Your love gives me such a thrill, but your love don't pay my bills; I need money!

When I first started my diary here, I used to do surveys for fun. There was one question in one asking if I would blog for money. You know those Google ads that appear in the margins of websites, the ones that are related in some fashion to what the page is about, those annoying, intrusive advertisements for mental health clinics or tattoo studios, diet centres or intelligence tests? Well, there was one on a page I had gone to where I keep another blog--what, you thought Diaryland got all my business?--which had the following advertisement on it: Blog for money. I did what any sensible, curious and avaricious person would do. I clicked on it, and this is what I got:

It is a sore temptation, folks, to fill in those blanks. From what I understand about these things, the blog has advertising on it, similar to the one I clicked on. The blogger gets a "commission" for every ad clicked, possibly only a penny here and there, but a really fine blogger, one garnering an enormous audience, could probably make a pretty tidy sum, enough to keep him in candy bars or at least pay for his daily cappuccino. So the question is, is it worth it? Who is good enough to actually make an appreciable sum blogging?

There are already diarists here who could do that, people I read regularly whose entries never fail to leave me wanting more, but they could only make money if people clicked on the ads. Or that's what I believe. How many websites do you go to on a regular basis and just ignore the advertising? How often do you drive down a highway and not see the giant billboards with their pleas to try the products pictured thereon?

I am reminded of the times we would cross from Windsor to Detroit and suddenly be bombarded with two-storey-high advertisements for booze and cigarettes, two items never seen on outdoor bilboards in Canada (although alcohol advertising is still legal and fills pages and pages of glossy magazines). But I digress.

So, tell me, whoever reads this and has an opinion they wish to share, would you do it? Blog for money, that is. Seriously.

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