

Is it possible to make money off of advertisements if your primary audience are techies? - hashtable

I am planning on starting a website primarily aimed at techies. The problem is that techies are very unlikely to click on ads and use AdBlock, further lowering the probability. Is it possible to make money off of advertisements if your primary audience are techies?
======
iamdave
Honestly, I find the subject matter of the ad more relevant than the presence
of an ad. Partner up with good sites like New Egg or Tiger Direct for ads and
you're bound to get some good numbers. Stick with Google AdSense (and that's
not to say anything negative about AdSense) and you wont see near the same
numbers mostly because

1\. Everyone recognizes AdSense and it doesn't really stand apart from content
(this reflects on how effectively and tactfully place your ad)

2\. More common is it becoming to see Ads on AdSense that point to TLD's that
display no relevant information, or useful data, so people automously ignore
them.

Advertisements are all about the audience, much less the product. Get the
right ads, and you'll see results even with the techie crowd who are more
familiar with blatantly bad advertisements.

~~~
hashtable
That's very interesting, thank you. But how does one go about partnering up
with specific sites like New Egg or Tiger Direct?

~~~
rrival
Become a publisher at <http://www.cj.com/> for New Egg. Become a LinkShare
affiliate for TigerDirect <http://www.linkshare.com/>

------
staunch
If you get to a decent size you can get sponsorship from companies and sell
your own ads. They'll just be images/text on your site with a link to their
site, so you can avoid hitting adblock default list. If the the ads are for
good products people might even appreciate them.

~~~
PStamatiou
I did/do that and while I can sell small ad spots for a good amount (enough to
pay rent at times) it is _very_ hard to find companies willing to advertise a
single-author blog like mine.

------
pg
Very much so: job ads.

~~~
PStamatiou
_cough_ snaptalent..

------
tjr
Possible? Sure. I've put up web pages directed toward programmers, and have
gotten ad clicks.

But you'll probably find a greater click-through rate writing on other topics.

------
ericb
You are right in regards to adsense. Adsense can work as a business model, but
only at a MUCH larger scale than most realize. When you factor in natural ad-
aversion, it raises the the bar for success to a number you will be unlikely
to achieve without a mainstream site.

That said, job ads are a very cool approach. They pay more and in-the-know
managers are willing to pay a premium for elite developers.

