Paying the Man
Jeff Jarvis (who has had some success getting The Week to sell subscriptions by advertising on his blog links to an interesting post from Matt Haughey who explains how to blog for profit.

Mostly it has to do with advertising. And although many people are inclined to find ads annoying, I've been trying to support the sites I like by clicking through their ads about once a week. I discriminate a lot. If an ad hides text from me, has too much distracting action or is so busy it slows a page from loading, I won't click. But I think it's important to support the advertisers who are supporting a new medium.

Of course I'm biased on this since I have Blogads, an Amazon tipjar (new!) and Amazon Associates grub touted over in my right-hand column. So click not just my ads, but the ads on the sites you like - especially if they're giving you content for free.

However, here's an opposite thought. Last night my husband and I went to see School of Rock - which really, you all have to go see. When I bought the tickets ($10 each) I was handed a stack of advertisements - for eBay, PopSecret popcorn and Herbal Essences Highlights. Showtime was 6:35. We sat through a full 15 minutes of ads after that. It included a few movie previews, but about six or seven commercials for things such as Coke, Estee Lauder and some other random stuff. Made me think Loewe's could have had an empty movie theater but still made money selling ads. It just felt weird having to sit through the commercials after paying $10 to get in.
- posted by Amy @ 10/08/2003 09:55:00 AM