Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Mrbrown On Advertisements And Blogging

Last week, mrbrown msn’ed me for a quick chat about advertisements on blogs. He’d noticed that I had finally succumbed to placing advertisements on my blog.

Rewind back to early 2005 when blogging was just emerging as an actual word instead of geekspeak. If Xiaxue made blogging famous, then mrbrown made blogging respectable. The Ah Kong of the Singapore blogosphere actually made it okay for people (who had been hiding in closets) to say “I blog”. And so many other interesting people who would otherwise have not, actually started blogs because they were fans of mrbrown.

Ok forget my hero-worship of mrbrown for a minute.

Here is the sorry state of the Singapore blogosphere in 2008 -

1. People start blogs, so they can post advertisements.
2. And why not, they have a plethora of blogger-specialized advertisement companies like Nuffnang vying for their business.
3. When they don’t get their $2.00 cheque in the mail, they moan and threaten to change advertising companies.
4. When they have to pay a $1.00 processing field to get the cheque, they moan and threaten to change advertising companies.
5. They are obsessed with traffic. Blogging is no fun if nobody reads what you write.

The old-school bloggers like me and mrbrown believe in doing things differently. I hope you will change your mind about how you blog after this. In short, a blogger should (a) focus on the content first, (b) the audience later and (c) the advertising last. I’ll explain:

1. Blog because you have no mouth but must scream.
2. Blog even if nobody reads what you have to say.
3. If what you blog is good, you will slowly build a consistent audience. Posting nude pics of yourself only increases traffic for a short time, but you have no repeat visitors. The only way to make people come back again and again is to constantly update with interesting witty shite they can relate to.
4. Once you have an audience than you can consider placing advertisements. If you don’t have much traffic, you can also place ads, but receiving that $2.00 cheque for ads on your blog is really rather sad, don’t you think so?
5. Don’t overdo it with the ads. Nothing is uglier than a blog that is constantly yakking about making money from advertising and is littered with advertisements from head to toe.

So what kind of blogger are you?

Incidentally, checkout mrbrown’s blog - not a single ad since 2005!

I hate hand-writing, and I can read my hand-writing after a while. I don’t keep a diary book for long, after a while, I lost the book.

I keep a blog because
1. I can edit what I have type.
2. To record down my moods.
3. I can even post pictures
4. It will not lost unless I forgot password

No, I don’t need any reader. The blog is meanly for myself.

Aye aye! Couldn’t agree more.

You nailed it.

I’m making such a paltry sum I don’t actually bother anymore.

Hence, my principle of keeping my blog commercial free even if it meant I have to pay an annual subscription to keep my blog-city account.

YAY!!!!!

I am a closet blogger, and got started because you said Hello Kitty have no mouth but must scream. Well I have a mouth but I cannot scream, and its killing me. Until I got me self a blog.
Oh. But I read your blog because I was a mrbrown fan. Yes, “was”, but that’s a whole different story to tell.

Actually after some calculations, I figured if a blogger blog for the cash, he will still lose out because the $ will then be used to pay for the internet bills :D

So factual it actually rhymes!

i’m one of those who blogs coz i haven’t got a mouth but must scream.

and coz it’s a good way to let my friends know what’s happening to me without having to repeat myself. thing is, not all my friends like to read, even though i swear i’m a pretty decent blogger (in my dreams)

and those who do read it, thinks i’m miserable when really i’m just venting to maintain whatever little sanity i have left.