Full Disclosure - The Elephant on the Blog

Posted by Kate Olson on May 5th, 2008

Ok, after a very interesting debate with MANY people on Twitter a few minutes ago, I’m telling you this:

If you click on a book on the Amazon widget on my sidebar that lists the books I’m currently reading and highly recommend and then you actually purchase that book, I might make a few cents. When I write about a book or product I truly have passion for (and you know me and my passions - when I love something, I LOVE it) and you click on the link and it takes you to Amazon, and then actually you purchase it, I might make a few cents.

Also, if you click on the link for the Professional Learning Board courses in my sidebar, I make a commission if you actually pay for the course directly after clicking through from my site. Why?  Well, I believe firmly in the company, I do consulting work for them, and think that my readers might benefit from that resource.

That’s it. As Melanie jokingly warned me about, I’m not going to be writing about things FOR the ads - you all know me well enough for that. My rationale for the Amazon widget is that I was trying to get a Shelfari widget on my blog forever and it would never show up. I can do the exact same thing through Amazon with the potential (but probably unlikely) benefit of a dollar or two a year.

I’m doing some research on ads on blogs for a client and am considering ads on the new blog I’m starting (will be revealing it soon - it’ll be in addition to this one, different demographic). Twitter came through for me and the very condensed consensus (non-consensus, actually) was:

  • educators hate ads on education blogs
  • ads need to be tasteful and add to the content
  • there’s a difference if the person is writing on own time or company time and who gets the money
  • no porn ads (really?)
  • needs to be a blog with ads, not ads with a blog
  • there needs to be transparency (which is why I’m telling you this)
  • and one of my favorites, “haters will hate on anything” from Cody - just saying that bloggers need to do what they personally feel comfortable with

I’m going to be writing more about this very soon (with more insight on my own beliefs, limits, etc) because I find it highly interesting, but I just wanted to put this out there now - it’s all about transparency.

Before I go into this more deeply in the next post, would you like to weigh in with YOUR stance?

Where do you draw the line?

What do you find acceptable on the sites you visit?

Are bloggers somehow held to a moral code (not making $$) that magazine and newspaper writers aren’t?

Hit me with it…………

Thanks to the following for the lively debate:

@indigo196
@melmcbride
@lornacost
@nnorris
@jljohansen
@AmandaMooney
@Brunsell
@Twalk
@codyks
@imcguy
@vdub144
@GetitDoneGuy
@WiredPig
@dogtrax
@MichelleCox
@smheadhunter
@LaurieShuls

And for additional thoughts on this, read these: (I’ll share my thoughts on them next time)

Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business - Wired Magazine
How to Charge $$ When Your Customers are Conditioned to Free - AttentionMax
Ads on a blog?!?!? - CodyTalks (and full disclosure, he mentions me there!)

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Blogging, Business

Cody said,

May 5, 2008 @ 3:24 pm

Great post, can I go delete mine and copy yours and claim it as mine, after I read yours, I feel like you said it better?

Lorna said,

May 5, 2008 @ 3:36 pm

I’m considering having you to write for me. Katesays ad’s on my blog . Oh I forgot your a part of my blogroll, my personal learning network, my collaborator on too many things.
You are already there. We advertise ourselves all the time. OUr thoughts our words and our vision. I often wonder what people would do if we stopped sharing.?

Lornas last blog post..Alberta parent uses web 2.0 tools to involve parents

Michelle said,

May 5, 2008 @ 3:38 pm

It’s an interesting question. I struggled with this on one of my sites. It’s a blog / article site about the CMS I use. I didn’t have ads on it for the longest time because it felt wrong somehow. But I talked to others in the community and they convinced me it was perfectly fine. I still don’t have much for ads, though. Just one small Adsense one. I don’t like the site to be all cluttered with ads and crowding out the content. That’s always a struggle, balancing making money with not overwhelming the content. I tend to err on the side of too little ads, which is probably why I don’t make very much. ;)

In general, I have no problem with ads on other people’s blogs. I figure clicking on the ad is a way to pay for interesting articles. That’s harder with the ads you have as I’d actually have to buy something instead of just clicking. You need some Adsense to click. :)

Michelle

Cody said,

May 5, 2008 @ 3:42 pm

Any Chance Lorna got on the wine early today, that comment confused me. Holy Crap I hope Lorna has a sense of humor cause I am just kidding.

Codys last blog post..Ads on a blog??!?!?!?!?

Kate said,

May 5, 2008 @ 3:49 pm

@Cody - no worries, Lorna’s my friend and was joking - she’s of the same mind that we are :-)

Melanie said,

May 5, 2008 @ 3:49 pm

Great discussion and great post!

There’s no reason why you can’t have ads on your blog. It’s your space and visitors are guests in that space. As long as everything is up front and clear, why not. Plus, nobody is paying you to do this. Your web hosting costs money and your time and energy to create this content is time you could be doing other things. Like most bloggers, you likely have to put a lot of time into creating quality posts (since you can’t pay a professional editor to quickly review your work). So this all COSTS.

There was a time long ago in the blogosphere where the ad debate really got people fuming. At that time, the consensus among most bloggers was this: If you put ads on your blog you are selling your readers to advertisers. There was also the view that you were compromising your integrity as an independent citizen voice outside of the Big Media. That to advertise on your blog was to attempt to BE like Big Media. And finally there was the view that what we enjoyed most about blogs was the fact that blogs were an *alternative* to Big Media.

My own view was somewhere in between. As a freelancer, I was paying out of pocket for the “independence” of my voice. And as a freelancer, that voice was costly (at that time I used Typepad because it had all the features Blogger didn’t - and I didn’t know php).

One day, I read a comment in an anti-ad blog from a mother of three low income blogger in the US. She said that poo pooing advertising was classist. I got to thinking about this and felt this mom had a point. It IS a privilege to blog. To even have the time to blog is a privilege. To have access to a decent computer and pay for bandwidth is privilege.

My own view now is that advertising is totally a personal choice on the part of a blogger. It doesn’t have to compromise your “voice” unless you allow it to. And readers can also make the choice to read your blog or not.

As long as you are transparent about what you’re doing, I don’t see a problem.

Blogging is unpaid labour. Whether you put a tip jar up or an amazon associate or Google ads it’s your choice to attempt to cover the costs of this labour however you wish.

Max Kalehoff said,

May 5, 2008 @ 4:26 pm

Ads are ok if they provide value. 99% don’t. I rarely see any ads on blogs that provide any value. So why do I have ads and such on my blog? Experimentation — because I work at a search advertising technology company. I only learn and understand when I get submersed in the ad technology and products out there.
Cheers,
Max

Lori said,

May 5, 2008 @ 9:57 pm

pffftt - i read a blog for content. i could care less if there are ads for patio furniture running alongside if the content is valuable to me.

Loris last blog post..play station

Adrienne said,

May 6, 2008 @ 4:33 am

Hi Kate,
I think advertising is fine if you truly believe and support the business you are advertising. If you personally feel that what you’re advertising is ethical, helpful, and valuable to those who will read your blog or visit your website, go for it! Your readers will respect your opinion and will probably therefore respect what you’re promoting. The advertising that bothers me is the stuff that’s clearly there just to make money - it’s like saying, “We’ll take $ from anyone.”

Friends / colleagues often say I’m a walking advertisment for several brands (Macs, for example) but that is because I speak passionately about them and I truly support what they provide. Is there anything wrong with feeling good about something and wanting to share it with others? I don’t think so. And if it gets you an extra bit of cash, I say no big deal. As long as you stay true to what you feel good about, then there should be no problem.

(boy that sounds cheesy, huh? can you tell I’ve been hanging around 13-year-olds all day?!)

Kevin said,

May 6, 2008 @ 5:07 am

Kate
I don’t begrudge you trying to earn something for your hard work as a blogger. I don’t want to see ads but I understand that some bloggers are going to go that route.
I DO appreciate you making what you are doing transparent and so that allows the reader to make a decision — should I keep reading or go somewhere else?
Me?
I will keep reading your blog and ignore the ads as best as I can. I can live with that.
Take care
Kevin

Kevins last blog post..Slice of Life, the weekly series, Chapter 6

Marianne said,

May 6, 2008 @ 6:47 am

Ads are one of the reasons I use a feed reader for most of my browsing. Usually I don’t mind ads in the sidebar, though I can’t stand ads (especially Adsense) placed in the content of posts.

Personally, I don’t use ads in my blog, but don’t begrudge bloggers who do…especially with transparency.

Mariannes last blog post..Highly Useful and Some Silliness: Google Reader Upgrades

Kate said,

May 6, 2008 @ 8:41 am

You guys blew me away with your input - I’ve decided to address it all in my next post on this rather than writing a book in the comments. Thanks for the support and I absolutely respect ALL views on this. Hold tight, I’ll be back with more!

Linda George said,

May 6, 2008 @ 8:49 am

@Max Kalehoff - Ads are ok if they provide value. To whom? Isn’t one person’s concept of value another person’s spam? If someone is looking for patio furniture, he/she might be thinking it’s cool to click.

I am thinking, generally speaking, that I am not fond of ads. However, how we get away with so many free gadgets and floozles on the web astounds me so I figure money has to be gotten somewhere! So, let the ads exist.

Linda Georges last blog post..Comment Challenge

Cody said,

May 6, 2008 @ 10:03 am

OK,

I feel like the new guy over here at Kate’s house so please force a smile before you read my comments. I am a nice guy, but my sarcasm can seep into comments. That being said…

This is a issue of morality and there is no right or wrong.

You can’t say ads are ok if they are in good taste, “Good Taste” is a subjective term. It’s like saying the Death Penalty is ok if it is for the right reason. Sorry for that drastic simile, but you get my point. The debate will never be won by one side or the other.

Questions like this make for great conversation, for a while and then you realize that nothing got decided.

Don’t get me wrong, not bad mouthing Kate for bringing it up, I loved being a part of the discussion, but pretty much the debate has come full circle. Kate, you seem to be a brilliant person and I think you knew the answer all along.

The answer being: “To each his/her own”.

Oh yeah and “Haters will hate on anything”. I have a quote contest going and am gonna award my self first place for that quote.

Linda George makes great point, pain in the rear or not, ads have gotten all of us access to a bunch of great free stuff. Can anybody say “Google Search”????????

Codys last blog post..Ads on a blog??!?!?!?!?

Rick said,

May 6, 2008 @ 4:25 pm

If you can monetize this thing, more power to you. Personally, I have a single-line ad from a guy who just pays my annual hosting. I’ve never done Google ads or the like.

I don’t find blogs with ads objectionable per se, but I’m going to stick with the blogs I want to read. If a bloggers has got ads getting in the way, that’s their business, but I probably won’t be coming back any time soon.

Oh, and just to be transparent back at ya, I use a little Firefox add-on called AdBlock Plus, which filters out most of the ads on web pages. That’s right; I don’t see many of the ads that are intended for me to see.

Ricks last blog post..Worship Confessional: 5/4/2008

Kate said,

May 6, 2008 @ 5:06 pm

@Rick - Wow, AdBlock Plus? That’s cool :-) And pretty much the online version of Tivo, no? Eliminate the content you don’t want to see. As far as monetizing “this thing” that’s not really what I’m doing right now. I’m in the research stage - from what I can tell, there’s not really much chance that my current traffic would earn me much!

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