Should You Add Google AdSense Ads on Your New Blog?

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When should you start adding ads on your blog?

Google Adsense On New Blog
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This is a common question a blogger have after they start a blog to make money.  In this guide you will find a lot of insights on when you should start adding ads and how you should go about it.

But first, answer this question:

Are you one of those budding bloggers who is not monetizing his blog and is skeptical of doing so?

If so, I have also walked in your shoes. In the early days of my blogging career, I did not take advantage of AdSense or any other ad platform. Perhaps the reason many of us stay away from monetizing our blogs is that we are protective of our image, and we fear being judged by our readers. Moreover, a lot of us don’t know how much money one can earn from AdSense.

I was talking with one of my budding blogger (BB) friends, and he told me that he has an approved AdSense account, but he is not putting AdSense on his blog.

  • Me: Why?
  • BB: Because it’s a new blog, and putting AdSense on it might make my visitors think that I blog for money.
  • Me: Then why did you apply for AdSense when you are not planning to monetize your blog?
  • BB: I will monetize it when I have good traffic.
  • Me: What difference does it make whether you monetize the blog now or later? Will the perception of your readers be different at another point in time?

Our conversation went on for a while and came away with a suspicion that many other bloggers share my friend’s feelings about advertising on a new blog.

My question remains, why wait to monetize your blog?

Making money from your blog doesn’t make you a less passionate blogger or a greedy blogger.

It is simply taking advantage of an opportunity to earn money from one of your passions, and to develop your dreams. Ask yourself if that is a disgraceful thing.

If you have a blog that can be monetized, start monetizing it now. Chances are good that you may not make more than $10-$100/month, but at least you are earning some money doing something you enjoy.

What are advertisements, and why advertise on your blog?

When an advertisement that is related to your content and your niche runs on your blog, whether on the sidebar, or on the header, or elsewhere, you are helping your readers by providing a place for him to obtain a product he may be interested in purchasing.

For example, on ShoutMeLoud I write extensively about blogging, web hosting and making money online.

I share my personal views and experiences. Many readers are here because they like to read about my experiences with different products that I use, and it is very possible that they would like to try these products or related products.

They are reading my posts, after all, because they have an interest in the niche that I write about. So this is why I keep web hosting and WordPress theme banners on the sidebars and headers of my posts.

When should you start using AdSense?

There is no right or wrong time to begin monetizing your blog if you have an interest in doing so.

And as long as you do so in such a way that you will not be hampering the readability of your blog, there is no reason why you should not start monetizing as soon as you feel your blog is ready.  Bear in mind that it is best to place only one or two ads on a page.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, fewer ads = better CTR = more money in the long run.

If you are having trouble getting your site approval on AdSense, you can try applying for these AdSense alternatives. However, if your traffic is low, these ad networks are suitable for low traffic blogs.

Here is the list for your quick reference:

So if you have an AdSense account and a blog, start trying some ads on your blog. If you don’t have an account yet, you can follow these tricks for AdSense approval and apply for AdSense.

Start with one or two ad units, and stay focused on the quality of your blog, delivering good information to your readers, and producing a quality blog overall.  You never know – you may end up making a living from your blog!

What’s your opinion on when one should add ads on their blog?  

Feel free to share your thoughts with us using the comments section below.

If you find the information in this post useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

Here are a few hand-picked guides for you to read next:

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

67 thoughts on “Should You Add Google AdSense Ads on Your New Blog?”

  1. Talib Allauddin

    Hay!I have just stared blogging and having a real hard time in bringing traffic to my blog.Tell me how to increase traffic to my blog.Please check my blog out and tell me if any thing is wrong.Thanks

  2. Srinivas

    Hi Harsh,

    This is Srinivas joined in the Money Making Sharing Program today.I have Commission Junction Account.But I do not have any AdSense Account.

    How to add those affiliate Program Links in this website through my login in this ShoutmeLoud make money sharing program.

    Please review My blog Once and suggest the updates.

    Thanks
    Srini

  3. bond from NCR

    Thanks for the things harsh. I really thankful to you. I started earning now. But why Adsense will take 6 mnths to activate.

  4. Professor Beej

    My main fear is driving readers away. To me, having ads feels a little cluttered, and I am very afraid that people won’t stick around for my content because it looks like I just want to get them to view my ads. I’ve been careful so far in only putting them at the head of each individual post (and only a Thesis theme affiliate link in my sidebar), but I’m afraid that it’s too intimidating for readers or that it detracts from my own content.

    Am I just being paranoid?

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Professor Beej Think from a reader perspective, you land on a blog and you see one or two ads on the sidebar , preferably 350*250 ad block or 4 125*125 ad block. Will that put you off?? In my case no, because its not hampering content in any ways.. More over… Sooner or later you would like to add ads on your blog and you will be needing it… So why later and why not now?? I hope this will help you!!

      1. Professor Beej

        It’s not so much that it’s in the sidebar that makes me worry, but I have it before the post itself. I know one blogger in my niche who does very well with this method, but I am nowhere near as established as he is (yet), so I worry about putting people off. I have no eye for design, either, so I really can’t even tell if it looks bad.

        1. Harsh Agrawal

          Well Again When you go to a blog and you read a post, do you criticize it for ads or appreciate it for content?
          The only thing which you need to take care of is your ads should not be very prominent, if using adsense, use the same font and color. Instead of blending it with post, add it like I have added at the top of the post. Since it will never mixed with content , my readers will never have any problem. As it is your regular readers are less likely to click on ads, its usually one time visitors who come from search engines.

  5. Big Blog Academy

    I completely agree with you Harsh. I am from India and I really sometimes get frustrated about so many mis-conception that most of the new bloggers of India has developed among themselves. Though this thinking is almost same for most of the bloggers around the world that they don’t dare to add advertisements to their new blogs.

    Actually the problem is somewhere else, I have read many blogs where new bloggers have been instructed not to add advertisements till they does not have enough content and keyword density developed in their blogs or sites which helps AdSense and other networks to serve most relevant ads by understanding their niche properly, but new bloggers often make mistake by thinking that they are been instructed not to add advertisements till they have huge traffic.

    This difference need to be clarify first among the new bloggers.

    Anyways nice informational post for the new bloggers

  6. Swagat

    I’m a budding blogger and google ppl dint approve my adsense.. Is it really required for sites to be 6 months old? As one of my friend’s account got approved in 3 months only. Seem they are not clear with their own guidelines.

    1. Amit Banerjee

      @Swagat: Take care of the following things before applying to Adsense :

      1. Ensure no duplicate content or broken links, pages.
      2. Decent design.
      3. own domains preffered over blogspot.

      Lots of people say that 6 months is a bar but believe me it isn’t. Your site should have original content and must adhere to the guidelines. Best of Luck

  7. Ricky

    I do agree with you. It is good to have some ads on blog. I am thinking about monetizing my blog now. It is a right time to monetize it.

  8. Harshad

    It’s all depend on the kind of ads you are serving on your blog. If it’s a CPC ad, I would never put it on my new blog from day one.

    If I do so, it’ll obviously give me few bucks from one or two clicks but there are some reasons and drawbacks of putting ads on new blogs, which may hurt my blog’s performance in long run.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      CPC ads are effective more on high traffic blog. Meanwhile which CPC advertisement you recommend for other bloggers?

      I will love to know your point on drawbacks of putting ads on new blogs.
      .-= Harsh Agrawal ´s last blog ..Google Apps showing error This domain has already been registered =-.

      1. Amit Banerjee

        I would contradict with Harshad because I believe : Put the ads from day one, because money motivates Blogging.

        If there aren’t any ads, there won’t be so many blogs out there. And you can always restrict ads for regular visitors with some codes or WordPress plugins.

  9. Amal Roy

    In my case i started using adsense right from the day i got it.And i do believe that using ads in the right way will only help people.
    .-= Amal Roy ´s last blog ..10 Google Chrome Extensions That You Must Not Miss – Best Plugins For Chrome =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Thanks for your insight Amal and good to see that we are on the same pitch 🙂

  10. mostlyBlog

    don’t add so many ads ,only add some ad which will give you good money, i don’t think so this is bad idea to make some money from starting of the blog
    .-= mostlyBlog ´s last blog ..iPod Nano 5G Features & Photos =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Mohit the problem is new blogs will not get direct advertisement and more over its hard to find any ads which pay high :).
      The point here is making some out of something where you are making 0.

  11. Gouri

    Encouraging article to put off initial hesitation of new bloggers. Harsh, of late, I have noticed that you are not using Infolinks inline ads. Any specific reason?
    .-= Gouri ´s last blog ..Prevention from Swine flu =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Gauri Its great you noticed this thing. Infolinks was paying good but My bounce rate was going out of limit, so instead of using text link ads, I started to cross link my text. This helps a lot in decreasing bounce rate.
      .-= Harsh Agrawal ´s last blog ..Check Your Blog Compatibility for Mobile Phones =-.

  12. Ruchi

    Ads should be on right location. It should not irritate readers while going through the articles. Try to take your hands off from rollover Ads.
    .-= Ruchi ´s last blog ..Get Rid of Procrastination =-.

  13. India 365

    First of all good post harsh!!

    Let me tell you one single point. The more exposure you give to your ads the more chances of getting clicks on them, in return you get more money. So its always good expose your ads as much as possible, no matter how many ad units.
    .-= India 365 ´s last blog ..ICC Champions Trophy 2009 “ Review =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      I might not agree with your point for many reasons
      1. Too many ads does not mean more revenue. Less unit with more exposure, better it is.
      2. Too many ads will put your readers off. I will suggest 2 ad units and 2 link units are sufficient for new blogs.

  14. Surender Sharma

    It is not a big issue for loyal blog readers.If you use proper setup,proper ads format according to your blog theme the ads never irritates to readers.But lack of proper optimization of ads can irritate to readers.
    .-= Surender Sharma ´s last blog ..How To Display Adsense Ads After Post in Thesis Theme =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      The thing here is placement. For new blogs i will never suggest putting a big block of ad before post. This hamper the visibility of posts before the fold. Rest a smart placement like 468*60 above posts and more will be very useful for publishers.

  15. Technologian

    Majority of online readers really don’t have any idea about the ads running on a blog… So I think putting ads on your blog even at the very start, doesn’t actually let readers ignore your articles at all.
    .-= Technologian ´s last blog ..How to Dual Boot Your Computer Using Vista and Windows 7 – A Step by Step Guide =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Bert It’s not about one time readers but to make them loyal readers. If ads are places heavily and uncluttered way, chances are high they will not connect to such blog. So That’s why I suggest above for new blogs : Add advertisement but Smartly. 🙂

  16. Raju

    People follow norms and they follow them blindly. A problogger “ABC” says something and the herd follows him/her blindly. One needs to know what’s right for him. One Man’s Poison Is Another Man’s Meat
    .-= Raju ´s last blog ..Know When Your Tweets are Favorited, via RSS =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Raju This is the same thing I said in one of my recent interviews. There are no rules but are guidelines. So Instead of following some one idea or path, create your own path. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
      .-= Harsh Agrawal ´s last blog ..Flickr Application for iPhone =-.

  17. Rahul

    I think adding two ads is sufficient in new blog. Making some money is better then nothing. Later, your dedication will decide you and your blog will be successful or not.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Just my 2 cents Rahul : It’s always your dedication which decide if your blog will be successful or not. Though adding advertisement on your blog at anytime is not bad until unless you doing it the spam way. Thanks for your comment and valuable insight Rahul.

  18. IndianCashMaker

    there is no harm in using advertisements….do not clutter your blog with ads….show them effectively
    .-= IndianCashMaker ´s last blog ..My Blogging Experience in 3 Months =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Good point Tushar. Cluttering your blog with lots of advertisements will put users off.

  19. Himanshu

    Wow Harsh! This is really very interesting article, I want to put adsense on my blog but something stops me, the reason mentioned by your buddy blogger. Lemme think once again.
    .-= Himanshu ´s last blog ..Top 10 SEO tips for WordPress bloggers =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Himanshu the final decision is always yours, if you want to add adsense now or later or never . Though if some one will ask my advice, I will suggest use adsense or atleast 2 or 4 125*125 advertisement on the sidebar.

  20. BAS

    I have advertisements on my blog from the first day and I don’t think my readers really care about it until I am providing them some good quality content
    .-= BAS ´s last blog ..Free Kaspersky 2010 license Keys =-.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      That’s what I meant to add here . If your provide meaningful and useful posts. No one will mid your advertisement. 🙂
      .-= Harsh Agrawal ´s last blog ..Find Color used by Any Web page With ColorZilla =-.

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