On "per click" ads... are they really "per click"?

I'm still on administrative leave, but Patrica from Bobble Bee sent a great thought provoking article about advertising. Admittedly I myself often wonder these questions, and is the most compelling reason to start IFB:

via Bobble Bee:

When shopzilla contacted me months ago to place an ad in my blog it was a very happy day for me; I needed money at the time for milkshake chocolate's expenses and it also gave me the chance I was craving for, getting paid for my time and ideas.They were very honest with me from the beginning and we discussed different wages until we got the deal.Months later they offered me to place ads "per click"; I would get paid regarding the "clicks" those ad-links would get from my readers.I thought it a good idea and placed those ads for a couple of months... until I realized I was advertising those companies (others than shopzilla) without getting paid. Then I decided to remove them.Since then I am still trying to figure out why these "per click" ads are so popular (google is a favourite) among bloggers who want or need to earn some money. Many of these bloggers are quite followed thus their traffic permits these ads to do "their job".Those ads have the name of the company big and bold and so it gets stuck in our heads somehow. Therefore, companies are advertising in the blog without paying a penny. Aren't those companies playing with the bloggers' "hope" that someone will click?.I wonder how many people click those ads.They (the ads) are rather dull and uninteresting, we are reading a blog and don't want to be bothered. The months I have them up not even one person did a single click.This is my opinion and the reason why I removed those "per click" ads. They're not for me, thanks.>>> More on blog-sploitation* by the great Liberty London Girl.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Sometimes Christmas was like this then... (1958)
Originally uploaded by musicmuse_ca

I'm taking administrative leave from IFB for the week... I'm down in SoCal... just hanging out with the family! I wish you all the very best and it's wonderful to have such a great fashion community!

Cheers!

~Jennine

Ad-Free? Come with me....

Tricia From Bits & Bobbins, alerted me to this badge. It may not be for everybody, but some people blog for fun and love. And here's a great way to say it... adfreeblog.org is a way to show you do not want corporate advertising on your blog. Which for some of us, the amount of money we make, it may or may not be a solid choice. It's actually refreshing to know that your blog doesn't necessarily need to be monetized.

Here is the agreement you have to follow if you are going to use the badge:

1. That I am opposed to the use of corporate advertising on blogs.

2. That I feel the use of corporate advertising on blogs devalues the medium.

3. That I do not accept money in return for advertising space on my blog.

signed,

the author

Helpful Blogs

So sorry I've been slacking on posting here on IFB... it's the holidays, and keeping up with my main blog has been a super big challenge.

One thing I do to keep up is use a RSS reader, I use Google Reader pretty much because I also use Blogger and Gmail, it's just easy for me that way, and I'm kinda lazy. There are a few blogs I read that talk about professional blogging, how to generate content, what's new in monetization, problogging, etc. I would highly suggest subscribing to one of these blogs to get yourself familiarized with what's going on in the blog business world.

Problogger : Is the one I probably get the most use out of, he has a great writing style and posts several times a day. Great ideas, even if I don't do them right away, still good stuff to have on the back burner

Dosh Dosh Dosh : Does great posts on generating content, planning ahead, etc.

Skelliwag: Another great blog, writes for Technorati, and Problogger, also really great ideas, and fun to read.

And a personal development blog: Steve Pavlina.