Over the past week or so, I’ve spent a bit of time trying to decide what I want to do with this site. I like reading and writing about personal finance, and I’m putting some financial “experiments” into play to give me more to write about (the latest being Sharebuilder). But I’m a bit limited because I’m posting at Blogger, rather than at my own site.
I do plan on moving this site off of Blogger in the next few months. I’m already putting the infrastructure in place, and I’ve got hosting space on an account I use for another site. What I don’t have yet is a domain name. Sure, I could just buy one for $10, but I’m being a bit stubborn. I have decided that I want this site to pay for itself. Why? Call it another experiment, I suppose.
Unfortunately, my ad revenue is down, so it might take longer than I hoped. The majority of my ad revenue comes from the BlogHer ad network. It’s pay per view, rather than pay for click, and I think they’ve had some great ads lately. Additionally, I’ve come across a few new PF blogs by checking out the links below the banner ad. They change daily, and different bloggers may have different links, so check them out (please note – I get nothing from these clicks, I just don’t want my readers to miss out). Other BlogHer members may be seeing the same thing. It seems that the ads being shown are the remnant ads for random products rather than some of the specifically targeted ad campaigns – though I’m seeing those as well. The ad campaigns pay significantly more than the remnant ads (I might make the same amount on one campaign ad as I make on 200 remnant ads). BlogHer sends checks every time your account hits $25, and I’m almost there, but not quite. Last month, I would have said “Oh yeah, I’ll make it to $25 in June, no question.” The remnant ads are making that less likely. But soon enough!
Not much I can do about that, of course. I’m not in this for the money, and I don’t plan to become rich by blogging. I think the only reason I’m at all antsy about it is because I really want to move to the new site!
At first, my plan was to take all blog revenue and put it back into the site, use it to pay for hosting and such. I’m starting to think that instead, I will put half of the revenue back into the site and donate half to charity. We’re not talking a lot of money here, but I think it would be a nice gesture. Additionally, every so often, I may designate a month to be 100% for charity – meaning that every penny I earn from ad revenue that month will go directly to charity. It just seems like the right thing to do.
Anyone want to join me?
As soon as I break even, I’d be happy to join you! :^)
Good for you – I donate regularly to our local food bank as well as the SPCA, but as nicole said, as soon as I get out of my debt I’ll be contemplating that very seriously.