Even though in the past I’ve actually worked in advertising (albeit somewhat peripherally – I just put the ads together and made them look pretty, I didn’t sell them or really even design most of them), I’ve never really understood how advertising can generate the kind of revenue it does.
Not for the people and companies who are actually paying for the advertising, but for the people and companies who are actually getting paid for the advertising.
It just seems like such an odd business model for making money, considering how much people hate advertising. And I have serious doubts about the actual effectiveness of advertising.
Clearly, though, it must work, as advertising sales generates huge amounts of revenue and the people paying for it obviously get their money’s worth because if they didn’t they wouldn’t be able to afford to keep advertising.
So.
Advertising. Silly. Confusing. Irritating.
Effective.
The point of this little exploration into an important aspect of capitalism?
Look up at the top of the page where it says, “Ads by Google.”
Yes, Threshold has officially become a shill for the corporate capitalist machine.
That being said, however it’s hardly as if I’ve somehow “sold out.”
For one thing, I never started out expressing any particular ideology or artistic integrity that I’m now abandoning for the sake of commercial success; this is just a blog for throwing out random complaints and observations to the world. For another, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever generate the kind of traffic I’d need to generate any actual income from the ads.
Besides, the ads themselves will be rather unobtrusive, and using Google’s contextual keyword generation system, there’s a chance there might be ads for something worthwhile.
Or not.
In any case, I just thought it was worth trying it out.
After all, I can’t see any other way to make money off of Threshold, as I certainly wouldn’t be able to charge people to read what I have to say.
At least, not what I have to say here. Sure, I’d like to think that, if I could get past my laziness, I could write things that people would be willing to pay to read, but Threshold doesn’t contain those things.
I had considered just setting up a PayPal account for donations, establishing a sort of high-tech “begging bowl.”
After all, it could serve a purpose other than merely generating money, considering that some of the great “enlightened” figures of history engaged in the mendicant lifestyle, eschewing the material world and material concerns and relying on the kindness of their fellow men to help sustain them. If begging was good enough for Buddha or St. Francis, why not me?
Of course, with my begging I wouldn’t so much be eschewing the material world as trying to find an easy way to finance buying an HDTV, so upon reflection the begging bowl idea seemed less like finding a path to enlightenment and more like, well, begging.
So, if I was going to make any money from my blogging activities, which, along with therapy, seems to be the primary appeal of blogs these days, it seemed that advertising was my only option, and if there’s one thing in life that I’m certain of, it’s that advertising will never lead anyone to the path of enlightenment.
Still, enlightenment is great, but it’s no HDTV...
As for the ads themselves, as of this writing I’m not fully in “the system,” so the ads up top aren’t “real” ads as of yet, which is to say that if you click on them I won’t get anything from it.
But when the time comes, you don’t need to feel as though you’re under any obligation to click. If you see something that interests you, great. If not, fine.
In any case, it just seemed to me that I ought to mention the latest addition to Threshold.
Today was pretty uneventful. I got up and thought about going for a walk, but after looking at the looming clouds decided that I didn’t want to run the risk of getting caught in the rain.
So instead I showered and headed out into the world to do the things that I’d actually intended to do yesterday before I got sidelined and decided to hit the other stores that I usually don’t go to.
So I went to Wal-Mart to pick up few things, then stopped and did some grocery shopping.
And that was pretty much it. I spent most of the rest of the day diving into “Anansi Boys,” and finding that so far I’m enjoying it immensely.
And of course somewhere along the line I sold out my blog and became a puppet of our heartless economic overlords.
I did, of course, watch the crazy, hot Italian chick this afternoon, and I have to say that it felt strange to watch her knowing that I’d actually spoken to her and had her speak to me.
It’s kind of sad to say, but even with having gotten to see Neil Gaiman and hear him do a reading, and get him to sign three books for me, talking to Giada was almost the highlight of my day at the Book Festival.
Almost.
On that note, I believe it’s time for this soulless, capitalist pig to sign off…
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