Advertising on Lemonade

I recently read a post from a fellow blogger about how she was tired of people asking her to advertise on her blog, in ways that were not completely transparent. Without getting into the details of her post, it seems it may be time to clarify Lemonade's advertising policy.

Advertising is not something I am proud of, but it is necessary in order to allow Lemonade to continue. Maintaining a large website is time consuming and costly. Most of the time, the advertising does not cover all of the costs, but it does help offset them somewhat. I am determined to offer the resources for free so that those who need them most can benefit. I have also not included a donation button (which may happen in the future). Each of the experiments and resources has been tested by our family at least once. In addition, I have created/developed many recipes, crafts, games and experiments completely from scratch.

Although it is not entirely ideal, I only use Google Adsense, mainly because I find it easy to deal with. I spend a lot of time filtering out advertisers who I find unsuitable, such as formula companies, diet/weight loss schemes, diet supplements, religious recruiting, etc. While I can shut out ads by category, there are limits to the controls I have with Adsense, and occasionally I miss some.

One thing I promise to do, however, is to keep all advertising as transparent as possible. I will never embed ads for items in the text on the blog or website; anytime I mention a brand or product (which is very rare!), you can rest assured that I do so because it works for the project I am describing where others may not. I have never been reimbursed in any way for recommending a product, and I refuse to do so in the future.

All ads on Lemonade occur on the sidebar or in the header or footer area. On the blog, they also occur between posts. Each advertising box is labelled as google ads. I also have a google search bar which can bring in revenue if someone chooses to do a search, follow an external link from my site, then make a purchase. On my blog I also have an Amazon sidebar, but no one has ever clicked on anything there. The books featured are ones I have chosen, and the only compensation I will receive will be if someone chooses to buy from that link.

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding advertising on Lemonade (or anything else about this blog or website) please share them below, or email me.