Indecent Proposal

There's AdSense in My Blog!

All right, let me see if I'm getting this. Google is willing to give me money just for keeping my blog? Where do I sign up?

Okay, so it's a little more complex than all that, but that's the long and short of it. I would have to put code on my blog that would display an advertisement, but from what I can tell it would be just like the advertisements at the top of the page that Blogger just recently removed anyway. The ad would be context-sensitive, meaning it would be at least somewhat related to stuff I was writing about anyway. Essentially once I placed the code in my blog, it would be business as usual for me, except that every now and then I would get a check in the mail.

Honestly, this bears some thought. The very idea of being paid for writing, even in a roundabout way, appeals to me quite a bit (although I guess I get paid for it now, in a roundabout way, since I do most of my blogging from work), especially since it's something I'm doing anyway and I wouldn't have to change anything. Additionally, while this is something that's not going to make me rich, at this point any amount of extra income would be very, very nice.

However, while I'm not saying I won't change my mind, right now I'm leaning against doing it. There would be tax issues to deal with, and I doubt it would be worth the trouble for the small amount of money I might make. Besides that (and believe it or not, this is the main reason), I just don't want to clutter up my pages with an advertisement on an internet that's already overloaded with them. I think it would detract from the "integrity" of my site, and I don't want to alienate my few loyal readers who check in on this site from time to time. It just isn't worth it.

One similar program I'm thinking of joining, though, is Amazon's Associates program. It probably wouldn't have much (if any) bearing on my main page, but I could use it on some of my auxiliary pages. I could use it to provide direct Amazon links to the books and DVDs I list on those pages, so that anyone interested could click over and order them from Amazon if they so desired. I think it's set up so that the purchaser gets a discount, and I would get a percentage of the sale. I've been thinking about joining that program for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. I doubt it would generate much revenue, but I think it's kind of a win/win situation.

Feel free to leave comments or send e-mail if you have opinions either way.