Ads On This Blog

Back on the 100th post contest I had a bit of a surprising topic suggested by Canadian Money asking what I thought of the ads on this blog and were they worth it. I say that is surprising to me since I had never even thought about that as a topic you the readers would like to hear about.

I currently only run Google Adsense ads on my site in three locations. One is on the far left column, one on the far right and one at the top of the middle post column. For those of you not familiar with the program let me give you the basics. For each click on those ads Google pays me a tiny fee which varies depending on what the advertiser wants to pay. Some of the rules involved are I personally can't click on any of my ads for any reason. Also I am not allowed to ask you the reader to click on an ad in any of my posts. Basically the ads are there, but there is no obligation for you the reader to read them or even ever click on them.

In my opinion I keep the ads for two main reasons. One the income for the ads provides me with a minor sense of obligation to get out of my bed early every week day to write these posts. I consider this blog a part time job where I am getting paid (although the pay per hour is well below minimum wage). That minor extra motivation really helps some days in the beginning when I had yet to develop a sense of responsibility to you the reader to write a post every week day because you expect it.

The second reason I keep the ads is the income can be reinvested into the blog itself to fund contests and buy its own domain name. I put $50 of my own money aside as seed money for the blog, but once that is gone the blog has to be self funding (by the way we are almost out of seed money with the 100th Post contest).

Overall I don't mind the ads myself on the blog. I already spend my days saturated in ads everywhere else on the web, so why should I make this blog any different if I can use the income to improve the blog for you the reader.

Enjoy your weekend,
CD