Pimping Out Blogs

Dakin mentioned this in his post today. Since I've got a little bit of time and the pre inauguration drivel is making me want to jump off the balcony and just see what happens.

I have no issue with people trying to make a bit of cash off from their blogs. We should all try to make as much cash as possible in these trying times. Adding a header and some side adds is easy enough. Making an amazon store and adding a donate button isn't a big deal. I think it should be called a give me money button though. To me donations go to the red cross, salvation army, food bank, etc. I think the term donation can be misleading in that context. The only time it pisses me off is when the pandering totally distracts from content.

One thing I have a big issue with is when adds and content get blurred. If I can't tell the difference between you saying that you think this is a good product and the fact that someone paid you a nickel that is a problem. Of course you can and should promote products that you like but MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THEY PAY YOU MONEY! Full disclosure people.

If you are looking to make cash I particularly suggest the amazon stores. I think you put certain stuff in yours and much more importantly (I believe) if someone starts there and finds something else in amazon and buys it you get a commission. This summer I bought a nice fairly expensive water filter off of amazon through Rangermans store because it would give him a couple bucks and doesn't cost me anything.

I do not do any of this stuff. Had adsense for a week or two but ended up just getting rid of it as it screwed up all sorts of other stuff. Never bothered to make an amazon store or anything like that. We three guys have talked about making some forays into this arena. I said that whatever they want to do sounds fine to me. I also said that splitting revenue equally would be fine though they thought I should get a larger share as this is pretty much my baby. If somehow this thing of ours explodes in popularity and we get more hits then every site that has the word sex in it combined I will really regret that.

Guess for me this is a hobby. If my goal was to make more cash I would deliver pizzas or something. I don't know exactly how much of my time goes into this stuff but it is a lot. Maybe if I realized that the blog made me .09 cents an hour it would somehow cheapen my hobby to an insanely crappy job. I also like looking at this as a hobby.

On a side note life is going to get busy again next week. I will write as much as possible but there are going to be some weeks where I will be absent. If possible I will try to set up some autoposts so there is something every couple of days.

Time to nuke last nights leftover waffles for breakfast.