I am not in favour of ads because I think they a) don’t work and b) abuse readers’ attention. I don’t begrudge others the income they make from ads on their blogs, especially if I enjoy their blog and it keeps them blogging. I react badly to an obvious hijacking of my eyeball and making me work hard to find the good bits. Interestingly, blogs I enjoy reading tend not to do that, it’s the less interesting desperate ones that pile the ads on. Dave Winer nails the issue of ads on blogs. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
People think blogs are about advertising, and I would agree, but they’re thinking in terms of clicks and eyeballs, and I’m thinking of technology that’s created using the intelligence of community participation.
Want to see how it’s done? It’s here in the archive of this blog. Don’t have the time to read the archive? Read today’s blog. We will get a whole new flow built here, through persistent experimentation, refinement, listening, promoting, thinking, and looping.
Is there money in this? A lot more than most people think, because they’re still thinking in 20th century terms.
I don’t share this space with hitch-hikers. I use my blog for my own ideas. They make good money. No point diluting what I have to say.
Amen to that.
