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Monday, November 26, 2007

About my ads

You will have all noticed the recent proliferation of ads on this blog. I hope no-one finds them off-putting or overly intrusive. More than anything, I value the visits and comments I receive. The principal purpose of this blog is to interact with friends old and new, and to hopefully provide content you all like to read. If you don't like the ads - my apologies. But remember - I have health problems which keep me from doing a regular day job, yet I'm also desperate to be free of the humiliating benefits system and the stigma it brings with it. Although I don't expect to earn much via blogging, as I do it more for fun than profit, I hope to get involved in a few other online ventures soon, which may eventually lead to me becoming self-employed and self-sufficient. The ads on my blogs are just the first tentative steps towards this.

If you don't like the ads, please feel free to scroll past them to the main content. However, if you intend making purchases via Amazon UK, please consider doing so via the widgets on this blog. It won't cost you anything more, and because you'll deal directly with Amazon, the only thing I'll ever know about your purchases is what items were ordered and how much commission I've earned on them. I'll never know who ordered them, where they live, or anything about their financial details. And of course, I shall be eternally grateful to you, and send you lots of good karma via the cosmos :).

10 comments:

Dragonstar said...

I hate ads masquerading as chat, but I've no objection to ads as links - no-one forces us to click them after all.
Are those above meant to be links? They don't work for me.

Siani said...

They're not working for you? They're alright with me - I've just tested one, using IE7 and XP. Click on the images or pink text and they should be okay.

I hate ads that pretend to be something else, too. That's why I've only added Amazon and Google. If Amazon proves successful, I'll probably get rid of Google, as it doesn't make much, and just takes up space. At least with Amazon, people recognize it as a household name.

I've also added Amazon context links, which mean that random links pop up in my posts, which pop up windows if you hover over the link, and display Amazon products. I may reformat the context links so they look different to my own links, so that people know the difference between my links and the promotional ones. I thought long and hard before monetizing the blogs, in case it lost me traffic. But it hasn't been the case so far, I don't think, because I haven't added any aggressive or intrusive stuff, and never will.

Dragonstar said...

Still not working. I use Firefox, so it might make a difference.

Dragonstar said...

OK, that's my problem. I'm running Firefox with AdBlock, so it's blocking your ads. Just looked using IE, and everything's fine. Firefox doesn't even show the pictures!

Pewari Naan said...

I have to say, I hate them. Have no objection to subtle ads (have them myself, after all and still make a decent amount of pin money with them), but the fact I have to scroll down each time before I even see the content is driving me insane... sorry :(

If it wasn't for the fact that we've "chatted" online and if I was just a casual reader, then I'd have unsubscribed by now. I do think it's seriously off putting.

Siani said...

There'll be less of them after Christmas, I promise. I've shifted one of them from the main blog post area to the sidebar. Like I said, I don't mean to offend anyone with them, but I can't take on a full-time job at the moment, yet the bills keep mounting. Anyone know of a rich sugar daddy?

BTW, Pewari - I can't comment on your blog since you upped your spam filters. I keep getting a message telling me I'm not authorised :(.

Mike said...

I do loads of shopping on Amazon so you should be quite wealthy by this time next year :)

As for knowing who's buying what, mine will be mostly rock/metal music and camera equipment.

Pewari Naan said...

Unfortunately, I know of no rich sugar daddies :(

Argh, sorry to hear you can't comment, Siani. Could you email me at Pewari [at] may [dot] be with the email address you normally use to comment with and I'll get my poor beleaguered tech support (aka hubby) to look into it.

Anonymous said...

I have a MAJOR award for you!

Siani said...

Ooh - thank you, Mike. Your purchases sound a lot like mine.

Thanks, Pewari - check your spam folders. I emailed you about it a while ago, but never heard back, because I presumably got dumped into spam. I'll just send another mail now. It's such a shame that we all have to go to these lengths, just to keep our blogs safe from stinking spammers. I HATE them, I really do.

Ooh! An award! Thanks, Baldwin's Girl. Just on my way to check it out!

 
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