Advertising on Chuqui 3.0

Astute readers will note there’s advertising on Chuqui 3.0; this is the first time I’ve put advertising on my blog or other sites that I manage, other than some early experiments on siliconvalleybirders.org.

I’ve always self-funded my online presence, but I’m now taking the step of starting to try to earn my income off of my writing and photography. It’s a long-term goal, and Adsense isn’t likely to generate that kind of income, nor do I expect it to.

I do, however, intend to explore advertising and sponsorshop options as they make sense, and one thing I’ve seen in the past that I want to avoid are the grumbles and fights that occur when a site builds an audience or community and then springs advertising or fees on them. I happen to think those grumbles are somewhat justified — so besides starting this experiment with AdSense, also realize that it’s my statement that advertising is going to exist on the site some for or another. Since I seem to be the last person in the universe to decide to monetize my writing online, I doubt this will be a show stopper for many, but at least I’m upfront about it.

For the record: at this time, I’m not accepting advertising or sponsorships. I want to focus on content for now, and decide what makes sense — as well as understand the audience and what works for them, and how big it is so I have some idea what rational valuation for this might be.

What I will pledge is that this site won’t ever look like a damned pinball machine; I”m not interested in running a site where the flashing graphics can cause seizures or the content is hard to find because of the advertising. The content and the audience have to come first, not the raw need to generate any kind of revenue — because I feel that a lot of those “bottom scraper” advertising packages drive away the kind of reader I want to attract. This is a long-term investment for me, I’m willing to be patient looking for the proper way to both make this an interesting and attractive place for readers and a viable place for advertisers.