6/27/2008

Evangelization, Not Monitization

It's everywhere. Banners, site sponsors, AdWords, AdSense, AdBrite, Ads by Amazon, Ads by Yahoo, Ads by Google, double-click, triple-click, make-me-sick. We're not against people legitimately making money and if you choose to do that by ad revenue, then so be it. On this very blog, you will find links for purchasing our products such as our Cloth Diapering Spreadsheet. It is a product that we created, and we feel that it has real value. Thus we chose to charge a cool 99cents for the download. Will we always charge for stuff like this? No, not necessarily - other downloads are free. So what's the point?

  • The point is that you have hundreds of ads forced in front of you every day - we don't think that you need to see more when you come here.
  • The point is that placing ads on your blog can bring into question your motivations - are you being truthful in your posts, or embellishing to drive more ad revenue?
  • The point, of this site, is not to generate income, but rather to inform, educate, and share.
That is where we stand, and have done so from day one. Some PF bloggers are going to cringe when they see this. Money is clearly not our main motivator. There are many fine PF blogs that we personally read that post lots of ads. We're not mad at them, and we'll continue reading in spite of it - unless they become annoying. For them, their product is their words, their opinions, their point-of-view. That is the model that they have chosen and there is nothing wrong with that. Don't misunderstand - this is not a black-and-white issue. For us, we did not want our motivations called into question over our choice to monetize this site. We have seen some blogs become extremely popular, partially due to some radical and splashy content, only to see them make an about face on the ads/no-ads position 2 years later. I'm sure that their now large audience nets the blog owner a fat check each month. They can have it. Our decisions are not watered down to a math equation.

"The advice is free, and some say that it's worth what you payed for it"

Maybe we're overreacting a bit? So we asked and asked and asked. Seems that most people are ok with it so long as the ads are relevant. Forbes has approached us with an offer to join their blog network. We get traffic from their site, and in exchange we put their ads on ours. Yes, we would be gaining ad revenue. How much? I have no idea, and they wouldn't want me to say even if I did. If it pays for our fancy domain registration fees each year, then great.

So here is what we decided (and we've thought about it a lot): We'll give it a go. The Forbes setup allows us to approve advertisers, so there is no worry of scammy sites advertising here, or annoying, off-topic ads. If we are not seeing a traffic benefit, or if their ads become a pain, then we're out.

We are more interested in spreading the word, than making a quick buck.

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