Comments on: Testing ads on iwillteachyoutoberich for 3 months

By: MH

MH — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:34:12 +0000

It was a bit odd to see an ad for the church of latter-day saints on your site, but I’m guessing you don’t always have control over the ad packages…

By: Ramit Sethi

Ramit Sethi — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:49:13 +0000

Evie, I’m working on getting more relevant ads and less junky ones. Thanks for looking out for me : )

By: evie

evie — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:48:58 +0000

What dimes said – “I’d be worried about having super sketchy ads.”

Have you checked out the sites you seem to be promoting? Is this legitimate: http://millionaireleague.com/business/?az

And the one that claims “No matter how rich you are – or how your portfolio is performing – these 8 hot investments can boost your portfolio’s bottom line with the potential for a whopping 527%, or more!”

Yes, I’m picking on you. But only because I love you, man.

By: dimes

dimes — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 23:24:01 +0000

They’re pretty unobtrusive, but I’d be worried about having super sketchy ads showing up on my page. For the most part your site is highly reputable, but having skeevy ads can kind of undermine that.
Luckily I’m using Firefox and can’t even see them.

By: John

John — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:37:42 +0000

I have a blog with decent traffic and readership, and these are the principles I follow for ads:

1. Target the search engine visitors, not the regular readers. This means putting ads on individual archive pages, but not on the main page (or at least not as many). Also don’t put them in your RSS feed.

2. No intrusive ads.. Google ads are good, but you currently have a flashing white and orange ad right at the top of your blog main page which is simply awful.

The idea is to be good to your loyal readers, who are your allies and word of mouth evangelists. They are also going to develop ad-blind quickly anyway, and won’t be as likely to click on ads as people coming through from search engines.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:27:02 +0000

Ramit, it would also be interesting to see what kind of revenue you pull from those ads. I’ve always been curious about how useful adwords are from a revenue generation stand point. If you wouldn’t mind sharing I think it would be a great little article to post.

By: roshan

roshan — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:38:06 +0000

On a side note about how the years go by – I think you need to stop introducing yourself as ‘recent graduate’ from 2008 on

By: Carlos P

Carlos P — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:35:06 +0000

I’ve always wondered how much money can be made if you have a massive amount of traffic like your site gets. The guy over at http://www.thebaseballcube.com has built up a nice following even though all he does is compile and organize statistics (I love the site, BTW), but still—what great passive income if you’ve already got a heavily trafficked blog.

Keep it up Ramit!

By: Ramit Sethi

Ramit Sethi — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:55:51 +0000

Rob, right on. I’ll get there. For now, this is just a test to get the easiest ads on and to optimize them. Once I’ve got the kinks wrinkled out, going after the larger guys will be easier. But I don’t want to spend tons of time on this and let me distract from writing and sharing more personal-finance info.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:46:22 +0000

Ditch the google ads that really aren’t relevant to readers and go with some high quality company specific ads. See the wall street journal online for an example.

I am sure with a little but of effort you will be able to get some of the bigger companies you support on board, such as ING Direct, HSBC, Sharebuilder, Scottrade, etc.

Those ads would be much more benificial to me than the currently displayed google ads about countywide home loans, rich media (sharepoint 2007), research data collection and national tv advertising.

The currently displayed ads aren’t targeted to your audience and may very well contain advice contrary to what you advocate.

Don’t follow the crowd with adsense, and in the end you will make a lot more money. I must say the lack of adsense is one of the reasons why I loved this blog and it is what made it different from all the others. Sign up the big companies you support and who your readers will benefit from, and we will thank you later (and buy your 2008 guide to kicking ass). Not to mention you will make a lot more money.