Monetizing feminist blogs - BlogHer ads

by Jennifer Kesler on August 27, 2007

I was just going to privately share this with a few feminist bloggers since it’s off-topic for this site, but what the hell? It’s worth sharing.

If you’re a feminist blogger who wants to make some money on your site, you’ve probably already discovered it’s not that easy. Oh, as soon as you indicate most of your audience to be female, the weight loss and dating sites want to plaster sleazy-looking ads with half-naked seductresses on your site. But if you eliminate those choices, people don’t exactly line up to place ads on a site “for women”. Especially feminists.

Google Adsense is a disaster: their keyword based system likes to flash up ads for the stuff you’re criticizing, because all their bots know is what words appear on your site.

I’ve finally found something that’s working rather well on this site - not surprisingly, it’s BlogHer ads from BlogHer (see the right sidebar). They’re not afraid of the feminist market: in fact, the reason I’m writing this (no, they didn’t pay me - it was my idea) is that they’re looking for feminist bloggers (I recommended a few of you, so you might hear from them before you read this).

The BlogHer ad is generating considerably more revenue for this site than anything else I’ve tried. The ads look professional; they’re relevant to the audience’s interests; they’re inoffensive; and you can opt out of any ad you don’t want to serve up. You’re paid for impressions, not clicks and not sold ad space - which means all your visitors have to do is show up. That’s one thing feminist bloggers can guarantee - a big audience. Just think: even your trolls will be earning you money.