Advertising on Nonjatta

Some readers may have noticed the appearance of advertising on Nonjatta over the past few months. I have not yet had any negative comment about it, but I feel I need to level with everybody, both readers and contributors, so that everything is above board.

As a journalist, I have never had any problem in principle with putting advertising on the site, just as there is advertising beside virtually every article I contribute to newspapers and magazines. Until this year, however, no one had ever approached me to advertise in a way simple enough to make it worth my while to do it. I did not want to get involved in Google AdSense deals etc., because that seemed to be selling the site`s very specific and dedicated audience short and allowing a multinational to skim off most of the revenue. Also, until this year, there were no costs associated with actually publishing Nonjatta, except for the very significant amount of time taken by writing and editing the site and the considerable costs of buying whiskies to review (not such a hardship, but quite expensive).

I now pay the fees associated with the new non-blogspot URLs (principally, from the reader's point of view, nonjatta.com, but also other URLs and hosting extras) and, out of an odd point of professional pride, there is something in me that baulks at running a site that is losing money on its publication costs.

Some supportive companies have agreed to put adverts on the site that do a little bit more than cover those publication costs. I am not talking large sums of money here. Let me be specific: I am currently charging 30 US dollars a month for a small box advert, which is clearly distinguished from the non-paid content and contains a text link to the advertiser. I ask the advertisers to pay in blocks, one year in advance, and will only put ads in certain locations. I continue to abide by the same Drink Blog Code that I signed up for in 2007. I do not push products in posts because of advertising and I have not gone around touting for this advertising. All the advertisers have come to me.

I should acknowledge that there is an important issue here as regards contributions to Nonjatta. Everybody who has written for the site has gone unpaid [1]. The whole site is essentially based on a group of people generously donating their time and expertise for no reward other than the satisfaction of spreading the word about Japanese whisky. That goes for me too and it continues to apply. If I ever started thinking about the sort of fees I would be charging as a journalist for the hundreds of hours I have spent on Nonjatta, I would probably give it all up immediately. As you can see, the amounts currently being yielded from the adverts are really pretty small. The current yield is a little bit more than the hosting and redirection fees but, if I took into account the cost of buying the whisky that I do for the site and the travel necessary for some posts, there is still a big loss being made at my end. Tastes nice though!

If anyone has any questions, comments or problems with this new departure, please send them to me at japanesewhisky [at] gmail.com.

If you do not have a issue with Nonjatta starting to carry advertising, why not check out the advertisers? They are helping to support this project.