ONE of the UK's most popular political blogs is Iain Dale's Diary and the man behind it is featured by the Press Gazette today because of his plan to produce a spin-off magazine, see Total Politics: Boldly going where no blogger has gone before.
One of the reasons behind the move is that Iain's site has produced poor returns on advertising, he says that Adsense has earned him £7,000 a year and that advertisers just don't get blogs.
From a blog publisher's perspective, there are a couple of things I would take from the interview and a look over Iain Dale's Diary website.
The first is to recognised the difference between people searching for information and readers who follow a website, either by dropping in on the site, following updates by RSS or leaving comments.
People searching for information are more likely to click on related advertising running close to an article, long term readers don't, but what you do often get from these people is support and advocacy both online and in the real world.
I am struggling to think of 'information' type articles that Iain's site might produce, the underlying principle of a political, news driven site is to break stories and be part of the ongoing media rough and tumble.
This fact is reflected in the Press Gazette article which says that media engagements have earned Iain Dale more money than his site, and that is worth remembering with any site - your online presence can be a valuable thing.
The second thing to consider is the position of Adsense text adverts, in the case of Iain's site I could only see a 'skyscraper' ad block running down a column, this really isn't the best place to run advertising.
There is a big difference in the click through rate between ad blocks in side columns and blocks placed at the foot of articles.
Think about it, we condition people to read our articles with a pleasant, easy on the eye wide column and stick our ads to one side out of the way.
Looking at the ads on Iain's site they at least blend in and use similar key colours, but their position on the site should be looked at and the beauty of such is that you can easily measure the results through Adsense and see if it is something worth pursuing.
It is not easy generating an income from a website using blogging tools, but with an eye on the statistics and the way people use and access your site, it could prove an enterprising endeavour.
Website: Iain Dale's Diary
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