Mr. Financial Freedom Project says:

As a fellow personal finance blogger, I found this topic and the ensuing discussion within the episode quite interesting. I have long respected the stance that Angela from TLRE has taken regarding monetization and being intentional about maintaining a lifestyle blog with hobby status, rather than treating it more like a business.

The ever-popular blogging income reports have led to so many bloggers starting up with the intention of striking it rich quickly that I personally find the more lifestyle-centric blogs which are not plastered with ads and BlueHost affiliate links much more personal, relatable, and enjoyable to follow. I also think taking this stance makes it far easier to build trust with your readership.

I really appreciated Pete from DYEB’s take on both sides of the monetization issue as well, and was glad to hear him present a counter-argument to Lily’s statement that monetizing and treating a blog as a business leads to better or higher quality content. In my experience as a consumer of content from many a blog, once the monetization path is pursued, the quality of blog content is more likely to suffer than get better.

I’ve seen the reader experience decline after monetization due to sponsored posts, Mediavine ads inserted every other paragraph in the body of a post, or a plethora of short-form content that doesn’t add much value to the reader due to the blogger focusing on quantity over quality of posts in pursuit of the Mediavine sessions threshold.

I think monetization can definitely be done without negatively affecting the reader experience. But Angela has my utmost respect for recognizing her personality and what monetization would do to her blogging approach and content, and deciding to remain true to her blogging roots.

I