Thousands of Dollars from Blog Ads

I was on an ‘intro for blogging’ call a few days ago. I was listening in because I always like to hear how others explain blogging to newbies. But then the phrase:

$5,000 a month in passive revenue.

Popped up into the conversation. This was mentioned in the same breath with adding ads to blogs – Google text ads and AdBrite. I’m still skeptical about text ads – at least for myself because I don’t want ‘ad-esque’ content competing with my own products and services. I really don’t think my webhosting is unreasonable.
I’m a skeptic with these things – I don’t doubt that highly trafficked political blogs or tech-toy blogs can make considerable dough. DailyKos charges $3K/week for a BlogAds ad. Instapundit is at $2K/wk. I don’t doubt their success – I just don’t think that it is all that easy.
I felt like I was watching those old Don Lapre infommercials:

Thousands of dollars from one tiny classified ad!

I was also disappointed – okay pissed – that there was no mention of Blogger, TypePad or other blog tools – only the speakers blog hosting service which was just a default install of WordPress. There is also a multli-level marketing thing built on top of this as well. Charging $10 a month for his service which I don’t get because for $8/month you get TypePad with their template engine and easy interface or for free you get Blogger. I’ve always shied away from doing hosting for people because I’ve done the ‘on-call’ thing and it drove me batty.
Along with that – the actual content of the talk didn’t begin until 13 minutes into the call. I timed it. That kind of stuff drives me nuts. I’m all for sparkling wit but dump the intros and give me the content. There is another ezine marketing ‘guru’ that does this same thing – jaws on and on about how hard his life was coming to the United States and lo and behold he started an ezine list and his list is his goldmine. Alright Meryl Streep – let’s cut to the chase – the dingo ate your baby… and?
Scott and I were IMing that we should do a call where it is like that game Taboo and each time someone says something non-content related we buzz the buzzer – or tell the listeners to press star on their phone. That or I said I could say I have my cat hooked up to a taser and then get some kitty-cat sound effects.


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8 responses to “Thousands of Dollars from Blog Ads”

  1. Pat Morgan Avatar

    I must have been on the same “Blog” seminar call. I am not as seasoned as Andy and did receive some RSS info that interested me.
    However, I have to concur with Andy, that the seminar was selfishly slanted toward one product.
    I personally use TypePad and after three previous products, it works best for my needs.

  2. Lyle Avatar
    Lyle

    I concur Mr. Sun Bunny!
    I am sick of hype, sick of over blown promises by Internet Marketers.
    Reminds of the glory days of Multi-level marketing. Remember that?
    BTW: Did you see that the producer of the Academy Awards had a Blog?
    Watch out for the waves at Waimea!

  3. Aeriol Avatar

    well frankly Andy I think your just being a bitch. I got some useful tools from that call… He didn’t mention anyone elses stuff because Xeal is his own company… so he didn’t want to hype anyone else… If you’d looked a little further you would have seen that his blog had some positive attributes way beyond what typepad currently offers, such as the ability for people to sign up and join the blog and a blog address book so you can build a list thru your blog… there were a few others i won’t bother to mention here. However, at his site they had no samples of people using their blogs… hmmmm but they are probably brand new.
    Pays to not get your back up and look a little deeper instead of just getting all snarky… after all he was put on the call by a publicist whos job it was to publicize…. taken in context … the extra blah, blah, blah was to be expected… Aeriol.

  4. Cheryl Miller Avatar

    I was on that same call but I hung up at about 20 after. It’s just a bummer to wade through “it’s all about me” intros and content. Yucky Pooh. Glad to hear your eval – I’m glad I didn’t hang in there for more of the same. Thank God for Andy! An interesting person with integrity and talent.

  5. Stacy Brice Avatar

    There was nothing about the call I found helpful.
    I wasn’t even sure the presenter and host discussed the purpose of the call before hand, given how the host kept trying to get him to talk about what she wanted him to talk about, and the presenter wanted to talk about something different. Neither of them seemed to want to go to the topic of the call which was *supposed* to be making money with blogs, right??
    And while I don’t doubt that the host is good at what she does, her “mirroring” URLs and such for the people on the call felt kinda patronizing to me. I guess I have very little patience for that sorta thing. I want quick. I want good. I want to leave knowing something I didn’t know before.
    With this call, I just didn’t.
    Hey — if you and Scott ever do the Taboo game thing, I wanna play, too!!

  6. Samantha Avatar

    Andy, I appreciate the honest review of the seminar. If you pursue it, I’d be interested in hearing more about blogs that really earn money. Keep up the good work.

  7. Cecil Avatar

    Blogging has been aroung for a long time. Tried it for a while years ago.
    It seems I got my first taste of unwanted bugs and viruses and a fatal crash from clicking on the links. I hope the newer programs will be safer to use.
    We just can’t give up trying to git alittle of that piece of heaven can we?
    You would think that conference calling would improve. Duh
    I get sleepy early on and loose all interest.
    Happy surfing,
    Cecil

  8. Rob Merrill Avatar

    In response to Lyle, I’ just have to ask when, exactly, the glory days of network marketing was?

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