jotsheet

The moment you decide to put ads on your blog, the spotlight is focused squarely on your content. You can’t screw around with peripheral things anymore or the ads won’t perform. I love this side effect.

A blog that has no purpose but to record one’s thoughts can be terrible. In fact, it usually is. Take a look at LiveJournal if you doubt me. Putting advertising on your site is about expanding its scope and purpose, whether for good or bad. It says, “this blog is bigger than me and advertisers want to be on it” (or I think they do). Once you make the decision to put ads on your site, you’ve introduced an external evaluation mechanism into the mix. It’s not just about you anymore. And I think that’s a good thing.

Command economy vs. market economy

I think of this as entering into a market of sorts. Make the comparison between a command economy and a market economy, but apply it to blogs. Think of the command economy as a blog with no judge but the author. The author/dictator says “let’s plant banana trees in the frozen tundra this year” or “let’s write about my trip to the dentist.” The common theme? It doesn’t work.

Compare that situation to the market case. The author/president thinks twice before plantining banana trees or posting about meaningless crap because maybe it matters what other people think.

So making your blog into a market means thinking about how other people read your stuff. If you don’t care what about people think (or don’t want to care), don’t put ads on the site.

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