Demonetization

Everybody wants to know how to monetize their websites.

I tried monetizing my websites for a while and made a few dollars doing it. But was it worth it?

No, because monetizing often means plastering your websites with annoying advertisements, jarring popups, and sleazy sales copy. You mess up the aesthetics of your sites and draw people away from the stuff that’s truly important—your content. And before you build a large audience, you only make a pittance.

These days, I choose demonetization. I think it’s a far better long-term strategy to give all of your work away until you build a large following. Do lots of work for free up front for a big payday in the distant future, rather than fight for pennies from the beginning.

Having a day job is key. If you have a day job, you’re not desperate to make money from your websites. You’re doing it for fun. Readers can smell desperation on your website within seconds, and it reeks. You would have trouble building any audience at all if you try to monetize from the beginning out of desperation.

That’s why I’m demonetizing my websites, and maybe you should consider it too.

Build, build, build… all for free. Don’t attempt to monetize unless you have a large following.