Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Re: Ads

Decision time on the ads. I didn't reach the amount I'd been hoping to reach, but 1) I only barely missed it, and 2) it has occurred to me that December is absolutely the worst possible month in which to be making traffic-dependent decisions, since traffic all but disappears for the last two or three weeks of December. So it's close enough.


5 comments:

Pat said...

I was going to say that the frame had been cycling through much the same (UK) ads every time I had looked, as it had been. However, today two new ones popped up. Both from hydroponics companies.

Anonymous said...

They don't bother me one way or another, so my vote would be to keep them if they bring in anything. On the other hand, we all trust you and wouldn't want some sleaze taking advantage of your popularity to push something notsohot. Plenty of plant related junk out there, heaven knows.

Jon VanZile said...

I say definitely keep them, but I guess that's no surprise ...

You run a wonderful site here, with loads of great information that can't be found anywhere else. You deserve to get paid for it.

I'm a writer, so I get it. There's always this tension between "selling out" and "integrity." And maybe I'm just jaded because I've been freelancing professionally forever, but I think that's a mean trick we writer types play on ourselves. In what other business is it considered a character defect to want to, you know, actually get paid for your work? Yikes, even DOCTORS insist on getting paid, and what they're doing is much more socially important than what most writers do.

So I think you should definitely keep the ads up and, if possible, don't feel bad about it. You provide a service and knowledge base that's worth actual money. You've built an audience, and audiences are worth something. It doesn't make you less of a writer or less funny or your blog less awesome. If anything, it means you'll have more reasons to spend time working on it.

Lynn Bay said...

Sometimes the followers seem to go to sleep right before Christmas, but with the change in year they resurface. After the big 1/1 we all start looking forward to spring and our creative urges kick in!

CelticRose said...

Definitely keep the ads. You deserve to get paid for all your hard work.

I still think you should move them higher on the page, however.