I’ve seen a number of bloggers kiss some or all of their CPC Ads goodbye:
JohnChow got rid of his 300 x 250 Google Adsense slot in favor of selling it privately. NateWhiteHill has opted for private advertising over CPC Ads and so did Site Fever.
Now do I really believe CPC ads / Ad networks will go away? No of course not. But I’ve noticed a trend among various bloggers to move towards private advertising as opposed to throwing up a 300 x 250 ad block in every post. I personally don’t plan to use CPC ads on this blog and instead have opted to only use affiliate links from stuff I actually use. Later I will offer private advertising when my blog becomes more successful. The main reason why I’ve chosen not to put Adsense on this blog are among some of the same reasons that have been outlined in the above articles: it’s simply not worth the small payout if you’re really working on growing traffic and gaining RSS subscriptions. The same can be applied to young forums as well: If you start a new forum don’t place a ton of advertising on it when you have a very small member base. People get turned off by ads and you don’t want another reason for a member to not register and post on your forum.
What decisions have you guys and gals made about which ads you will or will not display on your blog or forum?
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I think people also like the increased amount of money that they can make by selling ads privately.
Amen to that, As soon as I get my Bidvertiser set up, I’m leaving adsense in the dust. I’ve tried to convince King (who’s ads are on QsKGlobal) to get rid of his since his monthly income went from $200 to $100 in July and August. Google’s CPR is slowly decreasing. Private advertising FTW.
Yah, you’ll have to let me know how Bidvertiser works out. Perhaps once we get more into the fall Adsense will do a little better, but people seem to be doing just fine without any networks even.