Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tales from the Trenches: To blog or monetize?

I've had a long time irritation in the world of blogging.

Ads.

Some ads in the sidebar-- okay.  It's not something that I do, but people do it and that is okay.  The new thing that I've noticed over the past year is people deciding to eat up half of the screen space with ads. They go on to write in a space equal or somewhat less than the amount that they are dedicating to ads.  Rrrrr.  I guess that I want to know about people.  If I want to be plowed over by ads, I'll open up any number of magazines that are published. 

I just thinned the herd a bit this past week by tossing one of my long-time reads for becoming a magazine ad page. 

When I went to check on the status of the Monday menu blog that I used to visit (she had great little button type things you could use at the top of the page,) I realized that she was in overly ad-ish land, too.  That's why I came up with a new name for my Monday menu thing. 

So, what bugs you about blogs?  Anything new that is happening that drives you crazy?

Smiles in my day:
-  We got to sit down at the table all together and eat dinner.  Since the table has been disassembled in the basement since late August, we've been eating in the kitchen together, but not at a table.  We all missed it. 
-  Hubs is really concentrating on being mindful of what he spends.  That is great!
-  The State of Ohio had our state filing information in the mail box already.  I have it in my folder.  As soon as everything arrives, I'll tackle the taxes!
-  Mr. Jim, the crossing guard, was so surprised to see us today.  It was about 20 degrees and breezy.  (I'm sure that there was a wind chill to consider.)  Though my thighs were so frozen that they were stinging by the time I got back, it was good to get back to walking. 
-  K- so excited about turning box tops in for her class.  They are having a box tops competition and Hubs' boxes of granola bars have 6 box top certificates on them.  She gets to take 25 in tomorrow.  Since I don't really buy box top products, it's amazing that we had that many. 
-  Taking a surprise dinner to Aunt Donna.  Grant you, it was leftover broccoli cheese casserole and turkey dogs in a blanket, but for her it was wonderful.  She was so excited! 

Have a wonderful day!

2 comments:

Rach said...

I mostly frequent other mommy blogs and blogs of friends, and they haven't gone all advertisements on me. I understand your frustrations, though.

I figure some of them are just trying to bring in a little extra money so those that do have the ads, I just try to let it go. I do however read one blog (once in a new moon) that is nothing but ads down both sidebars, and the blogger is continuously promoting all the other writing she does across the 'net. I don't know why I keep going back, because it annoys the heck out of me. :oS

Hooray for kitchen tables back where they belong. :o) Hooray for Aunt Donna's surprise dinner. :o)

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

I've had goog*le ads on my sidebar for 5 years now and haven't made a dime. I'm not even sure why they are there at this point. I don't mind people doing a few ads but like you when the whole page is ads I feel like I'm in one big infomercial.
The worst, imo, are the ones that put ads on the actual post. Thansk but no thanks.