Are paid advertising links on a blog worth the effort?

[Bill Sodeman]

Louis Gray has an excellent post about paid advertising links on blogs. He believes that the returns are not worth the effort for most bloggers, as paid links will make a blog look like a "get rich quick" scheme.

Marketing and SEO experts have already challenged his post in the article's comments. Check them out.

I think Gray has a good point, however. Blogging is not a good business model for most bloggers, and I've said as much in several posts on my own blog in the last month.

I've tried and dumped Google ads in a sidebar. Right now, my sidebar has one paid advertising link and two PSAs.

I do insert Amazon links when I mention books and other items on billso.com

I'm planning to set up ad-free blogs this fall for my courses, so that each course has a private blog with is own content and design. I started blogging 5 years ago to vent my rants, but my blog has become my main knowledge base for my classes. Fewer rants, more content!

So I do have an opportunity to develop better advertisign links on the main blog... if it's worth the effort.

Any thoughts?

[Damian Davila Rojas]

Hi Bill,

The ROI of your time spent on a blog depends on what is your objective for blogging.

For a good discussion about the ROI of bloogging check out this posting from Andrew Chen @ Futuristic Play http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2008/01/is-blogging...

Cheers,

Damian

[Bill Sodeman]

That's a good point. My objectives on billso.com have been to increase my personal Google page rank, and to develop a knowledge base that supports my teaching and writing.

Advertising revenue has become a low priority on that site.

I won't be using that site to support courses this fall. I'm using HPU's WebCT system for the first time since 2005. While WebCT has its problems, my students seem less intimidated by WebCT than by my blog.

[Frederick F Dietz]

They work, period