Thursday, February 25, 2010

Blogging for a living

Adsense sucks big time.

Yes, you heard it from me alright, loud and clear. Adsense ads are just pure nonsense. First of all, I don't even look at it. I mean who will click on it knowing that most of the ads are rubbish, lead generator kind of site. It dilutes the impact of your blog and seriously, I really think the money sucks. How much can you make from it? If someone made big money from adsense, do let me know in the comments.

If you're serious in monetizing your blog, set up a dedicated ad site, design your ad for others and ask for bids. This way, you get to:

1. Select the people you want to work with, not some behind-the-curtains shady people who provide ads by the keywords of your latest post.

2. Spruce up your site with the ads that you designed, with the colour scheme and right wording to match the overall 'feel' of the blog - the satisfaction is immense.

3. Price the ads yourself - it's your blog, your call, your price, your negotiation.


Nuffnang is different though. I always find their ads quite relevant to the local context (being a Singapore/M'sia venture) and it's definitely more attractive. They give me good money for doing something that I like - blogging. I don't blog because I want to make this a passive source of income. Seriously, unless you're a chio bu or a yan dao guy, it's hard to be a star blogger. I didn't say it's impossible, I'm just saying it's improbable.

So, if you're blogging for a living, may I gently ask you to forget about it? It's an uphill battle. It's certainly not as passive as it sounds like, so might as well go and make bigger buck from your active income.

9 comments :

AK71 said...

Hi LP,

I removed all the Adsense Ads in my blog after reading your story. ;p

FF said...

Hi LP,

Care to reveal how much you earn from Nuffnang? Rough estimate will do.

la papillion said...

Hi AK,

Wah, you really removed it! Hope my bad experience doesn't cost you income :)

la papillion said...

Hi FF,

So far, I've got $300 from nuffnang. I started nuffnang in Dec'07. The money is nothing to be proud of, but it's a good sum to cover some of my expenses in running the blog.

Anonymous said...

If you want to make money from adsense, dont place them on blogs. Place them on a niche website. Advertising money works like stock market too. It is all about demand and supply.

I don't make a lot from adsense compared to many others but I get $xxxx from adsense monthly

Createwealth8888 said...

Place them on a niche website?

What do you mean? any example?

Anonymous said...

Google for any terms and pick the first few websites that have adsense on them. Chances are their owners have found a niche in that respective field able to help them generate income. If I were to know all the niches I'll be making much more money.. lol

financialfreedom said...

Looks like we are all not in niche enough websites. That's why we can't make good money from our blogs.

Time to form a blog union and demand higher wages =)

Dou said...

lol we should formed the "Worker Union of Singapore blog" and demand a wage increases