Add Ads Now or Later?

A question I get a lot and that is even debated around the interent is when to add ads to your site. Obviously everybody has their own opinion, but let me tell you why those with the opinion to add ads later is worthless.

There are numerous arguments for both sides, but the one I like to use is that people can’t complain about something they have never experienced.

There are many stories of successful ventures, companies, or whatever that eventually needed to throw up ads. Customers obviously complained about this because now they had to deal with all these advertisements.

If readers experience your site with ads from the beginning, then they know what to expect and won’t be surprised. Again, you can’t complain if you never experienced it another way.

Proponents in favor of adding ads later in your site’s life say that you should focus on customer experience and building your content and readership before jumping into the world of advertisements.

I see a couple problems with this:

• You are throwing away money. For every visitors with no ads is wasted money. Time is money; visitors is money.
• My previous argument – can’t complain about something never experienced. How will your current visitors feel about the new “ad” experience?

Now I do need to ad a disclaimer to this. Less is more. Do not bombard your visitors with ads, and make sure they are quality ads. Avoid pop-ups and other intrusive campaigns. Less is more.