Words for sale?

One of my faithful blog readers asked me a few months ago about selling ads on the blog. She is interested in supporting me and getting one. I would love to sell ads to my friends if it doesn't run afoul of Google, that offers the service for free and wants to sell its own ads.

I got a letter yesterday from a friend in Thailand :

 Robert

Like Napoleon I am changing tactics, can you confirm that the Family Tree DNA is something I should do? can you advise me where and how to send my $20 subscription fee for Blast 2012. At this point it has to be costing you many Samolians to produce content weekly..my subscription to The New Yorker is ~$60 yearly.

Your Pal, Michael 

What do you think, is it cheesy for me to want to push a little compensation for this blog? I could throw on a paypal donate button.

There are two conflicting problems here, people gravitate towards what is free on the internet and writers who give their words away don't get a lot of respect. I had an old friend tell me the other day," Don't kid yourself, Rob - you're no writer, you're a blogger." The words stung but he may raise a valid point. People might not value that which is given away for nothing.

Anyway, the jig is up. Money or no money, I have to keep writing so you might as well save your dough.