James Sherrett is leading a session at Northern Voice 2008 on Is advertising killing blogging?:

…we’ll explore how bloggers deal with commercial interests in their personal spaces. My hope is we all get a chance to talk about how we negotiate the personal and the commercial, and what works for each of us.

He’s asked the audience whether or not they have ads on their blogs, and the reasons why:

The Yes Group – Here are the reasons people cite for having ads:

• non-commercial
• contributor
• not for readers/only on archive pages
• to pay for hosting
• salary
• make money
• business
• affiliate sales
• recommendation
• get free stuff from advertisers – given free products in exchange for reviewing
• right fit
• reader tax

The No Group – Why people say they don’t include ads

• fear of rejection
• don’t want clutter
• think it looks ugly
• company site
• confuse motives for blogging
• temptation
• podcast reviews
• neutrality
• don’t think ads should be on sites for kids
• don’t want competitors’ ads
• does it cheapen the site? one person suggests that maybe it affects your opinion of the site before you even consider the content.