Removing all ads from the blog
Here I am today to announce you that next time I’ll put my hands on this blog’s theme, I am going to remove all ads.
The reason is simple: the blog is growing in popularity breaking into Alexa top 20,000 and it’s a developer blog, not a collection of tutorials.
For this reason, I don’t want to publish ads suggesting software I would never use or games I would never play.
This would be a cheap way to monetize traffic by directing readers who trust me to sites I don’t even know. And in the end Adsense or BuySellAds show the same ad on thousands different sites, making all sites look the same.
Last but not least, ads take space which could be used for showing useful information.
Placing ads on a blog means if I want to put a FlashPunk banner because I think FP rocks and I want to suggest it to my readers, I simply can’t… because I know FP is not willing to give me money for it and it would not be fair to place a free ad next to paying ads. It would be like a shop where you pay to buy goods and the guy next to you does not.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people asking me which software should they use, like in this tweet:
I suggested Flare3D because it’s the one I like most although they do not pay me to promote it. In the same way there’s a comment talking about purchasing a Flare3D license in this post and I receive questions about which software to use more than daily, by email, Facebook private messages or other means.
I cannot drive developers to use software I do not use just because someone paid me to do it. There’s my full name in this blog.
Placing ads is not the only way to monetize a blog, and I want to give my two cents about the most popular ways:
* Asking for donations: which in most cases means begging for money with sentences like “I would like to keep on blogging but my hosting plan costs so much, oh, please give me money”. This looks quite unprofessional, I plan to add a “donate” button but just saying something like “being a geek means drinking a lot of coca-cola, buy me a coke can”, with some humor in it and above all without complaining about hosting plans to pay.
* Selling tutorials/source codes: this could be done but it would be unfair to people living in some Countries which average income is extremely low or do not have access to payment systems like Paypal. I don’t want to deny access to Iranian geeks just because they live in a sanctioned Country.
* Selling subscriptions plans: this way is very similar to the above one, and I won’t apply it.
* Joining affiliate programs: this could be an idea but it can be something I really use and would recommend even if I would not earn any money. That’s the case of MochiAds which I recommend with a referral link but it’s a service I highly recommend and use for almost every game I make.
On the other hand, I need the blog income to buy some stuff which will allow me to keep on blogging about new technologies such as iPhone/iPad game development (that’s $3,588 to buy a 17” MacBook Pro in Italy, and I already have iPhone and iPad), Unity development (starting from $800 to $4,500 according to the “PRO” addons), Android development ($845 for Samsung Galaxy S II). That’s more than $8,000 that I would need just to begin talking about such topics.
* The final idea: I am going to place banners of sites and products I really like, use and recommend, mailing to the companies saying honestly something like “I really love your software and I recommend it to my readers for free. Anyway, sponsor my blog if you like the job I am doing”. Also, I’ll evaluate sponsorship proposals as usual, but I will choose only the ones which meet the above ctieria.
Finally, as Wikipedia does, I will accept private donations, and donors will be mentioned in an apposite page.
Shouldn’t I raise the 8K bucks in a short time, I’ll buy the software/hardware using other sources of income and keep on blogging with no ads/no supporters, with complete independence.
PS: my hosting plan costs around $14/month so don’t believe people asking for thousand dollars for dedicated servers when they only run a small site :)
(40 votes, average: 4.70 out of 5)
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This post has 21 comments
Julien C.
I don’t know what to say, I just rated 5… Oh yes : I totally agree with you on promoting things you wouldn’t promote if they asked you to.
It’s always a pleasure to read your posts, whatever the subject. I’m reading your book too, I bought it moreover because you explain concepts very clearly, and because you have a clever way to build your projects.
yohami
hoho, thats my tweet. I forward it to Ariel´s from Flare3D and he was happy your recommended it.
Monit
I wish you raise 8k soon :) I love your blog and Now have your book too :) Keep up the good work
Monit
Tister
Wow, thats a very admirable way, you are going there. I really hope you can raise the money you need.
On question pops in mind – if you are willing to share – how much did you earn with the ads on this blog on an average month?
Blueflame Development
The Citrus Engine would definitely be a sponsor for your website. Feel free to to email me if this is something you’re interested in.
Matt Perrin
Just my own observations on buying tech for research but, you don’t necessarily have to spend that much money to remain competitive. A $600 Mac Mini can be more than adequate for iOS dev work, the Unity Pro add-ons aren’t all necessary unless you are doing intense 3D work and buying a bleeding-edge Android phone sets you up for potential performance issues when the majority of users are several revisions behind and locked into 2 year contracts. You can use sales figures and market share stats to figure out where the upgrade sweet spots are for userbases and when the majority will be in a position to upgrade. For Android development work, I’ve been using a Samsung Galaxy S and loving it. Great phone and right in the current sweet spot of pre-multicore CPU phones.
Also, you might be interested in checking out Phonegap. It’s basically an HTML5/CSS3/JS packaged app framework that can be used to create multiplatform apps within a single code base. It’s incredibly easy to use and the HTML5/JS Canvas isn’t that different from Flash. It’s also free & OSS. Fantastic tool!
Andrés
Hey hello,
This is a good place to visit, and learn so many things about videogames and technology. I always support your site with recomendation or reading your post, but i couldn’t offer nothing more.
Thank you, for share your brain with us.
;)
Emanuele Feronato
@blueframe: It’s great to see citrus engine is still alive! I remember of a post on its site saying it was going to be discontinued. I sent you an email.
@tister: it’s a bit difficult to tell the monthly income since some advertisers like TemplateMonster pay per year. What I can say is during 2010 the income was around $20K.
@Matt: thank you for your suggestions. And thank you for pointing me to Phonegap
Bob
Why is it necessary for your readers to buy you the latest technology? As a self employed developer, I have to pay for the latest tech myself and that’s that. You undoubtedly get contacted by various companies asking you to do work for them – why not just work like the rest of us and pay for your tech? You think it’s noble to remove ads from your website, yet also think it’s noble to push your readers to donate money. It’s not. Perhaps a good tax dodge, but not noble. If the blog doesn’t bring in enough cash, then go get a job like the rest of us. Thanks, Bob
Emanuele Feronato
It’s not necessary, as I said. I am not pushing anyone to donate. I will buy the latest stuff anyway, but if someone wants to support the blog or sponsor it with a good quality service, he’s free to do it.
I just want to get rid of all banners you can see in every site around the web, to distinguish from other blogs. That’s it.
Chris Moeller
I feel you deserve to get paid for helping so many other people out- and I personally don’t mind most adsense ads- the video ads were frustrating and annoying (all playing at once, somewhere on the page).
I personally like ads- because someone can get paid, and the person getting the service/ product doesn’t have to pay for it out of pocket- so people that don’t have much money can still have access to knowledge they wouldn’t otherwise have.
Great job with the blog all these years, and keep us updated on how the affiliate programs work!
If you don’t make enough money to justify spending the hours spent writing blog articles each week, I won’t mind you needing to go back to adsense!
(and yeah- us tech people do like to have the latest hardware to work on, and it doesn’t make sense on trying to stay with the technology curve by buying older hardware if we want to not fall “out of the loop” relatively fast!)
Good Luck!
Baghbagho
Thanks for understand Iraninan users.
Also I want to know, why you don’t send your works in Stock Flash Websites like “Activeden”? That could make much money for your awesome works.
Tister
That’s a lot of income you are relinquishing there. Enough to make a living. But you and your blog will definitely gain alot of credibility through this. And who knows? You might end up earning more with you sponsor/donate model.
Like Chris, I don’t mind ads tho. As long as they are not too bothersome.
On top of that, I think that most of the people should be smart enough to see an ad as an ad and not as a personal recommendation. And because of that you should consider emphasizing the fact, that the banners on your blog are *not* (regular) ads.
Anyways, I wish you best of luck with this attempt. Keep up the good work =)
Emanuele Feronato
@Baghbagho: I will continue blogging here, removing ads here just to publish my posts in a site which shares ads revenue would no be that smart :)
@tister: the “lot of income” depends on the Country you live in. In Italy taxes may take up to 50% of the gross revenue, and with $1,500/month you barely survive. Also, in the long run I think the blog will produce even more income, while showing relevant services rather than Farmville ads.
Baghbagho
I just offer you a professional website that can raise much money for you. As you know, in Activeden you can submit your new Flash projects (like your games and etc) and people will buy the source of your page.
You can continue your blogging without any advertise banners, and make money from Activeden. You don’t need to put any ads on your website to raise money, I think you know enough abour Activeden.
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Sorry, but I couldn’t understanding your purpose in the reply you sent.
Please let me know more. Thanks.
MSFX
14$ a month for that many page views is pretty damn good, who do you host with? :)
Danyal
Emanuele, you’re a legend. I hope you do as well as you deserve to. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work out and you decide to bring the ads back in future.
patrik
I happily clicks on the ads on your site just to support you for your wonderful blog
Emanuele Feronato
@MSFX: I use hostgator
felipe
actually, I think you CAN, do stuff for free, and stuff being paid.
not every thing you do is a transaction, that must derive money.
if I work in project A and B, and A is free and B is not, that doesn’t create unfairness towards B, since, you decided to work for B.
instead, it is being MORE FAIR towards, A, that is broke and just needs a chance.
I was thinking about this very topic, recently.
how the fact that some people pay us to do X, now makes us limited in how we help people by doing X, (and get no pay).
I’m sure if they paid for the ads, it wouldn’t matter.
keep the ads.
and help people
you can do both.
besides, nobody knows anyway.
Porter
I just started up my new blog (Old one “Porter’s World” is now dormant), and I think I’ll follow your example. I’m all about supporting things I believe in, not random crap. Even if it’s telling people to play a game, I want it to represent my tastes, not that of someone with a lot of money. Kudos on the change, keep it up.