to Monetize this blog with CPC Ads like Adsense. Well I need to give it a try, but it does not look very bright if you read this post written by my fellow entrepreneur Nate Whitehill, where he says Goodbye to CPC Advertising [...]

  • http://www.nazmieski.com nazmieski

    I think it’s depend on newbie blogger perceptions whether they should stay away from CPC advertising network or not.

    If those newbie bloggers like to blogging because of wanting to generate revenue from their newbie blogs, i guess they will put some CPC advertising on their newbie blog like adsense.

    But for those blogger who blog for personal interest, i think they wouldn’t mind if they don’t get any income from cpc advertising.

  • http://bu.bulicio.us Vic

    I am having a mixed feeling about Kontera as soon as i started running Kontera, Adsense started doing smart pricing but i do not know if it is related.

  • http://blog.thomaslaupstad.com Thomas

    You got a very interesting blog and you got yourself a new subscriber.

    Been thinking about finding alternatives to adsense so your blog is a big help!

  • http://www.charleslau.com Charles Lau

    wow you really eliminate those ads…

  • http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/forum/f11-affiliate-and-advertising-revenue/stupid-low-pay-adsense-26208.html#post150154 stupid low pay adsense – Young Entrepreneur Forums

    [...] Originally Posted by TheCDAllenGroup I’ve been reading and pondering on what contextual advertising network I will be using shortly. [Google, Yahoo, Bidvertiser, etc]. Lately, I been hearing more complaints about the coveted AdSense more and more. I may just not use any CPC advertising after all. [...]

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    [...] of traffic building and compiling the demographics of my readers and the statistics of my site. I also won’t be doing any CPC advertising. The payouts are too low and the design isn’t aesthetically-pleasing as I desire on my blog. Thanks [...]

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    [...] and your income remains constant [and not variable like most CPC ad networks]. Check these out: Goodbye CPC Advertising | Nate Whitehill dot Com Private Advertising Is the BEST Advertising | Nate Whitehill dot Com How To Sell Your Blog’s [...]