I have started a blog and am wondering if it is best to start a blog with zero advertising to help build a following? My instinct tells me it is best to start with no advertising and phase ads in later. Any thoughts on this or does it even matter?
In my opinion if you intend to advertise in the future, then start with advertising in place, though I would not put pop-ups, pop-unders or other invasive ads on a new blog, only the big boys can get away with running that stuff and not alienating readers and even they alienate some of the readership. There’s no point building a readership then annoying them with ads along the way, start as you mean to go on.
Agreed, as long as there is no pop up and pop under, or flashing banners, ads are generally good, especially contextually targetted ads. However, if you think having ads on your site make your visitors feel like "this is just another adsense blog", don't place ad on the homepage. Only have them within your content page, blend them, and you should feel okay.
Use contextual ads like google adsense..they are in no way annoying..no one will complain if you put them in the right place...
I think at start you should not place google ads but once it gets good traffic then place google ads in good places donot place alot of ads on your blog... Saad
There's nothing wrong with Google Ads. As a general rule, true for any site new or old, make sure they are not invasive or get in the way of your content.
I agree with the consensus that starting out with this is ok so long as you do it in a unobtrusive way...
Yea, you can start out with ads, but don't put any ads in the text yet. Keep them out of the way and when your blog gets bigger throw an ad block in with the text. All the sites I start I design to start with no ads, and phase them in as the site grows bigger. When the site is small they are not going to even produce enough revenue to cover your hosting, so what is the point then. I also feel that it helps build user trust when you play the ads low.