I have two blogs that I use to talk about myself and my family, but I also plaster the hell out of them with paid posts or paid links. (I like the paid links better becuase I do not have to say I used the product at all. I got paid five bucks once to use the word “cat”.)

Anyway. I do not care if people hate that I do ads on those two blogs, becuase I like the money. A lot. It buys my family things we would bnever have bought before. Ipods, The PS3 and PSP, our new TV, ect.

However, On bluepaintred, I HATE doing paid posts. I DO do them sometimes. Once every few months, but only if the $$ is good enough.

(yes I understand that I am selling out my family and experiences and setting a dollar limit on my blog, but still, The money, at the time, is worth it to me)

In any case, I have five assignments from PU2B that are due, so I am heading off to my other blogs to type them up!

I actually don’t mind ads or pay per post or whatever. I hate blogs that are plastered with them but I understand why people do them. If you have the traffic and can make a buck doing something you like, then why not. If I had the traffic I would do it just to pay for my hosting.

You have a good point, and I made the decision not to do ads myself for much the same reason.  I was tempted recently in order to use the money for my charity walk, but it just didn’t feel right.

However, I’m not particularly bothered about ads on other sites.  What i do hate is pay per post though.

I totally understand where you are coming from. I agree. But then, I also agree with you that people can do on their blogs whatever they like. I just can’t bring myself to do it, though I would love the extra cash. So I will be hanging from your lips on Wednesday for sure!!! Will it involve toilet blogging? Cuz we all know I am very good at that.

I’ve been approached to do Pay Per Posts - not through PPP, but you know what I mean.  And I just couldn’t.  Who the fuck wants to read me write an article about Lawn Fertilizer???

As for the affiliate links, if I was already going to be writing a post and mentioning something - then OK.  But that to me WAYYYYYYYYY more fits the Amway model than an ad network ad.

And my intention all along was to go with the impressions, not the adsense, because I don’t have to worry about the clicks.

AND… (whew, I’m running out of breath)

I don’t see it as putting a price on my life.  MY life, and the lives of my loved ones are priceless.

But my WORDS?

My BlogHer account gives me a very good indicator of what my writing is worth.

I don’t like making money, so I’m never putting ads on my site.  (Please don’t hassle me about this statement, I really think money is stupid, and I wish we didn’t run the world based on it.)

The “Trainwreck” section freaked me out.  If there were any doubt in my mind, any sway about if I would do ads, you just took that doubt from me.  And made me really sad.

So, I’m guessing we’re going to hear all about how Cereal Wednesday’s ads are a good thing?  Good, because I think I’ll prefer the lighter post.

But, thanks for putting yourself way out there by writing this one.

(If you had a hug smiley I would use it here, so: *HUG*)

I use Adblock Plus with the Filterset.G Updater as an extension for my browser.  I never see any ads in the sidebars, which suits me fine.

I cannot, however, avoid the pay-per-post posts.  Some bloggers went so crazy doing that on their personal blogs that I stopped reading them.  Every other post was a paid post.

On the other hand, I’d like to make additional money from something that I’m good at, and I’m good at blogging.  I don’t know if mine is a personal blog, though, but I probably would not add ads unless my traffic was ten times what it is now.

Finally, hiding affiliate links in a post is a hundred times worse than paid posts and sidebar ads.  At least the ads and paid posts are blatant! 

By the way, I forgot to say - you did an awesome job with this post.  I don’t agree with some of your analogies, but it was well done just the same.

I think this post was very well thought out and written. 

I created Shutterbuggin so that I could do the majority of paid posts over there, but I did start doing them on The Soda Stand.  I don’t do them as often as I did for PPP, tend to try to find the topics that interest me or that I have some knowledge of.  When I first started doing PPP, that was not the case and I just took every opp they offered.  (ie:  Christmas LED lights)

I do posts for Pay U 2 Blog.  Five dollars for throwing a link into my post.  Not hard and not difficult for that.  Sometimes it is difficult to throw the link in there if I don’t really know how to work it into the post.

I started doing the paid posts after I quit my job in September.  The extra money has come in quite handy since then, considering I still can’t find a fucking job in this good ole boy state I moved too.

Anyway, I have no clue where this comment was going so I’m going to shut up now.  hehe

I think you did a great job on this post Watchdog. I think for every blogger though who just grabs whatever ad they can, there are those who try to only write about, even if paid, things they know about, have used or whatever.

I’ve pretty much stopped doing paid post. I just don’t feel like it anymore but when I was doing them, I was able to save enough money to pay off a credit card. To me, it was worth selling out for that year or whatever it was.

Once again though, awesome post!

I created Directives just for monetizing, and in so doing I keep my personal blog, Drivel, pure and holy.

That’s how I like to think of it anyway.

Plus I put the majority of the PPP I make back into my blogging and writing.

Also, I knock over the occasional liquor store.

Canadian Flake sent me...I really needed that today. Thank you.
This is very interesting and something I have thought about many times as well.

Hiya, from one fellow NYer to another...So nice to read you today.

I know you still PPH me.

And I you.

I still disagree with you.  But respectfully.

Where have you heard that about the ad blocker?

It’s funny because a few times I saw “Opps” for LASIK, something I know about in detail since I had it done, but because of my lack of PR or whatever, I couldn’t write about it! I’d much rather write about that, something I know about, then say, PayDay loans or something.

I wish I had your ability to be all level-headed about this but I don’t.  I’ve written some really, let’s call it passionate, posts about ads and selling out on my blog.

I FUCKING HATE HATE REALLY REALLY DESPISE ADS ON PERSONAL BLOGS.

But what I hate more is ads in RSS feeds.  I stopped reading one blog because of them and I think that was part of the horrible decline of my relationship with that blogger because she got really defensive about it.

I have a site that is not personal and I put ads on it for like 5 minutes.  I just can’t justify it no matter what.  I am not CNN, get me?

If a blog is already a marginal read for me, the minute it slaps on ads is the minute I stop reading.  End of story.

One of the terror quadruplates (Lucy, Soda, Monique but definitely not Laci, I forget which) did posts that cleverly added in links to crap.  I didn’t stop reading it because I was actually kind of amused and somewhat impressed by what kind of effort had to go into working them almost seamlessly into a post.  But I think that’s the only one I didn’t stop reading.  I did stop reading BPR’s blog briefly when she was doing ads on her blog before she moved them to one of the other blogs she has.  And I LIKE her blog.  So yeah.  That’s how much I hate ads.

As to trainwrecks, I am frequently a trainwreck blog(ger) and I still have my average 20 (went up to 27 once !!) readers.  Sometimes one of my ‘trainwreck’ posts will get me 35 whole hits!  I rock teh blawg.  Seriously.  And for those approximately 20-30 readers, people still lose their minds over what I say.  I think I must have the most important readership in the world based on that.

But anyway, ads suck.  People who put ads on their personal blogs are sellouts for sure even if I know they really need the $$ which most of them don’t.

I have always likened it to putting a big sign on your otherwise well groomed front yard.  “PLEASE PAY MY MORTGAGE KTHXBY” because to me, a personal blog is like your web home.

I’ll stop writing a post in your comments now.

I signed up for a PPP like thing in the beginning of my “new” blog, and like a lot of other things in my life I changed my mind.  I decided to skip it and not tell people how I feel about what I am being paid to do--I basically do that all day at work anyhow.

That said, if I was an exceptional blogger, I would indeed do whatever I could to make money off of blogging.  I am just a middle of the row one, and as far as I can tell it will stay that way for a bit.

Oh, I still read people if they have ads and crap, but I have NEVER clicked any.  Ever.  If someone has a pop-up, I will not read them.

Anyhow, great post!

"terror quadruplates” ROFL I love that description for us hahaha And I still do that, I slip in those links as much as possible.  I don’t have a job and I have no other income at the moment.  And I do it on both my blogs...I’m trying to get them all over to Shutterbuggin tho, so I can keep The Soda Stand personal.

Just because I hate money doesn’t mean I won’t think your ideas are interesting, Mr. Smarty Pants.

Re diet: You stop sending me 19 lbs of Jell-O and I’ll stop fucking up your diet.    (Mebbe.)

Bravo! You said it so well!
Especially this:
”Because of the fact that they place a value on your Personal Life… “
Yeah, it’s like charging your dear friends to come to your dinner party. Fuck that.

I like how you showed that ads will advertise something the blogger is personally against, so true. Especially funny when their post is talking about personal integrity or something, Ha-ha!

If people want to make money, I think it’s fine if they start another blog. However, there are a very few (Soda comes to mind) who work it into a post seamlessly, a post she would have written otherwise, but somehow works her PPP into there and it’s not annoying.

Sure, there are some great writers out there who can make a living off their personal websites and deservedly so, but too many people are jumping on those coat tails.
I’ll see a blog go from personal insight into someone’s life, something shared, to being forced and contrived into what that blogger thinks people want to hear. And it’s usually crap you can flip to some other paid blogger and read almost the exact same thing.
It becomes so obvious to me and it’s no longer a portrait of that individual; posts take on a general “Op-ed” quality that while nice as an article for a paper, I’m no longer a part of a personal relationship.

I think some people mistakenly believe they are fulfilling their dreams of “being paid to write”, when really, all they are doing is selling out.

I have only done one Paid post on my entire blog.  I was paid $30 for it.  I was gobsmacked that someone would pay me $30 to write a post about their ignorant website.  I caught 9 kinds of shit over it.  And it wasn’t as if I was going to do it all the time...just the one time so I could see if they really would pay me $30.  I even signed up on some other sites to see what they’d pay me (around 10-30 per post) but meh, I wasn’t interested in it and I am too lazy really, too.  If I’m being honest.  I don’t enjoy reading PPPs.  I get annoyed at them and this has caused me to not really read ANY blogs lately because of the annoyance with them.  Even people who don’t whore themselves out with PPPs.

And I have an advertisement on my blog now.  A postage stamp sized google ad that I also put on my sidebar as an experiment because people were all, “OMG YEW COOD TOWTELY MEKE MUNNIES WILE YR NOT WERKUN!!!111” and I thought to myself, “Nah.  I don’t really want to do that.” And then they bet me $100 that I could make that $100 from Google in THREE MONTHS if I put it on.  I took that bet.  I’m not stupid, right?  Well, it has been over 3 months and I’m a little above $60 the last time I checked.  So SCORE!  I’m got $100 from my friend.  (I spent it on a pair of sale shoes, some makeup and a sushi lunch.)

So now...I’ve got that $60+ in my account, right...and like you said, what if I quit blogging or take the ad down?  Then I won’t get that $60+ ever.  I don’t want to not get that money from the assholes at Google.  So I have to leave it up ‘til I get to the $100 so I can cash it out and then take it off.  So what I’m saying is: 

GO FUCKING CLICK MY AD SO I CAN TAKE THAT FUCKER DOWN! kthxbai.

And I completely stopped reading people with RSS ads.  Like Miss Ann, it did cause the person whose blog I stopped reading to get all butt-hurt.  I can ignore text ads on the side of blogs and sometimes, I OMFG click on them if it is something that I am interested in reading more about.  I guess they have their place...not sure they have a place in my sidebar though.

See, as a personal blogger, I DO view my readers as my friends so I would hate to subject them to my tyranny of Paid Posts.  I actually had to delete people from my reader when they started that whole Pay Per Post nonsense because it drove me nuts.  I am there to read about your life, thanks...I get enough product endorsements on television!

Not to be creepy (or, creepier than usual), but: Hilly, you are my twin.  Except I just ignore the ads.  Unless there’s a t-shirt in the ad then I. must. click. it.

I had to link to this post because I think it’s so awesome.
So you might get 2 clicks out of that, ha-ha!

It’s a bit of an interesting argument, but to say that dynamically generated ad content outside of a website’s normal content can be copyrighted, giving protection to the site owner, is a stretch of an argument, especially if the site has no control over what the ad is going to display.

If you go the course that adblock software violates the site’s TOS, it’s a very slippery slope.  You could argue that simply resizing the browser window, turning off pop-up windows or Javascript, or reading a page designed for a computer on a mobile phone also violates the TOS.  And nobody would agree to that.

As long as there are ads, there will be Adblock.  It’s open source, so some country will keep making it even if someone managed to successfully sue and win.

I swore to myself that I wasn’t going to check a single blog this week because quite frankly I’ve become disgusted with so many personal bloggers lately.  Yesterday before I shut down the computers I read your post which is why I’m squinting on an iPhone to read this one today. 

A few weeks ago I was offered $100 a post on http://www.notthecword.com which was my personal blog about my experiences with cancer.  Some corporate monger wanted to place links on specific posts...where I put myself out there.

I felt so violated by the thought that I deleted every entry .

Personally I can’t stand a blogger who sells out.  I lose respect for them when they can’t see what they have become.

Thank you for writing this.  This is one of the reasons why I don’t want to blog right now.

Lisa, I was wondering where you went… Good to know it was for this reason than for a much worse reason.  Thanks for saying something so we know you’re ok.

Yep, I’m an opinion inflicter.  I always said it was a really good thing I’m not a religous zealot or pro-lifer/PETA type pontificator.  It’s not MY fault other people are dumb. 

And I agree with Avi.  There is no way that could happen unless and until those sites actually put up an ‘enter’ page outlining a TOS you would have to agree to in exchange for the pleasure of viewing their shit ads....possibly insisting you can only use IE because IE is the only browser that doesn’t actually give you any safety if Bill G doesn’t think you need it.  So certainly, with advertisers in Bill’s back pocket, IE isn’t going to block a damned thing.

And I just wonder what would happen to text only browers like Lynx? (Yeah, yeah, WE don’t use it but lots of paranoid techie types just love it.)

They haven’t managed to force TV ads on us quite yet because we can still fast forward TiVo, DVDs, VHS and such and I swear I remember something about advertisers bitching about that.

Never happen.  (Famous last words.)

Moreover

moreover...um, I forgot.  Actually, I don’t remember typing that word.

Must give up snorting jello.  I think the rubbing it on my gums part is probably where the real problem lies.

Miss Ann proves her point: I use Lynx. 

Poppy proves my point.  It’s not MY fault other people are dumb.

Other people (aka the dumb ones) forget about things like Lynx.  Since I am not dumb, I remembered it.

I totally whore out my blog
I’m proud of it. The world should know that I am a sarcastic ad whore who blogs about personal life (of drinking, piercing, and tattooing myself into a slumber) and gets paid for diaper ads...I have no kids. WOO!
SPRING BREAK BABY!

Thinking further on the legality of ad blockers, it occurs to me that here of late we’ve been hearing a lot about virus infected ads on normally trusted sites.  It’s becoming prevalent.  I got one from freaking myspace once.

I think that is going to eventually lead to some schmuck trying to sue myspace or cnet or whomever.  Regardelss of a lawsuit occuring, people can certainly use the recent virus issues as a good reason to block ads.

Moreover, (finally using up the one I left behind) if virus infected ads are popping up on trusted site, it’s only a matter of time before they start showing up on blog site that use advertisments to suppliment their income.  All hell will break lose there.

And the issue of taxes is going to come up at some point too.

I have a great idea.  If you want to suppliment your income, get a part time job selling Tupperware online.  Woo!

It’s impossible for a virus to infect a computer from a .gif or .jpg advertisement.  Even in Flash, it would be difficult.

You’d have to be dumb enough to click on the ad, download a file, and then run an executable, for the virus to infect you.

Even IE protects against ActiveX issues with suspicious ads.

do some reading before you call people stupid so you don’t look...um, stupid.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB118480608500871051.html

That’s an ad that affects the integrity of the site on which it’s hosted, which then allows it to deliver a virus to someone who doesn’t have a protected browser.

If you have an active anti-virus program, it would catch it, as the article says.  If you don’t have an active anti-virus program, you get what you deserve.

Once again, to get infected by a virus in an ad, you’d have to make some dumb moves before that would happen.

I know what it is.  AVG caught it.

But the point, which you appear to be missing, is that it can happen, does happen and eventually will happen on blogs with ads.

I wonder if the fate of internet advertising in general is doomed?!

Man, Yahoo! is so screwed.

I think where it will go will be on videos.  Already a lot of news sites precede their news videos with commercials. 

I saw one for Cialis on a video about a plane crash.  I don’t think even cialis is gonna help your sex life when you’re dead but whatever.

I’ve also seen sites that stream video ads upon opening the page.

That’s my guess.  Ads will go back to looking like commercials rather than billboards and bumperstickers.

Great Post. As a newbie, the ad satan hasn’t shown up at my door yet, but I’ll remember this post when she arrives. FYI: I’m mentioning this post on my little ole’ humble blog.

I really enjoyed this post. I have what I would consider a personal blog - but my friends and family don’t read it (or know about it).

My readers - a few of them - have become virtual friends. So I guess I could place ads and not pimp my real friends. I just think it looks tacky.

I saw a reference to your post on another site and was not really thinking it would be a decent post (the blogger is a bit of an idiot). Glad I clicked on the hyperlink.

Leesa,
“So I guess I could place ads and not pimp my real friends”.???
You totally missed the point of what Dawg said in the “Your friends readers” section.
But then, you’re a bit of an idiot.

You make a lot of good points.  I can honestly say for 100% certain, that I could care less what people do with their blogs - if I’m friends with them, I can look past their decision to place ads or not.  One friend I have does PPP and while I hated it at first, and even expressed my opinion on my blog about it, I’ve looked past it, because she is my friend.
I wouldn’t go into someone’s house and tell them how to place their family photos or criticize their use of colour.  I was out of line when I criticized her for doing PPP and apologized later.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes blogging, but ads have never been a regret.  Not once.