Ads and the art of blogging

By sovknight | January 24, 2008

So I’ve been experimenting with ads on my blog lately, and I have to admit it’s much harder than you’d think design a functioning ad. 

Any of you that have been reading my blog know by now that it changes quite frequently.  This blog is not only home to my personal thoughts and ruminations, it’s also sort of a testing ground for ideas and layouts, and a way for me to learn and practice all of the necessary skills (like learning .PHP, .CSS, XHTML, etc.) so that I can build a web presence and maybe even make a few extra dollars per month as a side benefit. 

My blog is very new.  In fact, it’s not even a month old yet, so there really isn’t much content to see.  I’m working on it though.  I’ve made a goal to write at least one post per day, and although I haven’t quite managed to do that, it’s getting better.  I’ve finally settled on a theme that I like (minimalist is good) and I’m still playing with the layout, and it’s really starting to shape up and look the way I want it.  If anybody reading this has any suggestions whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and express them.  Tell me you like it, or tell me you hate it.  Tell me why.  If you have any thoughts at all, I want to hear them.

I don’t have any particular theme with regards to content.  This blog is just my divergent wanderings in print, and I write about whatever comes to mind.  It’s not about making money on the Internet, selling digital cameras, photography, movie reviews, or any one subject.  It’s about anything and everything.  Eventually I’ll probably settle on a style, or maybe write about a certain subject on a certain day, or whatever.  It’s still in that infant phase where anything is possible.  Who knows what it could become?

I’ve found in the last month that writing a blog is easy.  Writing a good blog is very hard.  Not to say my blog is necessarily good, but I can proudly say that for the most part, the grammar is mostly correct and the words are spelled right.  That’s a start.  You’d be surprised (or maybe not) at how many people take their lives to the Internet in the form of blogs and web pages that don’t even have a grasp on something as simple as the rules of the language they’re using.  For them, I suppose, it’s simply enough to bang out a few sentences using L33T or their third-grade educations and then slap a few ads up.  I’m here to tell you right now that you won’t get anywhere that way.  Good writing is good writing, and I firmly believe that there’s no substitute.  There’s a subtle art to blogging.  It means writing correctly, using your spell check, and forming a page that’s as aesthetically pleasing as possible.  Like creating a magazine or a newsletter.  Everything correct and everything in it’s place.  Form and function and all that. 

Over the next few weeks and months I intend to focus on content.  Really get some good topics and write a lot of copy.  I need to practice my writing skills some and get back to the basics of the language, because I believe that’s the key to a popular blog.  People want to read things that are interesting and well thought-out, not to mention written intelligently.  Also, in the midst of writing, I’ve discovered I need to work on my typing skills.  I type fast, but I find myself going back to correct errors a lot.  Maybe I should look at the keys?

So about the ads.  I’m just a baby when it comes to figuring out how to do these things.  Honestly, I have no real idea how to place them or write them or even how to make them look.  All of these things are important I’m told.  I’ve read up on the TONS of information regarding how you should work your ads, but it’s mind-boggling just how much information there is.  Some of it contradicts too, so I’ve taken the trial and error approach.  The biggest hurdle I have is figuring out why people would click them.  I’ve had that Widget Bucks ad in various places on my page for about a week now, and I have yet to get a single click on it.  I understand this too.  Ads just aren’t that interesting.  Personally, I surf the Internet a LOT and I very rarely click on ads that I see.  Every so often I see something that piques my interest and I’ll click it, or sometimes I’ll click the ads on a friends site to help them out a bit, but for the most part I ignore them.  You see Google ads so frequently these days that they’ve become a part of every web site it seems, and you come to think of them as just part of the background.  I guess the trick is making them stand out.

Ah well.  It’s not about the ads anyway.  This blog isn’t exactly the kind of place to find ads.  As I said, this whole thing is more of an experiment and a “lab” if you will, designed to supply me with the skills to create a functioning web site that has actual relevant and useful content.  Soon, methinks.  For now, I’ll just keep working on it.