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Mammoth Springs

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Need some cheddar.

The blog is now in its twelfth year. As you know it is a labor of love and I put a lot of work into it. It has allowed me to make friends far and wide and reach a lot of people.

But I am tapped. With the contraction and basic collapse of the antique business things are really dire. Bobby is on fumes.

So I need to think about monetizing this Blast in some way. What to do? Now I could let Google Ad Sense run ads on the site. They would strain our conversations and blogposts for keywords and try to stay somewhat germane but I fear that it would be a massive failure.

A few years ago Joseph and Linda Sherwood generously bought ads for six months to promote their business, High Noon. That was awesome. They have since basically retired.

I am talking to a friend with a CBD company who might run some ads. A friend at dinner last night, unprompted, suggested a readership subscription fee but I am not sure if that would work. Everybody wants everything for free these days. I am talented and all and the pictures are great but will people pay to play, I don't think so? He brought it up and is willing but I think he might be the lone ranger. And Paypal buttons look so desperate.

Google metrics are a funny thing. I tooled along at about 600 to 800 views a day in the early years, then saw it cascade up to a couple grand a day for the great middle period. It was amazing and weird, the blast was everywhere. I would be researching any old topic and my own writing would pop up and that's plain scary.

Google was giving me a metric of somewhere around 15 million views when they changed their algorithm and started to kill Google +. Some guy in Mountain View decided I was getting a little too popular for my own good.

The algorithm change definitely restricted my traffic, which really didn't bother me because I know my hardcore following and basically write for them and myself. 800, 2000 people, what's the difference?

So post algorithm shift, my traffic dropped back to roughly a thousand views a day. Which is still very good and something I am grateful for. But this week, I am getting these huge hit volumes again. Three or four thousand views a day. Don't think it is all Russian bot and porn traffic, at least I hope not. My George Washington thing got hit on a lot. I thought maybe I had been picked up again by Crooks and Liars but that didn't happen.

Advertising has always scared me because I am a loose cannon and don't want to worry about offending sponsors and having to tailor my message. But I need some cheddar. So don't be surprised if you see some ads but at least I will have control of who is putting what where.

I appreciate you. If you have a business and would like to advertise, a month, a week, a year, let me know. I am not going to threaten to quit because you and I both know that I can't stop writing. It would be nice to not feel so guilty about the time I put into this blog and to start having it pay for itself.

What are your thoughts?

6 comments:

Scrota Voce said...

Scheming for cheddar is fine...just don't cut the Limburger.

Anonymous said...

The Great Divide commentary was good. It’s what would currently be labelled an outlier insight. When do you have the time for this?

DA

Blue Heron said...

Good question. Easy. I just let me business suffer. In the down time it beats twiddling my thumbs.

best,

R

Kent said...

Great idea Robert, and please sign up the porno sponsors.

Jules said...

You are hilarious, even though I know this is probably somewhat serious stuff. Whatever it takes, Robert. We love you.

Blue Heron said...

Paypal will not let me put a donate button up because I am promoting a cbd product on the blog. I called today. Amazing.