Vox Political is changing.
The site has been transferred to a commercial host, enabling Yr Obdt Srvt to monetise it – that means we can host adverts and hopefully make a few quid from doing this.
With the blog currently averaging around 200,000 hits per month, and the possible revenue outweighing the amount YOS receives in Carers Allowance by a considerable amount, it seemed silly not to give it a go.
Visitors to the new site at voxpoliticalonline.com will notice that the adverts are intended to compliment the content, rather than clash with it. The idea is to provide commercial options that coincide with the reader’s interests.
However: This is dependent on the actions of the reader. If you click on an ad, that interest is registered and the programs that serve up ads to the site go looking for similar items. This is how they work to keep everything relevant. If you don’t click on any ads, you’ll probably see ads that don’t interest you.
We’re only a few hours in but already the Amazon ads I’ve put up are reacting well to the site, with a book about George Osborne, the excellent NHS: SOS and other relevant items all getting space on the revolving ad.
Google AdSense hasn’t done so well, so far – possibly because the program seems to have insisted on offering mainly financial service adverts. Hopefully this will improve with time.
Of course, you might see no adverts at all – if you have an ad blocker enabled. While you may have done this for perfectly good reasons, may I prevail on you to disable ad blockers when you visit voxpoliticalonline.com? If you can’t see – and don’t do anything with – the adverts, then the site will generate no money for its proprietor and Vox Political will go to the wall. As a reader and support of the site, it seems clear that you wouldn’t want that.
The hope is that Vox Political can transform itself from a highly-read amateur politics site (albeit one written by a professional journalist) into a professional site that makes a living for its author. Here at VP Towers, we’ve been stuck in the benefits trap for too long; this is our chance to escape.
But that depends on you.
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