To monetize or not to monetize?

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I have a question for you all, since I'm contemplating on monetizing my blog. Why? Well, for the obvious reason--the money would be nice. I mean, I know it can take forever to earn anything decent through a blog like this, but at least there's a little money earned. On the other hand, I really like the idea that this blog has no money attached to it. Makes it seem purer and more free. So anyway, to help me decide, I wanted to know if finding ads in a blog bothers you. 

Actually, to be honest, I did want to ask this question, but I also really wanted to play with Answer Garden.:) Discovered this in one of the educational websites I subscribe to. I may not teach anymore, but I'm always on the lookout for web 2.0 tools that I can recommend to former colleagues or teacher trainees. And so, because I can't experiment with these tools on an actual class now, permit me to experiment on you, dear reader.

Just type your answer to the question on the box provided and click submit. And voila!, you'll see your answer floating around in the garden. Kinda like a tag cloud, but I just thought it was a cool way to conduct a survey. Oh, if you hover over any of the answers, you can see how many people gave that answer. And if you're too lazy to type an answer or find an answer you like, just click on it, and that's your entry.
Are you turned off by blogs that have ads?... at AnswerGarden.ch.


I hope you can help me out by answering this survey. I also hope you enjoy Answer Garden. These newfangled things are fun.:)

Comments

Ruperto Prieto said…
Hi! No, for me it's ok!
September 21, 2010 at 8:58 AM
Paolo Chikiamco said…
Wow, 20 characters isn't a lot of space :P I answered "Not if ads help you", and I wanted to expound a little. First, I doubt you're looking at any of the more obnoxious types of ads that pop up around the Internet, so I'm assuming this will be in the form of banner or text ads, so, really, I foresee little to no inconvenience to the reader. Second, you provide a service to your readers with your content here, and while I know you do it out of love, if it's possible for you to earn while you do so then go for it, and those who appreciate what you do will be happy to help :)
September 21, 2010 at 3:45 PM
Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said…
As long as ads don't get in the way of the actual blog, then I don't mind them. I've seen some bloggers that have banners that go all the way across their screen and won't go away until you X them out.

One thing you can do to possibly draw more followers or Google Reader subscribers is to create a full feed instead of partial feed. This is a simple setting in blogger that you can change, if you want. Even though partial feed forces people to click over to read the rest of your post, many bloggers are more apt to click over if you have full feed.
September 21, 2010 at 7:49 PM
fantaghiro23 said…
@Paolo - Thanks for the advice! Yes, this is all out of love, though it did cross my mind, since Blogger's promoting it so much, if I can also earn a bit on the side. I stress the "bit" though.:)

@Trish - I'm laughing right now, cause I used to have the full feed, but I remember a friend telling me not to put the full feed to draw more people to the blog. So I experimented recently. But you know what--I think you're right. I prefer the blogs who provide the full feed, so I'm putting that back. Thanks!
September 21, 2010 at 8:57 PM
Anonymous said…
I would prefer to reserve my blog's ad space for causes that matter to me and events related to my blog. I doubt I'd be able to make much money out of monetizing my blog so why not give back instead of take?
September 26, 2010 at 12:40 PM
fantaghiro23 said…
Hey, Mich. But what if I'm my main cause?:D Kidding. I get what you mean, although I think I can give back other ways, too.:)
September 28, 2010 at 8:32 PM
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