Tuesday 9 September 2008

Changes To London Ding Dong

As I mentioned a little while ago, I've been planning some changes to London Ding Dong and you may have noticed some of those changes already.

There are mixed views among the blogging community regarding advertising and, particularly, paid product placement. After six months of blogging, several people pointed out that I was spending a lot of time researching and writing my blog and was not getting anything in return. This is not entirely accurate as I really enjoy my "research" (which, for the most part, I would do regardless of writing a blog) and I also love writing and knowing that my modest number of readers return on a regular basis. However, knowing that I may be able to make a few pennies from my blog is very tempting so I have had a think, done my research and made some decisions.

I don't want to go down the route of writing posts on demand for unknown companies; neither do I want to endorse products that I know little or nothing about. There are plenty of opportunities to do both of these through the wonders of the web but I have opted not to go down that overtly commercial avenue.

I hope what I have decided to do will not "offend" the blogging community and, most importantly, will not alienate my readers. I have placed some banner adverts on here which are all companies or products that I am familiar with, have used and am happy to recommend to my readers. If you don't wish to know more about them then don't click on the banner. If you want to know more then click away and, if you go on to purchase, I will make a few pennies from your sale.

From time to time I may change the banners I display but I promise that they will always be relevant to my blog in some way, they will always be products or services that I have tried and tested and they will all be reputable companies!

Beyond this, I'm making a few aesthetic changes which will take a little time and I hope you will be patient while I concentrate my efforts on getting things right. I'm not the speediest blogger on the net but hopefully the changes won't take too long. In the meantime, if you have any comments or views about the addition of advertising banners please let me know!

1 comment:

Descartes said...

I've never fully understood the whole Purity of The Blog idea myself. I have ads on all my blogs, and have made a few dollars here and there.

I have also written paid posts and sold links of one sort or another.

This is not retire to the South of France money I understand why many bloggers refuse to sell space on their blogs for so little return. But any return is better than none at all.

I have been revamping a couple of my blogs a bit as well-I'm sure you didn't intend for me to give London Thoughts a complete overhaul, but I think it is much better now.

Anyway-Good luck with whatever money making plans you decide to try.

It's all about the keywords you know.