I received an e-mail yesterday with a link to an article about how to profit from a blog. While I’m not opposed to putting ads or a donate sign (hosting a blog is not always free), the focus of the article and a subsuquent link within it was how to maximize revenue through search engines and generating content. I’m all for people having lots of incoming links, which means more search engines will find them. But the article advocated ways to get incoming links by signing up to all kinds of sites who exist for this purpose only. The prize goes to the best negotiator, not the person with the best content.
The article went to say that you can find prepublished content that you can modify and place on your site. And there are ways to rotate the content so that it always looks new and fresh! Gag! Snarf! That just sounds like a terrible way to blog and to attempt to make money.
I should add that the article was poorly written and really didn’t say too much about ads that was all that new. But that is the least of the author’s sins. Just publishing content on a blog for the sake of making a buck is a horrible use of blogs and a waste of people’s time. People want to find those with similar interests, how-to content, commentary, life stories, etc., not some rehashed generic slosh that is supposed to pass as fresh, original content. Use ads on your blog, but please be original. It’s not about getting rich. It’s about sharing with others what you have learned and experienced. It’s about providing links to worthy sites. It’s not about $$$.
Ed Cyzewski: Author // Contemplative 