sci-fi author, beatmaker

My Experience with WordAds

I try not to blog about blogging too much, but there are a few topics I want to quickly cover. When WordPress featured a recent post in their Freshly Pressed feature section, they also emailed me to suggest that I reactivate WordAds. WordAds is the advertising program available to sites hosted by WordPress. Initially, I had been invited to join the pilot program, and accepted. I turned it off after awhile because of very low revenue, and some weird formatting issues (the ads didn’t seem to be totally compatible with the template I was using). But then, as the Freshly Pressed post was getting tens of thousands of hits per day, I received this email:

Hi there,

I noticed you’re part of our WordAds family, but at some point had disabled WordAds on your blog.

With the recent spike in traffic driving to https://jdmoyer.com/2013/08/14/40-days-without-booze/ you might want to consider re-enabling it, as you could make quite a bit of revenue.

Also, if you deactivated WordAds before because you were having problems, I’d love to hear about them so we can get things fixed.

I wrote back with some questions. How much revenue is “quite a bit”? I received some polite but nonspecific answers. Not being one to like leaving money on the table, I decided to give the WordAds program another try.

Honey Nut Cheerios

After I turned on WordAds, short commercials started appearing at the bottom of my posts. The ads generally seemed like reasonably high quality mainstream TV commercials, interspersed with a few PSA type ads. Nothing offensive and nothing sleazy. Some were even funny.

None of my readers complained (though admittedly my contact form is somewhat buried), and site traffic stayed about the same. I didn’t yet know how much revenue I was earning, but WordAds didn’t seem like a disaster. I’m not philosophically opposed to advertising as long as it’s not intrusive or pernicious (see the previous post for a subtle example of the latter), and I like the idea of making back some of the money I pay WordPress to host this blog (and possibly more; the ad rep had mentioned “quite a bit” of revenue).

Then Kia told me I should turn off the ads. Like, now. She had just finished reading this post about the psychological effects of some artificial food dyes on children, and found an ad for Honey Nut Cheerios at the end of the post. There are worse foods than Honey Nut Cheerios, but at the end of the day my paleo/health/nutrition blog was showing an ad for junk-food sugar cereal.

I left WordAds up for another few days, so I could complete the month and see how much money I had earned. Then I turned them off.

Earnings

I made $162.19 over a roughly 10 week period, based on about 70,000 ad impressions. Site traffic during that time was probably about 120,000 views.

Not a lot of money, but nothing to sneeze at either. Having spoken with people who know much more about internet advertising than I do, that amount of revenue for that much traffic is on the low side. I could probably make more with Google’s AdSense program. However, WordPress hosted blogs don’t allow the option of AdSense; it’s WordAds or nothing. I could of course use the WordPress software on a 3rd-party hosted site, but I really like the WordPress hosting option. The software is great, the prices are reasonable, and traffic spikes are never an issue.

So earnings could be higher, but that’s not my main complaint. If WordPress would add one additional feature, I would turn WordAds back on.

Feature Request

When I’m logged in, I would like to see a small control next to each ad that says “Don’t show this ad on my site.”

That’s it. If WordPress added that feature, I’d be back in.

Obviously advertisers get to choose what kind of blogs they want to display their ads. So why not give bloggers a little control as well?

I think I would use the feature rarely. I didn’t even mind the rum ad. “0K” runs. Sleep yoga. That’s funny!

I have one other gripe. I think the $100 minimum payout is way too high, considering the low amounts of revenue being generated. That’s just a way for WordPress to keep money. As a music label owner I also have small royalties that I haven’t paid out at any given time, but I don’t have a minimum payout. If I owe an artist thirty cents and they ask for it, I’ll pay them. It actually pisses me off, the more I think about. WordPress should just pay their bloggers what is owed. There is no legitimate business reason to make $100 the minimum cutoff.

 Why Do I Blog?

Bringing money into the equation forces me to reevaluate why I blog. Is it to make money? No, the main reason is to help people live well, both as individuals and also collectively, as a species and planet-wide civilization. I also use jdmoyer.com to mouth-off about whatever I’m thinking, and to promote my music releases. Eventually I’ll promote my novels here as well.

But do I like passive income streams? Of course I do! Don’t you? Doing something you enjoy and getting paid for it called getting away with it. It’s one of my main life philosophies.

My alternative to WordAds will be a recommendations page of some sort, where I will link to products and services that I already use and enjoy. Then, if any of the companies behind those products and services want to get in touch with me to run a more official advertisement, they can do so.

PSA

If you use the internet, you should be aware of the plug-in AdBlock Plus. If you don’t like seeing ads, AdBlock Plus will do the trick. I use it in general, but turn it off for sites I like to support (like reddit).

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33 Comments

  1. It would have been nice to hear real money was a popping. But just a few bucks does not raise my eyebrows. I think for all the work a blog should get something, we are therefore writing because of the need to write and that should be enough, yet it does not pay the electric bill? I sometimes wonder why too.

    • WordPress hosting is a service that I’m happy to pay for … zero downtime and the “plug ‘n play” interface are great. Since they are constantly adding and improving features, I wouldn’t be surprised if the WordAds program gets better over time.

      • Curious how much is it a month?

        • The basic hosting is free. I pay something like $13/year for domain name redirection (so my URL is jdmoyer.com instead of wordpress.jdmoyer.com) and there are other services available, like custom design.

          • How do I apply for it? Appreciate your help and knowledge.

          • For WordAds? Not sure but the FAQ is linked above. I indicated I was interested in the beta version early on.

  2. Worth reading it. I just turned on WordAds on my blog http://topbullets.com. But I am not sure I would get millions or thousands of traffic in a quarter but let’s see. Thanks for sharing your experience. 🙂

  3. Really interesting review! I applied for wordads few days back and got approved in 2-3 days, my site http://drambedkarbooks.com/. Let’s see how I progress with earnings 😛 so will decide after one month which way to go… 🙂

  4. Really you inspired me 🙂 I Checked your site.I want to go for wordads. My site is https://allfindout.wordpress.com .Very soon will choose a custom domain and apply for wordads. Please suggest me how to increase traffic. Thanks. 🙂

  5. Wow this review is extremely helpful. Also. Its depressing. Like, hitting the home button on your phone while you’re reading something important depressing. Cough. Not that I did that or anything. Anyways, I’m pretty frustrated right now. I just imported my blog from another site, and completely shut down the site, thinking all of the nifty little features would be nice for my readers. And then this. Look. Look up. You see that? That is my faith in humanity, crashing towards the ground. Not only do they not allow AdSense, they only allow a knockoff version of it that doesn’t pay anything worth your blog space. It reminds me of when the knockoff of phatpharm shoes came out. FatFarms. Sure they sound the same, maybe even kind of look the same, but the money involved are in two completely diffent places. Sigh* I will now exit with my walk of shame.

  6. Thanks for this great article J.D… it will help me a lot as up till now i thought we cant monetize wordpress.com blogs… keep up the good work mate.. cheers

  7. Thanks for the clear answer!

  8. The best bit of the whole piece was when you said ‘the main reason is to help people live well, both as individuals and also collectively, as a species and planet-wide civilization’. If only everyone had that opinion instead of chasing traffic and ad revenue.

  9. I didnt know this about the ads. Going to try for wordads now, hoping they will accept me.

  10. Realy ,your Experience with WordAds is very Interesting…
    I have enjoy it

  11. Thanks for writing this post. Although I do not blog to make money, considering the amount of work and effort I put into my blog, making money just makes sense. Seems like Wordads wants you to have an astronomical amount of viewers for a small percentage of the ads money. I’d even asked a wordpress employee what the limit was to be approved for WordAds and they wouldn’t tell me…Seems like i’ll have to switch to the self hosting, according to this and other research…you’ll make more money for the amount of viewers to your site…Its no way only about 150 dollars was made from 100,000 traffic impressions. At least 250 should have been made, and the 100 dollar min. is a headache and I’m not even apart of the program. Bless you though!

    • Glad you found the post helpful!

      • WOOOoooowwww…. amazing Review… MR.J.D.Moyer… Can I contact with you…??? more just than Commenting in this comment form…??? I Proud with you.. because you are philosophically with your Brain… its awesome… and you are the master of psychological effects in this life… I read your review, and I am Very Happy with this Sentence:
        1. Why Do I Blog?

        Bringing money into the equation forces me to reevaluate why I blog. Is it to make money? No, the main reason is to help people live well, both as individuals and also collectively, as a species and planet-wide civilization. I also use jdmoyer.com to mouth-off about whatever I’m thinking, and to promote my music releases. Eventually I’ll promote my novels here as well.

        But do I like passive income streams? Of course I do! Don’t you? Doing something you enjoy and getting paid for it called getting away with it. It’s one of my main life philosophies.

        My alternative to WordAds will be a recommendations page of some sort, where I will link to products and services that I already use and enjoy. Then, if any of the companies behind those products and services want to get in touch with me to run a more official advertisement, they can do so.

        2. Then Kia told me I should turn off the ads. Like, now. She had just finished reading this post about the psychological effects of some artificial food dyes on children, and found an ad for Honey Nut Cheerios at the end of the post. There are worse foods than Honey Nut Cheerios, but at the end of the day my paleo/health/nutrition blog was showing an ad for junk-food sugar cereal.

        I left WordAds up for another few days, so I could complete the month and see how much money I had earned. Then I turned them off.

        Earnings

        I made $162.19 over a roughly 10 week period, based on about 70,000 ad impressions. Site traffic during that time was probably about 120,000 views.

        Not a lot of money, but nothing to sneeze at either. Having spoken with people who know much more about internet advertising than I do, that amount of revenue for that much traffic is on the low side. I could probably make more with Google’s AdSense program. However, WordPress hosted blogs don’t allow the option of AdSense; it’s WordAds or nothing. I could of course use the WordPress software on a 3rd-party hosted site, but I really like the WordPress hosting option. The software is great, the prices are reasonable, and traffic spikes are never an issue.

        So earnings could be higher, but that’s not my main complaint. If WordPress would add one additional feature, I would turn WordAds back on.

        ….

        Excellent…!!! Excellent….!!! Excellent….!!!
        You Teach me about life philosophies….

        and…
        You Teach me about WordPress philosophies/WordAds philosophies/Blogging philosophies…
        ..
        why…???
        Because many people, some people, several people, they Write, they Post, They Blog, They create a site, no more than just for Earning Money, Earning Money, and Earning Money ONLY, What….??? unbelievable, very unbelievable, and Hard to believe, and very very Extraordinary…
        ….

        Thank You Very Much… ^_^
        and…
        see you next time…

  12. Sadly paypal payment is not supported in my country Nigeria

  13. Thanks for the post abour wordads. I am new to Wordads

  14. Thank you for writing this! I had been interested in applying for WordAds, but it was hard to find any information about earnings. After reading this, I think it probably won’t work for me.

  15. Nice post via @uzomedia

  16. Thank you so much. This was really helpful.

  17. What is the number of views after which WordAds officially sent you an invite to join the program?

  18. Thanks for sharing such a great post. I’ll apply for my website http://www.dilkikitaab.com . Let’s see how much I make. 😉

  19. thanks for the wisdom!

  20. derbalmourad747485510

    i have just add it in my blog lets see what will happend and will share it http://www.elkhadra.com/fr/

  21. Ad publisher

    Wordads is a big time scam.

    Pageviews: 90K
    #of ads in a page: 4 (header, below post, 2 in sidebar)
    Ad impressions: 13k (Which I really doubt but told so by wordads)
    Amount paid for 13k impressions: $1.45

    Willing to provide screenshot.

    Stay away from this scam or be willing to flush your money down the drain.

  22. Recently got asked by wordads to join in, still negotiating and considering what to do reading all these comments,
    The site is one of the best anime downloads website at https://animekaizoku.com

  23. Now I think I won’t plan to upgrade WordPress.com. Adsense is better.

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