The Problem with the Click-Through Ads

I've been having click-through advertising for about three months now on my other site. Despite expecting great things from it, and having a decent visitor rate, it didn't translate to very much.

I've been wondering why that is for sometime. I have formulated some conclusions, which didn't bode well for my future big blog money.

1. my topic did not have a lot of advertising backing. If you are in technology, you bet you're going to get a lot of ads. If you are into alchemy, well, there are some sites advertising but not so many. A telling sign is that the website Helium, that I frequent sometimes, says that it will not pay for religion and spirituality (and other categories as well) because there's not much advertising revenue in it.

2. the first time I put ads on site I got a lot of response. This decreased instead of increase in time. Why is this? Because the ads don't roll enough. They are almost always the same ones. I'm pretty sure by now that it has to do with point no. 1, the topic.

3. the click-through ads don't encourage one to stay on the site, but to leave the site. It doesn't reward readership and loyalty, on the contrary. It encourages random reading in search of another site to hop onto. On my site, due to my topic, I have several loyal readers. I am afraid they don't want to leave the site as fast as they should for money's sake!

4. click-through ads encourage gaudy and unprofessional-looking sites. I'm serious. The best click-throughs, from what I have gathered, are those that are situated between the title of the article and the post, or in the middle of the post. I don't like the look of these, and so far I have resisted this type of advertising. I don't want my reader to be annoyed. As weird as it sounds, loyalty is important to me. I care what people think of my blog.

I have been surprised and disappointed to find that, although click-through ad networks promise reward to readership, loyalty and good image, in fact they encourage in-your-face advertising for teenage-type uncommitted browsing. This may work on gadget or electronics blogs, but how will it work in a serious site about esoteric research? Thus far, the answer has been negative. Blog money is for a sector of the internet blogging market only. I will keep at it and try to find innovative ways of advertising, but big money is going to stay away from me a while longer.