As a blogger, you want to make money for writing, but at the same time, you might be worried about losing reader loyalty and credibility.  Balancing ads while maintaining credibility is a common concern of bloggers.

How do you incorporate ads onto your blog while still maintaining your readership?

View your blog from the reader’s perspective

Pretend you are a reader coming to your blog for the first time.  What do you see?  If you see more ads than original content, you probably have an issue.

Consider also what YOU like to see when you are reading other blogs.

Use Relevant Ads

You should do reviews that are relevant to your readers, of course.  Link to or review products that you feel will actually be useful or beneficial to your readers.  If you want to write about a product that you are not sure about, write the review as you see it, but encourage your readers to provide their own opinion on it.  This also encourages readers to comment.

Write Interesting and Honest Reviews

If you are doing sponsored posts, then think about how you can incorporate the links in a post that will still be interesting to your readers.  Sometimes, depending on the product, you can write a story.  You should always be honest with your readers and state your true opinions on the product.

Don’t hide the fact that you are doing a paid post.  Be sure to include a disclaimer somewhere on your site (or even within the post itself).  Honesty builds trust.

Chances are your readers will be hesitant to click a random link.  To make PPC and PPA type ads effective, you should convince the reader that it’s worth it for them to click it.  Don’t be pushy, don’t sound salesy.  Just be honest.  Don’t link to websites you don’t like – link to ones that you do, or ones that you think are good and helpful, and then just explain the benefits of that website in a short sentence.

Keep Producing Original Content

Don’t litter your site with ads.  You can still maintain originality and have ads on your blog.  Make sure that you post real posts in between your sponsored posts.

Also it helps to have a personal and original layout or theme.  Don’t just use a default theme, try to find a layout that is unique, that appeals to you and that reflects your personality, likes and interests.

I’ve seen a lot of blogs start making money with paid posts and all of a sudden, that’s all they post on their blog.  You’ll lose readers fast that way.

Use Less Ads to Make More Cash

Sometimes you can make more money by having less.  You might think that to increase the chances of readers clicking pay per click ads, you need to include more ads on your site.  But more ads might mean readers are looking at less.  They see the sections of the layout that contain ads, and just ignore it.  They don’t look at one of them.  However if you have two or three ads surrounded by content, they might be more likely to look at that s-ection of your site and click it.

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Ads can be really helpful for bloggers to make money.  If you are just beginning to use ads on  your blog, integrate them gradually into your site.  Start with less and build up.  See what your readers think – if anything.  Many of them are probably used to seeing some type of ads on a blog, which means it won’t be a big deal when they start seeing them on yours.