Rob sells out!

I have seen an exponential increase in blog traffic in the last several months, the Blast having gone from 7k to 9500 pageviews a month and then on to 12 than 15 thousand and now we are on track for a potentially huge month. Or maybe not, today kind of sucked. I decided this morning to temporarily join the Google Adsense program and see if I could actually get paid for my writing. What a concept.

I have received a lot of praise for my efforts and I am humbly appreciative for your kind words. Kerry J. has hammered me incessantly that I should be making money. I had a Paypal donation box once and it almost lasted a day before I pulled it off in shame. Felt like begging. Michael J wants everybody to put up a dollar to help subsidize this cheap entertainment. Will never work, people only willing to pay for something online if it is free. Hence ads.

So here goes. I opted for two small boxes rather than plastering the whole page with the nagging entreaties. We will see if it makes a difference and if it is worth the effort.

I have tried the adsense program once before and it felt a little creepy. I don't want to have to filter my content and you have no latitude at all for the ads that get placed on your site. I joined about an hour ago and had to agree to the Google Adsense Terms of Service. Google asserts a bunch of intelectual property rights and gets to disseminate my personal information. I agree not to place violent or pornographic material on the site or advocate for any major subversion. I can't sell beer or prescription drugs. Or post malware. No problems there.

Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:

•     Pornography, adult or mature content
•     Violent content
•     Content related to racial intolerance or advocacy against any individual, group or organisation
•     Excessive profanity
•     Hacking/cracking content
•     Gambling or casino-related content
•     Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content
•     Sales of beer or hard alcohol
•     Sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products
•     Sales of prescription drugs
•     Sales of weapons or ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns)
•     Sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer or other goods
•     Sales or distribution of coursework or student essays
•     Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails
•     Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others 

So far, the ads that have been placed have been for father's rights divorce attorneys and marijuana evaluations. The great big Google vacuum has read every iota that I have ever written and decided that
this is my target audience demographic in a nutshell.

Let me know what you think of the experiment and I will let you know if and when the money starts flowing in.

***

Postscript - The ads lasted for about two hours and I cut the whole thing off. They were just too, well,  gross. I checked my monetization counter and it is apparently not enough to post them on the site, you have to have people physically click through  the ads and see about getting themselves a new prosthesis or maybe finding a divorce attorney. Frankly I couldn't see you people doing that and don't think I would either. So it's back to the drawing board.