Everyone wants to make more money off the advertising space they sell off their web site, just one of those things that makes sense. We really can’t charge for premium content on the smaller blogs, nor can we really do much other than the Run of Network ads at various companies like Adbrite, Adsense or AdEngage, so what happens if you have a web site, and go to one of the premium outlets? Just ask Will Wheaton.

I spoke with some people at FM, and while they tried to come up with some creative ways to possibly make it worth my while maybe if I wait it out for another three to five months and wish real hard for a pony, I decided over the weekend that it’s just not right for me. My focus here needs to be on enjoying writing in my blog (the whole reason I started it) instead of worrying whether the ads are running and earning and not being lame. While I feel like I may be leaving a bit of money on the table, a cost/benefit analysis says it’s not worth the constant headaches to try and make it work. Source: Will Wheaton

While most of our sites use Google Ads, and hey 10 dollars a month is 10 dollars a month, over 20 years it adds up right? Many of us would like bigger returns off the space we give up to advertising companies, at least more than 2 cents a click on 2 or 3 clicks a day, the trade off comes in do we worry about it or not. We don’t worry about it, we just sign up for the accounts and let the world take it as it comes, and if people click great, if they don’t click great, we just want them to come read our stuff, leave comments behind and tell us we either stink at what we are doing, or they love it.

Although we also wish that people would really read the articles through all the way, like when we say we love Linux and people tell us we are doing a lot of damage to the Linux community when we say things like that. On the advertising side, we do the run of network ads, and don’t worry about it, and we hope that we do not annoy our readers. At least it is only 3 really visible ads, and 1 on the footer where no one ever goes.

The point of running a blog is to have some fun with it, money is nice and flattering, but that is not why we do it. Really its all about worldview, and the things that we think are important, or are fun to poke fun at like hype. The rush to web 2.0 means that there is a glut of advertising space available on the web right now.

When the bubble bursts and people dump web sites right and left maybe people will be able to command a better price for the web real estate they give up to run ads. But right now with the amount of available space, and the trends towards more and more expensive keywords (nothing worse than putting together a campaign for 25 cents a word then having inflation hit it up to 10 dollars a word) there is no surprise that people who buy ads are being very picky.

Use run of network, have some fun, enjoy what you are writing, and don’t worry about the adventures in advertising that we all experience.