Why I Hate Blogs with Too Many Ads

Blogging could be a rewarding career, especially for those who find their voice and get to make a living talking about what they are passionate about. Unfortunately, not everyone actually gets to make a good living out of blogging. The top guys do make enough money to be comfortable and enjoy life. The rest will have to find ways to just stay afloat. Many new bloggers think they should start making the big bucks right from the start. That could be why some of them add all kinds of advertisements at the top of their blogs, thinking that ads are the best way to get those “big bucks.” In reality, some of these ads are the ugliest way to make money from a blog (especially those that are inside your content). Just to be clear, they do get the clicks if you put them in the right place. But you don’t want to be too aggressive with them.

There is nothing wrong with having a “sponsor” or “ad” section on your blog. I have them on this blog and almost all other bloggers have them too. But when you start adding advertisements inside your content (and all over the place), you want to be careful they don’t take away from your readers’ experience on your website. As a blogger I understand that people need to make money on their blogs, but here are the main reasons I hate those ad-filled websites:

• Too many ads could compromise reading experience: that’s just it. I find those big Adsense blocks that some use at the top of each post very annoying. Not only they are ugly, they make it tough to read those posts. Do those get clicks? You bet. I am just not sure they are worth the headaches they cause for readers.
• Flashy ads are distracting: I am not a big fan of flashy ads inside my own content. They can be very distracting for readers. Besides, a lot of them are cheesy. If you must use flashy ads, use them in your sidebar or somewhere that does not bother your readers.
• Low quality of ads are upsetting: that is why you should work with ad companies that specialize in serving the right ads to your audience. Unrelated and obscure ads can really take away from your content. There are companies such as Google that work hard to show the right ads to the right people on blogs. Relevant ads get more clicks too!
• Ugly ads make your site look ugly: this is my main issue with those text Adsense ads. They just look ugly no matter how you try to dress them up. I do use text ads on some of my blogs, but I am very careful where I use them. There are many ad servers that specialize in serving ugly ads. These ads can make a bad impression on your visitors.
• Too many ads send the wrong message: let’s face it. We all can handle a couple of ads per each page. But if you go to a blog and see ads everywhere you look, that does not send the right message about the writer’s intentions.

Do you hate those annoying Adsense ads too?