Don’t Get Greedy as a Blogger

24 Jun

Posted by Sunny as Blogging

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As a blogger I can understand what most other bloggers want, money, and lots of it. However, getting greedy does not help bloggers in any way. I’m an example. I’m sure when I started out blogging I scared away a lot of my visitors, not because they saw a picture of my face, but because I had ads all over the place. That was one of the reasons my blog wasn’t much of a success initially.

Greed has always caused problems in all matters, not just in blogging. The best way a blog can improve is by avoiding the thought of making money. In this blog, I think more about user experience than making money. Of course I think about money, but I want to offer the best information and deliver it in the most easiest manner possible to my readers.

Flaws of Greedy Bloggers

No Investing
You keep the money you earn, with it you don’t invest in your blog to improve it. Always relying on free ways to improve your blog isn’t going to get your site anywhere. No matter what, unless you get lucky with Google, your blog will need some financial investments.

Too Many Ads
Too many ads all over your blog can piss off any reader. I know I would be if I had ads covering 50% of every single page of mine.

Asking for Too Much
If you’re offering advertising in your blog, asking for too much money from your advertisers can turn them away. Don’t fluctuate your costs, give them a reasonable, low, flat-fee price.

Lack of User Experience
Having too many ads on your site can really lower your site’s user experience. A good example is this music site, Smashits. As you can see they have ads all over the place; before they had 3-5 pop-up windows of advertisements every 20 minutes, which was very annoying. Also, avoid sneaking in ads every time users navigate through your site, like those intermission ads.

So, if you want to be an online entrepreneur, don’t get too greedy. Through experience, it’s better have happy advertisers and happy visitors than to extract money from them and show them a negative image of your site and yourself. One of the easiest ways to make a great blog, guaranteed, is making your site for yourself first and judging your site as if you were a visitor.

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11 Responses

DerekBeau

June 24th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

1

Great post Sunny, I like what you said about “avoiding the thought of making money.” I ALWAYS make more money on a website when my goals are traffic levels and readers rather than monetary goals (the money naturally follows the traffic anyways).

I also like what you said about investing. Unless you really need the money, there aren’t many better things you can do with it than investing in your own business.
Amit Kaundinya

June 24th, 2007 at 12:08 pm

2

Your site rocks buddy..just wonderful
Only Three Notes

June 24th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

3

about the investment part, i think you should not jump into investment very early. I think for first few months, you should just provide a nice blog and try out adsense or paidreview sites like payperpost for money. After you have some quality posts, you can invest some money to get more steady visitors.
Sunny

June 24th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

4

@DerekBeau: you’re right, blogging is a type of business and it’ll only get better if you put money into it.

@Amit: Thanks, I hope you enjoy the other articles.

@Only Three Notes: you’re right, I forgot to add that. Thanks for pointing it out.
At The Bottom

June 24th, 2007 at 8:50 pm

5

My biggest problem with not asking too much is I always wonder if I could have gotten more. My first sponsor-written post, I charged $10. I then went to another blog in the same genre as my own, and he was charging $50. I also saw the same sponsor-written post on his site. I basically just lost $40, which does not seem like too much, but $40 is $40. Then I think, what if I would have asked $100.

Basically, I’m a guy who does not like to lose money.
Only Three Notes

June 25th, 2007 at 8:02 am

6

if you are charging low money sometimes you get the offer eventhough you do not qualify. For instance, a few days back, a reviewed for a site, which wanted someone with PR3. My blog was less than one month old and I cannot get that ranking but still I applied for it but charged the lowest amount possible. The company approved it anyways.
Sunny

June 25th, 2007 at 8:11 am

7

@At The Bottom: No one likes to loose money. But did your competitor have higher traffic? If so, then thats the case for the higher payout.

@Only Three Notes: Which company are you talking about? I looked at your site and it’s well maintained and impressive, I’m not surprised that you were approved.
Jhon hebrink

June 27th, 2007 at 3:22 am

8

yeach… be aquitable.
Sunny

June 27th, 2007 at 4:23 pm

9

yep
Rose (PrettyLady)

July 10th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

10

I’m tried my very best to explain this on blogcatalog.com, but many only read into the discussion what they wanted to. I see this trend developing throughout the blogosphere. I have no problem with making money and marketing. Through my experience I have learned that it is better to give then take. If you give you will have success.
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November 24th, 2007 at 9:13 pm

11

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I’ve basically been doing nothing. I don’t care. My life’s been generally dull recently. …