Are you a purist blogger? If you were in Chinese actress Xu Jinghei’s shoes (after you stopped rubbing your giant feet), where your blog went from zero to 11 million visitors in just 5 months, would you have a problem with placing ads alongside your periodic musings? Ms. Xu is unsure, says she’d like to keep her blog a “comparatively quiet place.”
Some of us with more starving artist tendencies would rather be more of a “prophet here” than a “profiteer,” speaking out of a divine sense of right and purpose than for monetized goals. After all, nobody likes the blog spammer-the Devil of the blogosphere. There’s something very impure (and annoying) about misusing such a valuable medium.
The more utilitarian of us enjoy the free speech soapbox, but would have no issue with making a little extra money to go along with it. For most it seems to be this way. The blog is a hobby with a potential side benefit. They may slap some AdSense code on there as an experiment to see what happens, and if it doesn’t do anything, that’s okay.
There’s still debate over who really benefits from blog advertising. The advertiser may certainly benefit-more exposure is more exposure. The blogger, though, may find it an exercise in false hope, as few of them generate any significant revenue.
Sina.com, the sixth most visited website on the Internet says the New York Times, has no current plans to place advertising on blogs. The company joins the Camp of the Uncertain.
“There’s no commercial use of blogs on Sina today, and whether there’s going to be in the future is not clear,” said Meng Xiangpeng, a company spokesman.
Some may predict though, if company’s like Sina don’t get in the game and start monetizing their online properties, they may be kicking themselves down the road when they notice all the potential income lost. That is unless, Sina.com is run by monks. Judging by their nearly $200 million 2005 revenue though, they’re not.
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