At long last, I have had a chance to swab the decks on this garbage scow of a blog. In a radical move, I've dumped the blogroll over in the left-hand column. This was how we did things back in the early 2000s, when the internet was still run on a telegraph-based electronic chassis. It was a stupid way to link between sites, and I mean that in the technical sense; it was not dynamic. Links sat over there as the source sites mouldered or went off line. No one clicked on them. I have joined the late 2000s by adding the dynamic blogroll, which will take you to newly-updated posts. Two categories, local and not local. You might actually use the new version, and other bloggers will appreciate the traffic.
I'm also sorta halfty considering throwing the adsense widget back onto the site to see if I can earn my $4.93 a year. As a now-unemployed writer, I can't sniff at a potential free pint of beer, even if it is just once annually. The question is: how irritated would this make you on the following scale:
- I will refuse to come here so long as you have that abomination staring back at me.
- I think it's junky, cheap, and lame, but that's the nature of the internet.
- I probably wouldn't even realize you'd added it.
- I love this blog and not only do I support the idea, but I'll click the links so you can earn more money, you big, beautiful genius.
I'd post this as a poll, but polldaddy has gone Wordpress and I don't have the time to find a widget. But I would appreciate the feedback.
As long a it is text and not images, gifs, or, especially, effing flas based rubbish, I'm cool with the ads, as I can ignore them...
ReplyDeleteI vote #2, though your adjectives are a bit strong. I recently described your blog to a beer-lover as noncommercial, unconventional and literate. Cue the Meatloaf song.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll make *FAR* more with either a PayPal tip jar or an Amazon affiliates link.
ReplyDeleteIf you're suggesting that blogrolls are behind the times, I'd say that Adsense should fall right into the same category.
However, if you persist with Adsense, I'm okay with it... With my browser, i won't see it anyway :-)
Matt, thanks for the kind words. Now I have to decide: would adsense violate the "noncommercial" element? Four dollars and ninety-three cents!
ReplyDeleteBrad, I have a low-grade jihad against Amazon, which has been one of the most malign forces screwing authors in the digital age. (Roars one and two.) So no partnership with that devil for me.
Viewed through Feedly, only your words appear. Except you have lured me in to comment. So I might notice the rest. Nope, didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteUnemployed? Perhaps. Out of work? Nope, again, writer of book. It has only begun.
There's nothing at all wrong with ads, so long as they look decent and don't muck up the place. My advice to you is forget adsense and sell your own ads to folks who are willing to support your blog no questions asked. Don't bother with anyone who demands regular positive coverage. You get plenty of traffic. Supporters are out there. If you build it, they will come. You'll make more than $4 a years and you'll feel a lot better about the ads you do have.
ReplyDeleteI knew one blogger (baseball blog) who had quite a following. One month a year he would solicit donations from his readers. He would pull in a grand or so, maybe a bit more. It's like public radio - most won't contribute, but some small percentage will.
ReplyDeleteRe: Your poll; count me 3.5
ReplyDeleteFurther, along the line suggested by Shawn B., consider a crowdsource fundraising drive. For a model see http://darksnowproject.org/. My son's attempt.
#3. Make what you can. Hide text links if people will still pay you for that, too. I am told by the disappearing long standing ad suppliers that Google has sent out emails banning all links other than their AdSense on threat of having the direct advertisers loose Google listing altogether. So get your scraps as ye may. It ain't 2007 anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think you'd do better by soliciting a few local beer-related establishments for ad space rather than going with AdSense. It seems to work for Ezra, so perhaps you should talk to him about what sort of rates he's charging for the 900x120px Double Mountain banner and the various 200x117px ads just below it.
ReplyDeleteIf your traffic is as high as I suspect (especially given the recent posts that have made it to reddit), I suspect you could easily charge $50-100/month for the postage stamps and $200-300 for the banner.
That said, I guess you could put me down for option 4. I don't comment as much as I used to, but this is one of the few blogs I check every single day.
Folks, despite your largely positive response to my thought of adsense, I'm back-burnering it for now. It's junky and won't really do a lot for the bottom line in the old Alworth budget.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely not going to solicit ads from businesses, because that would put me in a compromised position of both writing about and for breweries. I'm not above selling out, but I'm waiting for a better offer than I'll get from ad money on this underpowered little blog.
Chris, thanks for the kind words, by the way--