If you’re following me on Twitter, then a couple of weeks ago you probably saw where I was working on a new design for Literary Escapism. I’m still playing with it and doing a lot of tweaking, so it’s not done yet (and yes it’s the same design that I had on the beta site that some saw). However, Jesse and I are going to be working on it more this weekend and he’s wanting me to add something to the new layout that I’m hesitate to add, so I need your opinion.
As most of you are aware, I’m a stay at home mom. I’ll be losing my free hosting service at the end of my contract, which means I’ll now have expenses associated with LE, so we’re looking at our options. There’s no way we could host LE on our home servers, so we’re thinking of adding some advertisements to the sidebar as a way to offset the new cost. I’m not talking about adding huge annoying ads either. Both Jesse and I hate those, but I guess my fear is that the ads will turn people off since I’ll be adding ads from the publishing world since LE is a book site.
So my question for everyone is – do advertisments on a book bloggers review site turn you off their reviews, make their reviews questionable? Would it bother you to see any here on LE?
Edited to add: you guys are making me feel a lot better about adding ads to the site. THANK YOU! So now I have another question to throw out there. For those of you who have ads on your own site, how did you come up with your ad costs? What’s considered ridiculous and reasonable?
Ads in the sidebar wouldn’t bother me at all. I hate pop-up ads with a passion and I can’t stand ads that appear in between posts.
I can understand about costs though, so do what you have to do. I’ll still be reading.
Feel free to add all the ads you want :)
It goes without saying that no one (old or new reader) will ever doubt your content because of a few sponsored links.
As a loyal reader I salute any decision of yours that helps you keep your blog afloat.
Nope, not at all! In fact, I’ve been wanting to do the same thing. As long as ads are targeted and don’t have any sway over the content then I don’t see a problem. Blogging isn’t always cheap and it makes sense to cover your costs so you can continue to bring us great content.
Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Loyal readers will remain loyal readers because they know you’re conent is legit and honest.
Heavens, no. Ads, bring it on so you can keep this blog alive!!!!!!!!!
I enjoy your blog and recognize all the hard work you put into providing us with great book info and news. I have no problem with ads on your blog if that is what it takes to keep you up and running. :)
Have a wonderful weekend. :)
M
Don’t be silly. You do what you’ve got to do, girl!
I have a huge BlogHer ad on my blog. It needs to be above the fold. I’m re-thinking it because I hate ads too. Glad I found your site!
Oh, and please don’t forget to make your banner a link to your home page. I wanted to check you out, but (and it’s probably just me) when I clicked on your banner it didn’t lead me home. Here is some info that looked helpful: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/284711
I don’t find sidebar ads annoying at all. I hate pop ups, as said before, but sidebar is no big deal. Honestly, I rarely notice them. Ads are just such a part of online I think people are trained to ignore them or not think about them too much. I wouldn’t worry :)
Ads are OK by me as long as they don’t interfere with the content. I don’t put a magazine down because it has ads, so I am certainly not going to stop reading a favourite blog either.
You guys are making me feel better. Thank you!
Yeah, the ads would only be in the sidebar and that’s getting cleaned up as well. My category list is just getting too long.
All popup ads need to go straight to hell. No worries, those will NEVER appear here. :)
Heather – the reason the banner doesn’t direct back home is because there’s a home button at the top. Changing the banner hasn’t been that high of a priority because of that. :)
Next question, for those who do have ads on their site, how did you figure out ad costs?
I’m not bothered by ads in the sidebar at all. The practice is so commonplace nowadays, I almost expect to see at least a few ads on every web site I visit. The only ads I don’t like (other than pop-ups, which someone already mentioned) are the Google ad boxes that are placed within the actual blog entry so all the text of the post is forced to wrap around the ads and gets squished into a tiny column alongside it. Google ads in the sidebar work well but ads within the blog posts seem to clutter things up.
You could even offer advertising space to authors as an extra way to publicize their books. If the rates are reasonable, I’m sure there would be authors interested in placing an ad.
If you haven’t selected a hosting company yet, you might want to check out 2mhost.com. I set up a web site for my father and was looking for an inexpensive host, and I was able to set up an account for him for under $3/month with plenty of space and a large bandwidth allowance.
You shouldn’t worry about the advertisements – hosting can get very expensive, you have to recoup your costs in some way. Arteryplanet.net is also a good/cheap host.
I gave you an award!
http://bibliofreakblog.com/memes/wait-til-shortlists-announced-awards/
By the way, are there any other acceptable suggestions for jackie to make money as a reviewer? Think there’d be any money in syndication, etc?
yes, my hubby is a money freak, but I’m a greedy wench so it works out. :)
Jackie ~
ITA – readers of your blog know your reviews won’t be influenced by ads. I’d have no problem with seeing ads in your blog. If you’ve gotta do this to keep the blog afloat financially, go for it!
Like Kristin said, you could make space available for authors to advertise their books as well.
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com has ads, including authors who advertise their books — maybe you could inquire there about rates.
Keep up the great work!
I started adding ads to Suburban Vampire in the spring. I felt weird about it at first, but it’s making me a tiny bit of money, so I don’t feel so bad any more. If people enjoy your content, they’ll understand you need to be able to afford providing that content.
P.S. I’ve set up ads through http://www.linkshare.com and https://www.cj.com. They have affiliate programs like Amazon, but you can choose from various companies that match the content of your site. I just set up ads for Spirit costume stores for the Halloween season.