The last two months have been tough. While crafting my dissertation proposal and beginning to finish my Ph.D., I’ve tried to maintain Frugaling and prepare for career plans. Balancing everything has been difficult; thankfully, writing on this site has been a wonderful respite from my normal obligations.
Frugaling has always been for fun. See, I established this site as a creative outlet, break from academic writing, and source of additional revenue. It was never a charitable writing endeavor; albeit, I wanted it to be for good. In the process of writing about my journey to zero debt, I did pretty well for myself. I hustled and was rewarded for it. I paid off five figures of debt in no time.
Eventually, as the site aged and my debt waned, I started to question my values and decision to advertise. With the release of my new book in August, I thought it might be an opportunity to censor the ads. I took a gamble and deleted them.
In the place of ad revenue, I decided to rely on donations and book sales. It never made up for lost ad revenue, but it made a difference. Without those pesky intrusions, I felt free to talk without shame, fear, or question. Heck, I even wrote some scathing critiques of advertising since then!
Cleaning up my site from advertising made me feel good. I felt like I was honoring a value to reduce the urge for consumption. Unfortunately, revenue soon petered out. Despite growing traffic to the site, the revenue continued to plummet. What used to be a stable side hustle, which helped me save and earn despite a tiny graduate student income, was now non-existent.
Over October and November, I paid careful attention to the earnings, and now felt pigeonholed. I had railed against ads, and yet the business might be unstable and unsustainable without some extra revenue from visitors. Perhaps I had gone from one extreme to the other too rapidly?
This week, I reached out to other bloggers and friends to talk about this revenue problem. Most all of them recognized the need and importance to earn something for all the writing and extra work. Simultaneously, they seem to empathize with the wonderful ideal of going ad free. I admire people like Joshua Becker, who go without ads and potential revenue. But I entered an unstable level of revenue for Frugaling. Deleting these felt freeing and exhilarating in a new way, but the revenue loss didn’t allow me to save and earn.
Recently, I talked with a blogging friend of mine about this conundrum. I finally expressed the crux of the matter: I have two values, which are precariously unbalanced right now. One states that I should go ad free and resist anything that potentially encourages consumption. The other focuses on the very real need to earn some revenue from what I do here. Despite trying, donation buttons and book sales haven’t filled the gap.
One value is fulfilled while the other wanes. What’s the solution for this imbalance? This puzzle has led to a surprising number of doubts, questions, and nerves. I’ve felt guilty thinking about backtracking and placing the ads back on the site. I’ve felt nasty about engaging in affiliate marketing. And I don’t have time to create a class, campaign, or course that could potentially bring in additional revenue. School must take priority, but Frugaling shall be an integral, secondary part of my life.
For now, I’ve decided to bring back the ads. They’ll be basic Google ads, which won’t distort my voice or manipulate what I decide to promote. These ads aren’t my favorite, but in an effort to strike a balance between making money and reducing consumption, I’m taking the middle path.
Because of this backtrack, I’ve refunded and repaid everyone’s donations, too. Although their support was deeply appreciated over the last two months, I would feel slimy keeping them. As readers of Frugaling, I’d love to know what you think about this decision. Your support and readership is what keeps my site going. Thanks for listening.
Your friend,
Sam
You do what you have to do! Be practical and we as readers can choose to ignore the ads or notice them as the case may be. It really is up to us whether we look at the ads. Later, when you have time to create classes, write more books (I enjoyed your first one) and do other revenue producing activities you can revisit the ad thing.
I agree. You have the right to change your position on ads now and later. I change my mind about things, too. I’ve been a reader now for about a year and you changing your mind doesn’t affect if I read your blog or not.
Sharon is talking sense!
I don’t have a problem with the ads and I never did. If you can’t afford to maintain your blog without having ads, then have ads. Anyone who doesn’t like it is free to avert their eyes.
Wow, that was fast. Gimme a break, are your ideals that weak? I don’t have a problem with the ads…I would NEVER click on them anyway. Now I really question what you preach, though.
Ideals and ability to survive are two different things. If he had kept the donations, that would be different. Do you like to work for free?
I don’t care if he never eliminated the ads to begin with. I question how quickly he changed his mind when reality set in.
So you would prefer that people never learn from their actions and hold fast to their convictions despite evidence that tells them otherwise?
I would rather somebody have enough conviction to last more than a couple of months before recanting. If he’d come back a year later, ok. 2 months???? Gimme a beak. How much thought or planning went into that decision? None. I can no longer give any any serious consideration to his arguments if that is the extent of his convictions.
Then unsubscribe, and have a nice life!
Greg, it’s almost as though you’ve never changed your mind about anything. I don’t see any contradiction between his desire to be ad-free and his decision to (begrudgingly) give in to the necessity of earning a living.
Just found this post due to a tweet from Modest Money. I got to tell ya for the first post I’ve ever read from here this is an awesome post and I agree with what everyone has said. I think that Ads are such a big problem and finding a balance is difficult. Here’s the thing though because of this post and the internal battle you’re going through it is making me a permanent reader
Your honesty is refreshing, Sam. And there’s nothing wrong with monetizing something you pour countless hours of time into every week. Even if you’ve written about how ads suck. It’s okay to change your mind.
I agree with Kate. You have to be able to keep the site going:) We all have values that conflict at times & it is finding a balance that is real wisdom.
I don’t really generate revenue from ads, but how I’m able to use my site as a platform for other opportunities. If I wasn’t doing it full time though, I don’t know that’d it’d be possible.
A mentor told me if I wanted to reach more people I needed to figure out a way to sustain the momentum which requires monetization. I have been constantly refining that approach. In order to thrive we must survive.
I’ve been reading your blog for about 9 months now, and I also bought your book (loved it by the way!) I, personally, found the ad removal a little bit extreme at the time; I understand where some commentators were coming from in saying that adds are at odds with the general mandate you espouse. But, one of the things I love about your blog, and other NORMAL minimalism/personal finance blogs, is it that it is filtered through a real life and not strictly ideological. Quite often I am turned off other blogs that are so ridiculously lacking in pragmatism and humanity, talking about how people should refuse to spend money in x situation that it can be no different from railing about the price of arugula.
You are also a grad student. I am a Canadian married to an American, and having seen two different post-secondary academic systems (completed my M.A., received funding but skipped a PhD), and so one of my personal political concerns is the screwed up state of higher education. I don’t know if you have ever discussed the cross-section of this blog with the practical considerations of being a doctoral student, but they are two very related social issues. The only PhD student I know who can comfortably live on just his stipend is at Harvard. It’s just not viable in 2015. There’s too many grad schools, too many grad students, too many sessional/non-tenured positions, too many grad students forced to teach freshman classes; too much student debt, too many people going to school who should be learning a trade, etc.
And so this is a long way of saying that I also agree that you should be compensated for your time and efforts. This should not be a perpetual internship where you shouldn’t earn from what you have grown from the ground. You also have a unique voice that should be rewarded. I don’t notice the ads at all, and – frankly – I’d rather you get revenue from those ads rather than me forgetting to donate every payday. So maybe you didn’t think through pulling the ads in the first place. Oh well, people make bad decisions; better to make a bad decision and have to change course than never make a decision in the first place.
I completely understand why you’d want to remove the ads as well as why you’d put them back. Everything in life is a balancing act and I see nothing wrong with either decision. I also admire your choice to refund the donations. With the time and effort you invest in this site, you provide value to others and deserve to get value back from it.
I appreciate your openness including refunding donations. In the end, it’s up to others to choose whether to purchase advertised goods and services. You are not ultimately responsible for others’ consumption so don’t feel bad!
A postscript to my earlier comment based on a conversation with a friend’s son who works in internet advertising. We were chatting about your decision. As he told me, “The internet isn’t free.” That got me thinking. The truth is, we think we’re getting something for nothing, but there’s always a cost. In your case, the cost is having ads on your site. If I had to choose between reading your blog, with ads, or your blog going away, I’d choose the former.
I admire the fact that you admitted your error in judgment. It seems that you gave a lot of thought to your decision…and that’s more than many people do! You have not lost this reader!
I appreciate your thinking through the issues associated with ads. At my site, I determined to only use ads that allowed me to have some control of content. Likewise, since my site shares money saving strategies, I chose to advertise for items that I thought provided a good deal financially for my readers and are usually places I have a history of making purchases myself.
I totally admire your decisions both to remove and bring back the ads. We all have to temper our ideals with reality, and until you try something, as with anything in life, you don’t know exactly what the outcome will be. This was not a bad decision or an error in judgement, simply another lesson learned in life’s continuing journey. Be proud you were courageous enough to make both decisions. I’ll continue to subscribe, ads or not. 🙂
Making mistakes is how we learn. The ads didn’t bother me before and they won’t bother me now. Your writing is on point and that’s the important thing. You need to have income to write.
In a perfect world we would all be free to create a world of minimalism and barter our way through life without having to even TOUCH “real” money!
But in reality, all the minimalist lifestyle choices in the world cannot negate the fact that there are bills to pay and food {no matter HOW minimal} to eat :).
There are Internet costs, and domain fees, grad-student books, ink for papers, and even gas for the vehicles that take you to where you need to be :).
So…ads are a revenue for you because donations are not enough for you to keep this site going. AND this site is a plethora of resources for those seeking to figure out if indeed a minimalist life can be achieved. Which is can…and it is partly because of websites/resources like this one!
Just because there are ads, does not mean you have to link through, right? I mean, it is not as if you are saying “HEY!!! LOOK OVER THERE ON THAT SIDE BAR AD AND GO BUY SOMETHING”!!!
We are free thinkers and able to “Just Say No”!….or click on through and choose to buy something which is NOT the end of minimalism as we know it :).
Hang in there…keep the peace…ignore the naysayers and kuddos to you for returning the donations.
Don’t be too down on yourself. It was brave to try the experiment and the only mistake you made was to draw your conclusions too soon.
I believe Joshua Becker grew his blog without ads from the outset. It’s easy for him to go without ad revenue because he has never had any. Your experiment, on the other hand, was to turn off a large chunk of existing income.
The message given by your respective blogs might also affect donations. Joshua’s message is one of simplicity, intentionality and generosity. Yours is simplicity and frugality. I love both your blogs but I think your audience may be less likely to hit the donation button.
It’s probably worth mentioning the minimalists. I’m not sure many bloggers would have made the same decision:
http://www.theminimalists.com/support/
It just goes back to the whole problem with ads in the first place, the origin and why they work in the world today as well as serve your purposes. You can’t change the ad or consumerism industry just by eschewing them yourself. The reason they get you the $ you need is a problem with consumerism society, not with you. And by participating in any way (writing a blog, reading a blog, scrolling through facebook) we are all giving our permission to be advertised to in today’s world. I thought we’d all become immune until I read your post about REI’s #optoutside campaign! I find similar conundrum’s in my life in trying to be a good recycler and mindful of other resources at the same time (how much water DOES it take to clean the peanut butter out of the glass jar?!?!) You just have to do the best you can with what you have, and no one can fault you for that.
Ihave removed all google ads from my web sites since they just don’t work. Instead of getting few bucks a month from them and wasting a lot of excellent ad space on my sites, I’d rather go ad free and promote my services or accept sponsored posts. They are paying well and are clearly not as intrusive 😉
I’d rather read a blog-with-ads that values transparency than a blog-with-no-ads that does not.
I will gladly ignore the ads if it means continuing to read your blog. It is understandable why you eliminated the ads, but reality means that you need the revenue that they generate. We all make decisions/take actions that we change our minds about through life. That is part of living and learning. Bring back the ads if it means your blog will continue.
People will support you in whatever direction you decide, good on you to be willing to go back to something, not a lot of people would have the strength to do that.
You lasted two months longer than I would have!
You have to do what is necessary for the blog to survive! I’ll keep reading the posts with or without ads.
Your honesty is refreshing and admirable. Honestly, it’s your site and your time and people who don’t understand that people change their mind/learn/grow aren’t even worth it. Your site is great, with or without ads and EVERYONE struggles to find balance. Keep up the great work. Ads don’t make you a sell-out and the fact that you refunded all of the donations proves that even more.
I’ve never had a problem with ads on websites, especially Google ads as they filter malicious ads quite well. I just hate sites that use too many ads (e.g. clickbait sites). I feel newer sites should give affiliate marketing (links/ads) a try until they have a website that has sufficient web traffic to make money with display ads (i.e. Google Adsense).
You should always stick to what works for you and meets your financial needs.
I started blogging a few years back to help pay off student loans (undergrad and grad school) and I haven’t made a killing, but any revenue I generate helps to pay something towards those loans.
By the way, good luck finishing up your Ph.D.!
Hi, but now that I’ve read your blog, learned about adblocker, and installed it. Wouldn’t an advertiser think that your readers all did this, and wouldn’t see their ads on your site?
Regarding affiliate stuff – you can just talk about the products and services that you love and use yourself. I’d be a ton of people would love to learn about what tools and apps/etc you use to better your life/money? Then if they have an affiliate sign up and if not don’t. I have no problem pimping stuff I love and use myself 🙂 It’s when you do it just for the money regardless if it’s a good product or not when you start getting into shady waters…
We’re all in sales whether we know it or not. Hear me out.
When you go on a date you’re potentially seeing if you’re right for each other in a way you’re both selling your own characters and personalities. When you go on a job interview that’s also a sale, you’re trying to sell your skills to the company and they’re trying to sell you why they think they’re a great company.
It’s because of ads that I’ve found my favorite websites, products and services. Where would I be without Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu? Where would I be if I hadn’t heard of my favorite authors and bands? Ads are not evil.
I’m actually relieved that you’ve had this struggle and put the ads back! I too have the struggle and have 3 ads on my blog from google in order to keep the site up and earn a little bit of money. I don’t rail against ads or consumerism but am trying to simplify and minimize. Eventually I would love to go ad free, but for now I’ve chosen to keep them.
Just found your site and I have to say I love what you’re doing in the finance/minimalism space. I am a blogger who makes a full time income from my blog. I try to give my readers all the resources they need to help get out of debt and change their relationship with money. This takes hours and hours of time and the ads compensate me for that time. I don’t see anything wrong with what you did. Another blogging friend did the same thing a few months back and realized quickly, as you did, that the cut in pay couldn’t last. She’s got bills to pay and food to put on the table for her kids. I actually think taking the ads down was a mistake in that it almost devalues your hard work. You deserve to be compensated as do all bloggers who put their heart and soul into helping others.
I’ve just stumbled across your site as I find this issue interesting. It does drive me nuts how many ‘early retirement’ blogs are out there who claim to be “retired” which should technically mean they have no need to make further money as they have a big fat nest egg that is suppose to churn out all the money they need to cover everything they could ever want to purchase or spend money on. It drives me nuts when you go to there blog sites where they preach ‘early retirement’ and find the page full of ads to create money. Many of these bloggers ‘work’ very hard to continue to increase the revenue they receive from there blog, in my mind negating any advice regarding there early retirement. All they have done is changed careers. Your huge nest egg should allow you the opportunity to donate your new found free time to help others with personal finance, if that’s your passion, not look for continued ways to monetize your site and create a new income stream when you have just declared to the world that you don’t need it. I applaud you for wanting to eliminate your ads and from what I’ve seen, your not sitting on a huge nest egg so probably could use some income to cover costs on the site. I won’t be clicking but I at least understand your ads.