Why Blogs have so many Ads

Majority of blogs on the internet don’t have ads. I know this is surprising given that almost every blog you visit has ads.

The explanation is simple; most blogs that have many readers also have many ads. But since only a small fraction of blogs get many readers, majority can’t afford to have ads.

It just happens that you are likely to visit a blog that gets many readers as opposed to one that doesn’t get many readers. You are among the many readers who are targeted through the ads you see.

The rest of the blogs that have little or no readers don’t have ads. Why would they have ads when there is no one to see them?

Since majority of blogs don’t have many readers, most blogs on the internet don’t have ads.

Conditions for a Blogger to have Ads on his Blog

Before we talk about why blogs have so many ads, let’s look at the conditions that bloggers have to meet to have ads on their blogs. The ads you see on blogs are often a partnership between three parties; the blogger, the ads company and the company being advertised.

The process begins when a blogger approaches an ads company requesting to have ads on his blog. The ad company goes through the website of the blogger to see if it meets their conditions. If it meets set conditions, the ad company generates a code that is put on the blog.

Once the code is on the blog, the blogger chooses how many ads appear per page and where they appear.

The ad companies negotiate with companies that want to advertise then they display those ads on blogs that have been approved. The ad companies are middle men.

Some of the conditions that most ad companies look for in a blog are the topic of the blog and the number of visitors it gets per month. Some also check the country that most visitors of the blog come from.

Topic of the Blog

Some blog topics fetch more money than others. For example, there are many businesses in the weight loss niche. If there is a blog that talks about weight loss, most of these businesses will want to advertise to such readers.

However, in a topic like religion, there are few businesses. Therefore, a blog that talks about religion won’t be lucrative for ads.

The more demand there is for a topic, the more money blogs make from ads. Some ad companies reject blogs that talk about topics that are not lucrative for ads.

Number of Blog Visitors per Month

A blog that has no visitors is pointless to advertise on. After all, the main goal of advertising is to get in front of people.

Different ad companies have a different minimum number of visitors to a blog that they accept. A few ad companies like Google AdSense accept blogs that have as little as zero visitors.

However, other ad companies demand 10,000 visitors per month or more. There is an ad company that currently only accepts blogs that get more than 100,000 visitors per month.

Out of the 100,000 visitors per month, the company also demands that at least 50% of them be from the US.

Such strict conditions to have ads on your blog mean that only a few bloggers get the privilege of having ads on their blogs.

Do Bloggers make Money from Ads?

Yes. Bloggers make money from Ads. The amount of money they earn from ads is paid based on the number of their blog readers that view ads and the number of readers that click ads.

Many other factors determine how much a blogger earns per 1000 views such as the topic of the blog and the country his blog readers come from.

The industry average that bloggers earn for every 1000 visitors is $30. Some earn as low as $2 for 1000 views while others as high as $80 per 1000 views.

Why Blogs have many Ads

Because the number of ads visible on your blog determine how much you earn, bloggers can easily go overboard with placing ads.

Let’s take an example of two blogs; both get 10,000 views per month and they talk about the same topic. Let’s assume the rate for ads in that topic is $20 per 1000 views.

If blogger A puts two ads per page on his blog, at the end of the month he will have 20,000 ad views. That will net him $400.

If blogger B puts five ads in every blog post, at the end of the month he will have 50,000 ad views. With the same rate, he will make $1000.

The margin of earnings between the two bloggers is massive just because of the difference in the number of ads each one of them chose to put in every blog post.

Since this is roughly what happens, some bloggers put as many ads as they can on their blogs. It is more like being given a blank cheque for you to write how much you want to earn per month.

Adding more ads on your blog takes less than five minutes; a five minute change that will earn you an extra $600. Who wouldn’t be tempted?

Remember that we have used an example of a blog getting 10,000 visitors per month. Some blogs get way more than that.

If you do the math, you will find that a small increase in the number of ads on the blog brings a significant change in the amount of money earned.

And that is why some blogs have many ads.

Managing Greed

At the end of the day, the number of ads on a blog reflect the level of greed or lack thereof of the blogger. Everyone has a level of greed that they term acceptable. Our levels are not the same.

To you, the ads may seem too many but to another, their density is acceptable. To the blogger, the number of ads on his blog is not too much. That is why he puts them there.

But to the reader, the story is different.

Some bloggers are wise; they write long articles and put many ads in them. One blog post can have twelve ads but you barely notice them because you have to scroll three to four times before you see an ad.

As a reader of blogs, there is little you can do to influence how many ads a blogger puts on his blog. You can use an ad blocker if you feel the ads are too many.

Start your own Blog

The saying goes ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’. If Ads on blogs annoy you, create your own blog and have no ads on it or put many ads and make money too.

Creating a blog is not as difficult as it used to be. There are platforms like WordPress that have made it simple to create a blog that makes money.

Here are five steps you need to follow when creating a blog that makes money. Join the winning team.

All the best!