¶ Make Money on the Web
A couple of years ago I thought I’d spend a bunch more time fiddling with this blog and I thought I’d say some topical and constructive things. I thought I’d write every day and that I’d build a dedicated readership who would make me a regular part of their lives. I thought I could write a popular blog and be a successful grad student at the same time. I quickly discovered I was wrong.
When that realization came to me, I changed the site’s busy layout to this nice — somewhat stark — version we have now. The ads (yes, there are ads) were hidden behind an expanding link to the right. Yes, that one over there: the one that says “[+] ads” that you’ve never clicked on before. I didn’t want to sully my nice clean layout with something as crass as advertising. It’s all so ugly.
But it is still there. The thing is Google Adwords sends out a check every hundred dollars. For the past year, I’ve been hovering at just about $95 dollars: just five measly dollars short of actually seeing some money from my website.
I’m torn, frankly. Part of me wants to get the hundred bucks and then kill the link. Make a clean break from capitalism and go forward in my blissful academic bubble. That would be nice if only for the moral superiority I’d get from being above the whole money thing.
Another part of me wonders if I should rejigger my site where ads wouldn’t seem so out-of-place. I wouldn’t mind having an extra hundred bucks every six months or so. Is that too much to expect? Yeah, yeah, I’d have to write more. But look: I’ve been good the past few days at least. I might always discover some heretofore undiscovered discipline that makes blogging a useful part of my daily routine. It seems to work for SEK and Adam Kotsko. SEK has finished his dissertation (I think. Or at least he was offered a job. Which means if he hasn’t finished, he’d better), and Kotsko just successfully took his quals. Couldn’t I do the same?1
I’d promise to use that money for no good purpose at all. I’d buy stuff for my bike. Or books. Or books about bikes. Nah: there’s only “one book vaguely about bikes”: I’d buy, the rest would probably be more renaissancy and drama-y. And bike stuff (I need some panniers. Actually, I need an A. Homer Hilsen, but that’s going to take a few years at $200/year).
I dunno: clean, pure and ad-free, or should I embrace commerce and schlock it up for a mess of pottage? Oh, and while you’re thinking about your answer, why not click on one of the ads to the right? (Yes, you’ll have to expand it by clicking on the word “ads” in order to see those ads. I am still partially-pure. My own indecision is a wonder to behold.)
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1 Yes, I recognize that neither of those guys has seven children nor a calling to administer to the spiritual needs of a large group of men and their families. Whatever.
26 June 2008
# Comment by jhw on Jun 29, 04:04 PM:
I’m so very glad I clicked on those ads. There was one for that sexual addiction book I’ve been wanting for ages.