Hi all,
I am using Ghost as a content publishing blog platform.
My content is in the crypto niche.
Currently I am testing for display ads monetization.
My reasoning as that I can’t see why anyone would want to pay to become a member, not for my kind of content anyway but also display ads monetization models are passive and means all I need to do is focus on content, SEO and distribution.
Is anyone else monetizing their Ghost publication, blog or newsletter with Ads?
I pay for a few sites for membership, One here, not on Ghost (yet) allows me to read the weekly researched article and if needed, leave comments.
Ads help I guess if you have traffic and doesn’t interfere with the reading experience. Art of Manliness have a right mix with ads imo. Though certain browsers block ads which can be a factor.
Two alternatives to Adsense are Ezoic and Adthrive, depending on your traffic numbers.
Art of manliness, great site, have not read it in years.
Yes they do get ads right dont they, so does Digg.
I didn’t think Ezoic and Adthrive were alternatives exactly, I see them as service providers that also use Adsense.
I’ve paid for membership for one site off and on, video content, but I just find I don’t have the time to watch it often and so I usually stop after a few months and then go back to it again later.
One of my best friends is a content creator on YouTube, very niche and he has about 30 paid members the last time I checked, around 60 if you counted up all his platforms although I think he said most people that supported him on one platform, supported him on the others too. Thats my only close experience with it all.
I’ve always liked the passive flexibility of ads, although yes they are annoying, I just see them as a more honest method of monetization, in my space at least. There are so many people selling courses, and books, and affiliate this, that or the other and so its hard to sit there and believe people promoting things because they believe in it versus because they are being paid.
For what it’s worth - I used to use Adsense until ~2 months ago. Blog started in 2016, moved to Ghost in 2020. Not a huge blog, but averaging 4-5k visitors a month these days which I’m more than happy with. My best month with Adsense was just under $20, but most months averaged between $5-10.
I’m somewhat in the same boat though, I don’t feel like my content is worth paying subscribers.
Yeah I mean you need like 100k visitors per month as a general rule to even make a few hundred bucks. I am using Ezoic, its completely ruined the appearance of the site IMO but its all a test for the moment. I wish that Ghost offered something in the way of helping publishers actually crank over paying subscribers, they are the experts allegedly.
I’ve used a combination of both. While Adsense can bring a little on the side 300-400 a month, affiliate marketing has worked much better and brings in 3/4x as much. I have had some (very small %) users convert to paying subscribers. All that is on offer is the option to switch off ads and access to comments.