# Should I run ads on my programming blog? DevFeed: [Should I run ads on my programming blog?]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2015-01-24T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Danluu]() Topics: [API Business Models]() Tags: [a-b-testing](), [analytics](), [blog-monetization]() ## AI overview The author weighs advertising on a programming blog, considering potential revenue alongside effects on traffic, reader behavior, privacy, and personal incentives. Later updates describe ad-blocking rates, a payment problem with Carbon Ads, and the author's shift toward trying Patreon donations. ## Source excerpt Does it make sense for me to run ads on my blog? I've been thinking about this lately, since Carbon Ads contacted me about putting an ad up. What are the pros and cons? This isn't a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely interested in what you think. Pros Money Hey, who couldn't use more money? And it's basically free money. Well, except for the all of the downsides. Data There's lots of studies on the impact of ads on site usage and behavior. But as with any sort of benchmarking, it's not really clear how or if that generalizes to other sites if you don't have a deep understanding of the domain, and I have almost no understanding of the domain. If I run some ads and do some A/B testing I'll get to see what the effect is on my site, which would be neat. Cons Money It's not enough money to make a living off of, and it's never going to be. When Carbon contacted me, they asked me how much traffic I got in the past 30 days. At the time, Google Analytics showed 118k sessions, 94k users, 143k page views. Cloudflare tends to show about 20% higher traffic since 20% of people block Google Analytics, but those 20% plus more probably block ads, so the "real" numbers aren't helpful here. I told them that, but I also told them that those numbers were pretty unusual and that I'd expect to average much less traffic. How much money is that worth? I don't know if the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) numbers they gave me are confidential, so I'll just use a current standard figure of $1 CPM. If my traffic continued at that rate, that would be $143/month, or $1,700/year. Ok, that's not too bad. But let's look at the traffic since I started this blog. I didn't add analytics until after a post of mine got passed around on HN and reddit, so this isn't all of my traffic, but it's close. For one thing, the 143k hits over a 30-day period seems like a fluke. I've never had a calendar month with that much traffic. I just happen to have a traffic distribution which turned up a bunch of traffic