Having good web traffic, you might want to sell ads on your blog or website. That’s, getting paid for displaying ads. While there are many options regarding web ads, the story with WordPress.com is a little different. If you’re not hosting on WordPress.com (up to premium plan), please refer to “Web Developing Issues” from my old post “How to leave Google” for some alternatives.
Now, let’s talk about WordPress.com…
Sell ads on your blog directly
Simple, effective, and it doesn’t affect performance of your site/blog. You can sell link advertising such as side banners or links/banners at the end of posts. Or, you can sell promotional or marketing posts such as reviewing products or services.
WordAds
WordAds is managed by WordPress itself. They are banners in header, sidebar, and below or in between posts. These positions vary from theme to theme, e.g., some themes don’t support top banners. Videos are another type of ads that are being served below or in between posts (I haven’t noticed any video ads lately). As a premium user, you have the option to hide those ads or to get paid for keeping them displayed. Upgrading to Business Plan – Check WordPress Plans, you have more tools to manipulate this.
Yet I believe that I optimized my WordPress to the max, PageSpeed Insights analysis shows a decrease of speed and thus performance when ads are on. The good news is that logged-in users may not notice this as they already have some components cached locally on their computers.
Google AdSense
My tests showed generally better performance scores when I used Google AdSense instead of WordAds. To use Adsense with WordPress.com, you have to be on their Business Plan.
The issue is that to comply with laws and privacy policies regarding advertising (and statistics), extra setups might be needed such as consent messages. Showing these messages involves extra scripts which affect the site’s performance negatively. While you can delay executions of scripts related to ads to enhance site’s speed, the revenue might be affected. In WordAds, these messages are part of the system and its effect is almost included.
Summary
Displaying third-parties ads is actually affecting the performance of the site. To minimize effects, avoid ads on homepage and on top of the pages. Further, use only one advertising system. If you’re able, use one unified consent messages system. Try to have the scripts at the footer of your pages; some might argue this is similar to deferring the script, but personally, it worked fine with Adsense/WordAds.
Should we scarify the ads’ revenue for better performance? And the important question is: Do you sell ads on your blog other than Google’s or the ones provided by WordPress? Let’s know; I’d be interesting in advertising with you 🙂
Thanks for the good advice. Very kind of you to put out this information.
You’re most welcome, Sue. I’m glad it was helpful.
Nice info!
For me, it’s been two months on Google adsense and I barely get views on my blog! Please give me some suggestions to get more views…😄
You have nice blog Abhijit and interesting posts. I believe regular posting, sharing to social media, advertising, and engagement with other bloggers drive traffic and more views. Good CEO considerations (this is mostly taken care by WordPress) is plus… You may also like to read my post “Why it’s important to share links on Google+”.
Sure, thank you so much for your suggestions! I have exams going on, that’s the reason why I didn’t write for some time now…
I do not have a lot of traffic at the moment but this is certainly something to consider. Thanks for sharing
You’re most welcome. I enjoyed reading your posts and I can see that you’ll have good traffic soon.
Thank you! I’m certainly looking forward to more of your posts. You are great inspiration. Please keep up the great works my friend🙏🏽
Mohamad, your site loads fine on my end. Also, I think my ads appear in the posts, but not on the home page. I haven’t noticed a slower load time, at least not yet.
Thank you very much for the feedback. As for your wonderful site, yes. Ads locations differ from theme to theme. The location in yours is the posts only. Glad to know that you’re not having problems with ads.
Hi Mohammed, thanks for your write-up. Although, I can’t relate to it because I’ve not started having ads on my site. Already applied twice to Google adsense but got declined. I want to know of there is anything I’m not doing right on my blog, traffic is quite okay for a month old blog. Is there a particular criteria I’m not meeting up to?
Could you please give me a feedback as I’ll be hoping to get a response from you. Thanks.
http://www.hangingwithmay.com is the name of my blog
I don’t have clue regarding traffic. I believe it’s an important factor though. Please refer to AdSense conditions and policies: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/48182?hl=en – mainly, the contents policies. I checked your site; I haven’t seen section for terms and privacy policies. You may also check the design too as Google won’t accept very slow sites – you may use: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ for this purpose. Anyway, don’t worry. In addition to Google AdSense and WordPress WordAds, there are a lot of alternatives as mentioned in “Web Developing Issues” on: https://mohamadkarbi.com/how-to-leave-google/
I wish you good luck.
Thanks for your input. I have a privacy policy page attached as a footer in my page. I’ll visit the links you sent for more clarification. Thanks again
You’re most welcome. I wish you all luck. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance
Will surely get across to you if I need any help. By the way, is there an email address I could use to contact you?
For sure, any time. You can reach me through contact page…
Really helpful
I’m glad this was of a help… Thank you
Thank you for sharing this info. What would you say is a desirable amount of traffic for a beginner to achieve before deciding to run ads?
You’re most welcome, Tracey. I don’t know what is the suitable traffic’s with WordAds… I have around 100 – 200 unique visits per day. My WordAds is generating around $1- $4 per month.
Thanks for that info. I still don’t know what I don’t know and am learning more constantly.
Welcome… Please let me know if I can be of any assistance
Hello Mohamadkarbi, I would like to inform you that I have just nominated your blog for The Sunshine Blogger Award. Best regards, Amela.
What a great honor and pleasure you’re giving me. It means a lot to me. Thank you Amela.
Thank you for the details. This helps me on my learning process on how to monetize my blog.
Great article