While I was busy "rebranding" the layout of my posts one of my ideas was to add promotional banners for projects I support like Make-a-whale and Qurator. It occurred to me that during all my time on Steemit I have never seen anyone displaying ads in their posts.
I don't think that it is against the rules and it struck me as odd that no one has ever come up with the idea of generating more revenue by placing ads in their posts.
Being the entrepreneur that I am, I reached out to Umbrella Corp, aka the most evil company in the World and asked them if they would sponsor this one post. If it turns out to be a success, they will sign me up and sponsor my account with Steem Power for the coming three years.
Umbrella Corp. is widely known for developing the t-virus and turning people into zombies. You can find more about the Umbrella Corporation here.
The very obvious upside to ads in your blogs for the author is money. You can earn some extra cash by displaying ads or writing positive reviews about a company or product.
In this case there is no denying that Umbrella corporation is one of those companies that has nothing but good intentions and is willing to do anything for the improvement of mankind. If I get paid in the process of broadcasting their positive message, well that's a win-win situation.
There are some downsides however, although some minor ones.
When you are paid by a company for promotion, what does that say about your objectivity? It might seem to your readers that you are just another money-grabbing sell-out that will do anything for a couple of bucks.
Also ads can impact the quality of your blog, they can be quite distracting and divert the attention of the readers away from the message you are trying to send. As a blogger you are constantly trying to capture your audience's attention and advertisement can get in the way of that.
Most importantly, unless you have a sweet deal like mine with Umbrella, chances are that monetizing on the ads (by clicks) can be painstakingly slow.
Even if the idea of generating some extra income through ads seems tempting, the disadvantages outweigh the upside(s). Especially on a platform like Steemit is seems obvious that there is no place for advertisement.
Authors do write positive reviews about products or services but those are things they really believe in or support and not because they are being paid to do so.
There is one type of advertising however that I fully support and that is the advertisement of fellow authors and projects. like.....
Disclosure- There is no advertisement deal. Umbrella Corporation is a fictional company from the Resident Evil games and is responsible for turning a large part of the human population into zombies. Definitely not people you want to promote
Read more about: Umbrella Corporation | Why ads are bad for bloggers |
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