Your Advertising Questions Answered After One Year of Advertising

Exactly one year ago I posted a question to help me decide whether to go down the road of placing advertisements on my blog or not (post). Eventually I did and now, one year on, most of my questions are answered so I thought I’d share what I’ve experienced through this year.

My questions were:

Will blog readers view me differently when i start to put ads up?

Sadly, they did. Some though I’d sold out to those advertisements, other though that just because I had an ad of a “rival” business’ it meant I am the enemy too and decided to punish me for it. Others simply hated the mere idea of my being paid extra money just out of jealousy and nothing to do with integrity. I’d heard a lot of people who went “oooooh she has moneeeeeyyyyyyyyy now she earns a lot per month” a3otho be Allah. Mo tadroon ana kint a6or 3nd bab elmasyed before I began advertising. Moving on…

Will they think that i am a greedy writer who blogs for the money only?

Uh huh. Every word I utter is condemned. It seems that my opinion has now been clogged with money only. I’ve sold out my soul to the devil, bye bye. Unless they have a blog or a website with ads, people do not understand that you won’t be obliged to write anything or even mention those who advertise on your blog. Sometimes you even forget them totally or the ads changes automatically in a way that the get placed and moved when you don’t even notice them.

I also believe people should have an opinion of their on and not run blindly behind blogs and whatever they say. I never trust anyone’s taste in fashion, movies, food, or travel destinations. I only trust things I’ve tried myself. A bloggers role is just to show you what they’ve experienced, your role is to decide for yourself whether or not you want to try it and if you do whether you like it or not. This is called your own opinion, feel it, embrace it, and relish on it. Don’t like it? Elnass athwaq. Don’t blame the blogger for the time and money you’ve waste it.

Would I be force to provide blog content even when I don’t feel lf like it? Just to keep the site going? What if I run out of ideas?

Only one company requested that I must post a minimum of three posts per week. The rest of the companies didn’t make such demands. Yes, sometimes I didn’t feel like posting. I felt like hiding under the covers or running away from everyone. I have bad days when I cannot even get out of bed, let alone blog, but I was saved by the posts I had scheduled before. You do have the choice to say yes or no to such rules of course.

Is that extra 50 KD per month worth it?

Worth it in what terms? I’m not sure. Lets talk money here since its the factor that most ad disapprovers itch about.

First, my rates were “very low” in comparison to fellow bloggers, including new blog comers. I’ve been told several times by people in the industry to raise them. I don’t think I deserve to raise them.

Second, that extra 50 KD per month you say? Do you know that more than one advertisement agency who placed ads on my blog did not pay me. Yes, you read that right. Not everyone paid me when money was due and if you know me well you’d know that not in a million years would I email you asking for my money. I don’t think they did it out of exploitation, I suppose they were too busy with life and simply forgot. So the next time I do any ads I would ask for my payment in advance. I’ve learned my lesson.

What about those who paid me? Well, nothing at all changed about my spending and life style. I still don’t own a Berkin, didn’t buy a diamond studded Rolex watch or a Sea side villa in Spain. I still live in a rented apartment with no hope of getting a place of my own soon. I am however eyeing a red ferarri and hoping that next year’s ad proceeds would pay for it since the pay is so good!

Now I’ll answer two extra questions I’ve been asked by other people during the past year.

What annoyed you most about ads?

The fact that I had to manually swap ads so often at the last minute for different campaigns. Most ad agencies either provide a static image, a flash video, or a script where they change the ads on their own terms from their own side and you don’t have to do a thing. I have a day job, I have a husband, I have a house to run, I’m my own blog designer, I’m not always free in the nick of time to change the ads in every single page on my blog especially when its a Thursday afternoon.

So if you want to place ads and you are the ones doing it manually, I advise you to go with companies that would either provide a one time ad or one with a script that changes automatically from their side.

 

How do you get businesses to advertise on your blog?
Business are supposed to contact you for ads to place on your blog, you shouldn’t be running after ads yourself. Many advertising agencies will you recognize you as a blogger and would want to place ads with you. However, many blogs get ads just because his cousin owns that businesses, and his aunt knows the owner of that company, o ohom awla min el’3areeb like we say in Kuwait. That explains the phenomenon of blogs springing up with ads already on their blogs before they have written one word of blogging, this is Kuwait after all. Is this good or bad? Neither actually, its the way things are, take it or leave it.

I’m reminded of one funny story, a guy in some ad agency kept emailing me press releases of store opening. He actually wrote “Store XYZ opening press release, please publish it in your blog ASAP”. I emailed him back politely noting that I am a blog, not a newspaper, and to please stop emailing me “press releases”. His reply “Its a good way to get advertising from the store”. Its a sad day when an advertising agency doesn’t know the difference between a newspaper and a blog in this day and age, plus insinuating that my reward for placing those press releases of stores opening new branches would be eventually an ad on my blog.

I’d also like to mention another thing here. I got many emails from individuals saying they have got a home business and they’d like to place an ad in my blog, what are your rates? I fell for it once. Afterwards I realized some people lie and send these emails just because they want to know how much you presumably make in one month and gawk about it in their next zwara. Mo 3aib?

I now have the right mind to demand the name of that business and Google it to know if it exists or if this person is actually the owner. Unless you are sure they are the business owner or you know them socially I’d advice against emailing them right away. Most likely businesses doing good would be hiring PR agencies to handle their ads and the contacting on their behalf.

So don’t rush. Take your time, ask, check, double check, read the ad rules, make sure they pay you and they won’t forget, place those ads, egraw elmo3awethat, and buy that flat in Park Lane with the Hyde Park view you’ve always wanted :p Happy Advertising.