Should Your Regular Blog Readers View Your Adsense Ads?

I’m often asked why my regular blog readers view the Adsense ads here at Freelance Writing Jobs. Many bloggers feel that it’s somehow offensive or tacky to show regular readers these type of  ads. Instead, Adsense should be invisible to all except those who land here via the search engines. I can appreciate that there are plenty of bloggers who don’t want to subject their regulars to their entire arsenal of ads.

However, that’s not how I roll.

I have no problem at all with everyone who visits knowing this is a heavily monetized blog, I think it’s good to get that out in the open right away so there’s no mistake. I’ve always been sort of “what you see is what you get” and use that approach in my blogging. It’s not that I want to assault everyone with ads, but without a lot of ads I wouldn’t be able to provide the blog posts and services the FWJ community receives here on a regular basis.

While I can appreciate that bloggers only want to assault search traffic (and not regular traffic) with their Adsense ads, I’m assuming the reason they do this is to reward their loyal community with advertising-free content. I beg to differ if only because I feel a regular community are the people who should be viewing blog advertising. I feel (and I hope) the reward is in the content itself.

As I work on making changes around the network, Adsense is on my mind.

What are your thoughts on Adsense? Should your loyal, regular community view all the ads on your blog or should you only roll out the Adsense for the search traffic? Are you offended when blogs force you to view advertising?

Discuss…


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9 responses
  1. Andy Hayes Avatar

    Personal preference here, but I don’t like Adsense ads because I can’t control who appears.

    For ME, that is a problem because it is contextual and I offer services on most of my sites, so it is my competitors that appear in those ads.

    That’s the roadblock for me. But I have no problem with them here. They keep the lights on, and for me that’s important. 🙂
    .-= Andy Hayes´s last blog ..How Tourism/Hospitality Underdogs Can Fight & Win =-.

    1. Deb Ng Avatar

      Hi Andy,

      Actually you can control the ads. I’ve gone in and adjusted when I found some spammers advertising in my Adsnese stream. There’s a feature that allows you to tweak and only run the ads you approve of.

  2. asithi Avatar

    I figure that my loyal visitors are viewing my posts via my feed. I don’t place any ads on my feeds. However, I put advertising, including Adsense, on every page on my blog. I think it is unfair for readers to think that bloggers should devote all this time to providing quality information or entertainment without even a chance at compensation.

  3. Marcia Frost Avatar

    It is a tough decision to use Ad Sense. I do it more than I’d like, but I need to make a living. I’ve just secured some private advertising (very pertinent to my subject) and hope to get more. In the meantime, Ad Sense helps my blog stay alive.

    Marcia
    .-= Marcia Frost´s last blog ..Tennessee’s Whiskey Country =-.

  4. Tiffany Avatar

    I follow the same logic as asithi: I don’t have ads on my feed, but have them on the pages of my site. I have to pay the bills somehow. I just try to make sure the layout is pleasant and no one is bombarded by ads. I also remove ads from poorly performing space just to keep it all at a minimum.
    .-= Tiffany´s last blog ..Happy Earth Day! Save Money Being Green! =-.

  5. Bob Zwicj Avatar
    Bob Zwicj

    My feelings:
    Free Blog, read the ads.
    Paid membership site, no ads.

  6. Leah McClellan Avatar

    Hi,

    Sort of new here though I’ve been reading on and off for maybe 6 months.

    I don’t pay any attention to ads, usually. The only time ads are a problem for me is when they’re the kind that get in the way of what I’m reading. I don’t like those, but if I can see where to click easily and get rid of them, they won’t turn me off of a site if the content is good.

    That said, I barely see Adsense ads. Even on the few blogs or sites I visit that are overly-crowded with them plus other advertising, I don’t really see them or pay attention as long as the content stands out well enough.

    I figure other people are more or less the same way unless an ad interests them, so I’ve had Adsense ads on my blog though I disabled them recently. I’m pretty new and don’t have a huge amount of traffic yet so I’m not making any money from them anyway lol and I’m playing around with some different layouts or ad sizes.

    Anything else we read has ads, generally speaking (newspapers, magazines, plenty of online stuff) so why not blogs?

    Leah
    .-= Leah McClellan´s last blog ..If you’re looking for an argument, you’ll find one =-.

  7. Anne Wayman Avatar

    I’m of the people hardly see adsense ads unless they are looking for whatever appears… some do click – I see the results and get checks… I ignore ads in magazines and online. Other’s can do the same 😉
    .-= Anne Wayman´s last blog ..Getting Your Book Written Class – What’s Missing? =-.

  8. catevanne Avatar

    Maybe people who don’t like adsense ads are part of the new crowd that think that making money is somehow wrong, bad, evil…

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