There are a lot of people that think spending money on advertising when their blog is just starting out to get exposure is a good thing; but at the start, you should probably hold off. And if you’re one of those people who spend money right from the beginning of your blog, you might want to read on.
I have seen quite a few bloggers that spend some decent money on advertising right off the bat, and of course, they usually get the luxury of the short term traffic. But when their advertising money runs out, so does their traffic. So why is that?
Well, first of all, if you are just starting out a new blog, 99.9% of the times you should not spend money on advertising because in the long run, it won’t help you as much as you’d like. For instance, I’ve spent money on Google Adwords and that was a big waste of my money. And I can guarantee you that there are tons of other bloggers that have done the same exact thing as I did and just ended up with an empty pocket.
Now, there are others that have the liberty of a good bank account with enough spending that they can dish out thousands of dollars right at the beginning. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. And I can assure you that I am not alone on this. (Though, if you’re doing affiliated marketing, most people will tell you that you need to spend money to make money. And they usually spend that money on Adwords or something equivalent.)
For instance, I know one particular blogger who spent tons and tons of money right from the get-go of his blog to build up traffic, but after a month or two of doing so, his traffic died down… a LOT! Now, I don’t have details on the exact numbers but the traffic was cut in half, at the bare minimum.
Of course, the reason could be the fact that those people simply didn’t like his content, or just got tired of seeing yet another “Make Money Online” blog, but I can guarantee you that he spent a
Based on personal experiences, I spent over $100 on Adwords on a different site before and let’s just say, I don’t manage that site anymore. So, I failed miserably on my first try. But that was just me, but based on my stats, spending money on advertising from the get-go didn’t help my cause at all.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t spend money on advertising but just hold off for the first few months of your blog. Instead, try to self-promote, market, network, and build credibility for yourself so that way if you do spend money on advertising, there will be more of a reason for them to stick around and continue to come back. That seemed to be my problem when I first started, I didn’t take that extra work of self-promoting, networking, etc.
But if you do have thousands of dollars to spend, there are better things to spend it on (at least at the start of your blog). You should pay for self-hosting, domain name(s), designs, the Jason Fund, etc.
If you do plan on donating to the Jason Fund, I’m actually participating in the Walk for Hunger 2008 in
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to advertise your new blog!
You can use EntreCard to advertise your blog on other blogs for free!
Just like me… I recently have registered a new domain name (BioTecK.net) and I used EntreCard to introduce my blog to the world, from there on it’s all about your content to get more readers and subscribers!
BioTecK’s last blog post..Our Garden
You make terrific points if one is just starting out. Whether it be a Blog or they are promoting something else.
Spending money is fine if you can afford to lose it. That was my first step to creating a blog. Budget comes before everything else. If you haven’t got it DON’T spend it. Loads of free platforms for creating a webpage or a blog.
There are numerous ways to promote without spending money.
Thanks for a great topic and hitting the nail right on the head
Wendy’s last blog post..Interesting Blogs, Where are YOU??
If this is anyway aimed at me, I just been very busy with a version 3 of the website so have taken a back seat for updating the site but have some great interviews waiting to go online. I am still buying reviews and have seen long term benefits of the traffic such as Seach engine rankings, RSS reeds, Newsletter readers and traffic from that site.
You should take a look at thegeekboys.com . That guy had $10,000 to spend, but he advertised in the wrong places, which gave him no return.
-Mike
Mike Huang’s last blog post..Goodbye To Entrecard
Bio - That is definitely a good way, but we all know about Entrecard and the negative(s) behind it as well. But it is definitely good in the beginning!
Wendy - Yeah, I guess you’re like me and don’t have the liberty of all that extra cash from the get-go. And if you ever consider doing affiliated marketing, you do need money and expect to lose money as well.
Michael - LOL! Nah man, you actually have some good stuff on your blog and you get pretty good traffic. You just have the liberty of spending money but then again, you made all that money yourself, so you can do anything you want. I mean, you’re pretty successful if you ask me… plus, one example I gave was about myself.
Mike - Yeah, he was one of the many examples I saw as well. I mean, he did donate to me… but that’s only because I made a small 125×125 banner for him.
Jay
Jay’s last blog post..Spending Tons on Advertising to Start a Blog to Fail Miserably at the End
Blogging is like having your own business, so having a business means watching your dollars. I too, have spent money on Adwords, and it didn’t reap the benefits I envisioned. Your pockets definitely have to be deep to be successful with it because it is not a 1 month thing. Fortunately, Jay, this is how we learned. Now aren’t we all better for the experience?
TeasasTips’s last blog post..Can Google Find The Money In Social Networks?
Ah. Heh. I had a feeling the Jason Fund for your walk was going to be in there somewhere!
Tamera’s last blog post..Anger and Hurt. Personal Development
Points duly noted and well said.
I fully agree with you that there is no sense at all in the beginning to spent money on advertisements just to direct traffic to your site when you do not even have reasonably enough contents to justify it. People tends to ignore new blog in my opinion.
Yan’s last blog post..DatMoney’s “Get Traffic” Contest! Shall We?
It’s true Jay! Pay per click advertising or any other form of paid advertising only helps the big established names.
In fact I believe in the saying that you don’t have to spend money to earn money other than on very important things like hosting etc.
Michael Taylor
Michael Taylors last blog post..Free Website Promotion…Why Not?