I am a firm believer in you have to do what works for you and not worry about the reaction from the rest of the world. And that applies to blogging to in a way. Of course you want your readers to be happy! But, you can’t make all of the people happy all of the time, and some bloggers are looking to earn a living by blogging, and some people are just trying to make ends meet in the current economy recession.

Whatever you’re reason for putting ads on your blog, you don’t have to explain them to anyone. If ads are new, a lot of bloggers do like to give a quick reader shout out announcing the change so that no one takes offense. This is a personal decision, and you know your audience better than we do.

There are several paid blogging and review companies out there that you can join and get great ideas and writing assignments from. This past year a lot of bloggers were highly criticized for using the splash page ads from one such company. I didn’t mind the ads, they were a quick layover on the homepage of the blog and then they were gone. They were considerate and used a 7 day cookie so that the blogs I visited frequently didn’t “splash” me on every visit.

This morning something drew me to visit what some might consider an a-list blogger. I’m not naming names or pointing fingers here, after all they’re big and important they have enough link juice. Anyhow, the point is I was greeted by …. a big splash page ad. Not even a layover on the blog itself, but a full on nothing on the page except a big old flash ad for a service company. Yup. An a-list blogger used a technique that smaller bloggers were criticized heavily for.

Is anyone making fun at this big blogger? Of course not. Is anyone telling them to get off the internet? Heck no. (Well, I’m sure they get their fair share of hate comments as do all bloggers big or small.) In fact I’m sure other big name bloggers are trying to figure out how to mimic this blogger’s success and making the most of their advertising space without offending their readership.

You have to do what works for YOU! If text link in your sidebar put food on your table month to month, then link them up! If a banner ad across the top of your home page will put school shoes on your kid’s feet, than by all means add one! If including affiliate links in your blog posts helps to keep your electricity on, then point me towards to the major shopping deals.

However, it can be easy to get carried away with your advertising efforts. You can copy and paste your way right into a smaller readership if you go overboard with the ad placement. Keep it minimal. One to four ads per page is average depending on their size. Of course you don’t want four leaderboard sized ads on every page. Space them out, try different placement locations and use ads that fit in with your site, both in color and in topic.