I started this blog in February 2010 as theblogbyjavier.wordpress.com . Sometime later I purchased an upgrade from WordPress acquiring the domain theblogbyjavier.com (initially for 25 $ per year, a bit expensive, though comfortable), that is why you don’t see the wordpress even if the blog is hosted in WordPress.com .
Among the conditions of WordPress to provide free hosting is that no advertising shall be included in the blog. However, you might have seen some advertisements at the bottom of the posts along these years. “How can that be?” When WordPress mentions no advertising, that means no ads included by the blogger (i.e. me), but WordPress has been indeed including ads from time to time. This is made if the blogger is not purchasing the option “No Ads“, for 30$ per year. I did not purchase it.
Some weeks ago I received an inquiry from a British advertising agency asking whether I would be interested in selling some advertising space. I knew it was against WordPress conditions and this blog is not aimed at being a profitable operation, thus I would not accept the offer. Nevertheless, I exchanged a couple of emails with the agent to know more about the proposal.
The offer consisted of including a link behind a word in one of my blog posts (a single word in a single post). The link would direct the reader to the advertised company. This is what they call unobtrusive advertising (it is funny that at the same time, a Spanish leading blogger, Enrique Dans, also wrote a post criticizing this kind of advertising practices in “¿En pleno 2012 y aún con estas tonterías?“ – in Spanish).
The proposal for that single link exceeded 100 $. This surprised me. I had previously researched how much one could expect to earn via Google AdSense depending on the traffic of a website, and the order of magnitude for a blog with the traffic of this one was below 100 $ per year.
Once I had left the offer aside, I took a look again about advertising possibilities within WordPress conditions, and I found out about a new program: WordAds.
This beta program had been running for over a year. Bloggers could apply for it and they would be accepted into it if the blog met some conditions. I applied. Few days later I got the confirmation that theblogbyjavier.com was accepted into the program as I announced it in Twitter:
The reader, you, will find some ads at the end of some posts. The same that happened beforehand, as I had not purchased the “No Ads” option. The only difference: now, I will earn some cash out of them. I don’t expect (nor intend) that sum to be big, but it will hopefully pay for the 26$ a year that the domain costs now. I will further comment when I start to see revenues.
The Blog by Javier 
Do you know how long it takes for wordads to be approved? I applied and am hoping I am approved. Thanks!
In my case I think it took less than a month.
alrighty. hopefully mine is the same. I don’t like waiting sometimes haha =)
Hello Javier
I was wondering,
do you recommend using wordpress.org if I had intention to put ads?
and do you think blogging can cover the costs of buying domain? (even if it was $1 a year as long as there is no loss it is fine haha) :p
Thank you
Marketer737
I’m curious about this program.. i applied and i’m waiting for a response. The problem is i blog in spanish… so i have no idea about my chances of being accepted… our traffic is pretty decent considering we started less than six months ago…
So, how is it going? You didn’t write anymore about it…
I’m trying to decide if I get a custom domain name for 18 € per year if I have like 6 000 visits a month and my blog is in Spanish (I’m in Spain). Do you think it will be worth it?
I just want to earn some bucks for the time I invest in the blog (bad times economically we are living…), especially from the ads WordPress is putting anyway on it.
Best regards.
With the WordPress Adwords scheme for 6000 visits a month you would receive around 5-8$/month. Nothing to live out of it.
OK, thank you. Better than nothing, I guess. I’ll try it. People just won’t donate…