Advertising?
I have been approached by a few parties this month to put up advertising on the blog. As most of you have noticed, I do not serve any ads and I intend to keep it this way. It’s really a battle between my bank account (which is pretty empty now) and my desire to keep this venture commercial free.
I’m happy that people are recognizing the blog and my contributions. I have bigger plans for this in the long term and I don’t think that I should taint it with the lure of money. I have seen how my own photography suffered when I started charging money for it. I don’t want to see the same thing happening here.
Hence, I would like to ask you, my dear reader, a simple question. Am I insane?
Edit: I forgot to mention that I don’t even know what’s to charge. =\
I see nothing wrong with having ads. I don’t pay any attention to them anyway and if they help with the cost of keeping the blog going I say go for it. I don’t consider it a sell-out or see it cheapening your moral values.
You’re alright and very much insane.
But like the first comment, I don’t mind you put some ads here as long as it can help you keep up this blog. I notice that some bloggers have their own ways with ads. Some put very nice unobstrusive ads on the sidebar, and some put them in the RSS feed.
I don’t know how much you should charge them but for a start you can include the cost to maintain this blog (domain, hosting, etc).
Charge a lot. You’re worth it. Just see that they don’t influence what you post about.
Nah.Commercial free is good. If its meant to be free of commerce then let it stay that way. Insane?no. Illogical?maybe…but then again, maybe not. I love this blog purely because its so photography and no consumerism.Hard to find these days. Keep it that way.
Cheers
keep going with this blog, that’s the important point. But to be commercial free is a very high standard, that’s a very good point for a blog…
Well you’re not insane, you just have a different point of vue than most of people. Sure you’re not alone.
Keep it real, home-boy ^.^
I say throw the ads in, I actually read it through bloglines (an rss client) so I probably would not see them … but really there is nothing wrong with trying to make money, or at least trying to break even. If you’re not sure what to charge,yo might want to sign up for google’s service and just tell people to buy ads through that. It takes care of all the money handling too.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to recoup some expenses, at least, or even with making some money. Me, I’ve no problem with ads.
I’d prefer not huge obvious ugly ones, and I really hate the ones that pop up over my mouse and need to be clicked on, or ones that play music at me. Other than that, I’m not sure if people even notice ads versus no-ads much any more.
Thanks for all the answers. I will sit on this for the moment. Would like a sponsor with products that you guys are actually interested in. That would make it mutually beneficial. Haha, maybe I’m being naive here.
I think there is a compromise on integrity only if the ads are promoting or endorsing something which you have a low opinion of. Other than that, I don’t really see an issue.
I think a sponsor would be better for you than banner ads.If you have a sponsor whose product you like then I don’t see any problem with it.