Well, it’s Tech Tuesday once again and I’m finally going to risk writing a TT post. I’ve not done it since Gabe Taviano guest blogged for me and wrote a great post about Digital Disciples, I’ve been too shy of putting my small thoughts on the same tag as his!
Today I have a couple of questions for you – but first, let me get my geekiness out of the way and say that I upgraded my blog from WordPress 2.7 to WordPress 2.8.2 last night and, after a whole bunch of techie nonsense that I won’t bore you with, it went VERY smoothly. Kudos to WordPress for an excellent update system.
Anyway, what it all means is
- The upgrade fixed a lot of things that were broken (like the spell checker)
- It put me in a mood to update all my plugins, which was exciting
- While I was at it, I decided to start playing with a new theme.
So.. My questions to you are:
- What do you think of the new theme? What do you like? What do you dislike? What needs to be changed? Should I just go back to the old theme? (OK so that was 5 questions – don’t be pedantic)
- What do you think of monetizing blogs. If I ever link to a book, I link to it through my Amazon Associates account, which means that if you then buy the book, I earn a small commission. Do you think this is acceptable behavior?
- What about Ads? Not Google ads (I can’t stand them on blogs) but those block ads that a lot of people have in their side bars now. Are they good, are they bad, or do you not care one way or another?
I’m an unpaid pastor and stay at home dad and my jeans just developed a large hole in the back. I normally only get new clothes as Christmas presents – and it’s a long way till Christmas. That’s why these questions of making money from my blog are coming up. How do people feel about it?
I’m really not sure about the whole thing. I don’t blog to make money, I blog for community and to share what God is laying on my heart – but if I can earn enough from it to buy some more $10 jeans without losing the spirit and intent of the blog, is that OK?
Your thoughts please…
You may be asking the wrong person because I too am an unpaid pastor (do get infrequent offerings) who has to work another job. I certainly don’t see anything wrong with it. I do like the sponsor ads and the Amazon links are great. I would probably have sponsored ads on mine if I knew how to go about soliciting such things.
If you felt new people wouldn’t understand, you could create a link to a page explaining why you do the ads and who they are supporting by using them. just a thought.
As for the new theme, I like it but the layout of the sidebars bothers me. Seems like one thing stacked on another and on down the line. Just a small gripe, but other than that, looks nice!
I may try to put some kind of a divider between each section on the side bar to break it up a little. Thanks for the input there!
HEY DOES ANYONE WANT TO PLACE A SPONSORED AD ON JASON’S SITE?
I think the blog looks pretty good, though a bit generic. I think a few small changes would improve the overall feel, such as using gradients on the column dividers. I lo like that everything is clean and easy to read. To often people get way to busy and that is distracting.
I think making money off a blog is a good thing if you do it without being obnoxious. Word link ads are evil in my opinion. You know what I’m talking about. Those hyperlinks through the blog that are actually ads but you never know if it’s a real link or an ad. If you are legitimately linking ot a book youa re talking about then make money on it. There is nothing wrong with that and it isn’t distracting.
Other ads should be weighed based on the level of distraction v. the money you might make v. the people you might run off. Personally I just tune out most ads regardless, but that’s just me.
Hi Nick,
The Theme is one I found, called Disciple, I can move things around in themes and copy and paste new stuff in but doing anything that actually requires skill, creativity or intelligence is quite beyond me! I’d love to add a gradient but I have NO idea how to do it!
Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.
I’ll look at your css and see if I can help you out a bit. You’ll need to make a couple of small changes and upload some graphic files. I’d be happy to make the files for you but it might take me a while. It really isn’t that difficult.
Peter, the new theme is great. Too many blogs are too cluttered and confusing. So the fact that yours is easily navigated is good.
As for monetizing, I don’t think it’s a bad thing as long as it doesn’t interfere with my first comment. A lot of the previously mentioned blogs are also the ones overrun with ads which confuse the eye. Are these important links? Things the author has written? Oh, they’re just ads. Be judicious and it will be a good thing.
Thanks Matt.
I need to add a couple of widgets in, like a search box, for instance but I’m going to keep it simple if possible. I want to have a ‘books I recommend’ slot down the right hand side, but I’m not so sure it will work.
Thanks for your input!
I like this one 10 times better than the last one. I don’t like blogs with ads but it doesn’t matter because I have AdBlockPlus and No Script so I never see them. But I did care when I was forced to see them.
And the Amazon book thing is ok, I would buy one if I had money and was into that stuff.
The major thing I don’t like on monetizing blogs is embed links because they’re just annoying. This is a great choice of theme and I hope you do make enough money to get some new jeans. Mine has a hole in them too, but I can still get away with wearing them 🙂
I wish i could still get away with wearing them, but people started stuffing dollar bills in the hole, it was that big!
Thanks for your input!
So, just keep wearing them for ten days and you’ll eventually have your $10 for new jeans…
VanityofVanities is right ya know…might want to consider that…
And there was me thinking that no-one reads the comments!
Yeah, but I’ll be arrested for indecent exposure before that!
1) I like to change things up on my blog a bit once in a while, too. That being said, when others do it, it takes some getting used to for me. I do think I’ll like it.
2) Fine. I don’t mind at all, especially since you mentioned it. If I discovered it through my Nancy Drew skills, I might find it annoying, but being told right off the bat, it poses no problem for me.
3) Depends on the add. It’s not that they all have to be for Christian books and cross pendants. I do know a nun that has to shut down her blog every so often because someone is advertising (Google Ads) whom she deems inappropriate. I don’t know what the ads are for. She declines to describe them.
Hey Peter –
1) Nice layout. I went mag style for a while but now I’m back to a regular blog look. I like to change up the layout once in awhile – it keeps me fresh. I think someone mentioned it takes the readers a bit to get used to it. That’s probably valid but I have so few readers what’s the diff.
2 & 3) Great if you can have success at it. I’ve never had any luck at it. I rarely click on anyone’s adds so I wonder if anyone would ever click on an add on my site. I guess that’s why I’m not in Sales.
I don’t know if this has anything to do with your new layout or your WP update but I’ve stopped receiving your email subscriptions.
Set yourself up at feedburner.google.com – it’ll be good material for a future tech post.
Grace and peace brother.
Tony
Hi Tony,
I’ve been on feedburner for quite a while now – I didn’t think anyone got email subscriptions…. when did they stop?
Thanks for your input, it’s much appreciated.
Hey Peter –
I did not find a feedburner email link on your site. You directed me to Notifixious for emails. The last one I received was 6/15. I probably ought to switch to google reader anyway. My email queue can get too cluttered.
Looks good. Nice and clean. Probably the first blog I’ve seen with two sidebars that didn’t look cluttered. Like Nick the Geek, I can tune out the clutter, but it feels like trying to read a book with the TV & stereo (anyone still own those?) both on, a dishwasher going, maybe a couple of kids clamoring. It’s a much more relaxing read when I don’t have to tune out visual clutter.
That said, I read most of the blogs I follow in my reader, where I don’t see layouts anyway unless I stop over to comment, and even then I scroll quickly to the bottom. So ads won’t affect me one way or the other. Until they clutter.
So let me se if I’ve got this right, Anne…
You don’t like clutter?
🙂
Thanks for your input, I’m taking it all under consideration!
looks great Peter!