AdSense has a balance of $76 (which you cannot claim until it (or you) reaches 100.) With 1224 posts, and if you calculate that I've averaged 30 minutes per post (although sometimes more, and not including "head time"), I figure I've made about $0.12 per hour. Of course, making money this way depends on driving up traffic on one's blog and actually having visitors click an ad, which presents another dilemma.
Should I expose my blog? Should I drive up traffic? There is an article on Blogher.com called Strip Blogging: How Naked Do You Get? Now, before you think I've taken dh up on his suggestion of a webcam, this article discusses just how much of one's life should be revealed in a blog. Obviously, I share only some parts of my life by blog. We are not doing a reality TV show here (though that's also occurred to me). I'm concerned - is there a danger?
I have thought of sending choice blogs to a local paper, asking only for a link to my blog as payment. They get a free article, my traffic goes up. Yet, the convicted felon around the corner bothers me (and he's one the one that got caught. How many haven't?) And if any of you reading this are creeps, I have a brown belt in tae kwon do. And so does my husband. Really.
I am looking at other writing opportunities, such as Suite101, and the reviews are mixed. Some people make money, some don't. It isn't exactly the type of writing I want to do. It is, however, safer. Or is it? One side benefit to writing there is that it will drive traffic to your blog.
In the olden days, Erma Bombeck made a living writing about her family with her tongue in cheek. Yet, few people really knew where she lived or had photos of her children. On the other hand, the Internet allows there to be many (mostly undiscovered) Bombecks out there. Perhaps it is time to break out of this small window.
