I don’t consider myself at liberty to disclose where I got this, but I’ve been reliably informed that a Google employee looked at my AdSense account, determined it had been hacked and is in the process of restoring it.
That would be great, but Google really needs to find a way to deal with this problem in a systematic way. In my case, I knew somebody who knew somebody, which is good for me, but ultimately no way to run a railroad.
In any event, the experience has got me thinking about what I ultimately want to do with what’s now a blank space at the top of Media Nation. Even if Google does make good, I would rather sell that space on my own. It would have to be a very simple transaction — more of a sponsorship than a true ad.
If anyone is interested, please drop me a line at (oh, irony of ironies) dkennedy56 {at} gmail {dot} com.
Discover more from Media Nation
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Squeaky blogger gets some grease to go away?
I have a sponsor. Just like that. Can’t wait to get his ad up.
Would Kickstarter be worth considering?
http://www.kickstarter.com/
Not sure it totally lends itself to what you do here (open-ended blogging), as it seems to be geared toward more goal-oriented projects — “if readers pledge at least $x, then I promise to use those funds to do Y” etc.
But maybe it could help fund, for example, your New Haven (etc) journalism project.
I’ve shied away from using AdSense only because after looking at the documents twice through, it seemed like more work than it was worth. They send me mailers every quarter trying to get me to sign up.
I do use Newstex Royalty, which pays me if anyone reads my content from a number of sources, like Lexus Nexus, Amazon, and other companies that charge for usage. I haven’t made a ton of money – about $125 in the last two years (2009 was more money than 2010, probably because I was posting more. My posting dropped 44% last year, peaking in 2008). After my account gets earns up to $25, they transfer the money to my PayPal account and then, I transfer the money to my online bank account. I usually buy pizza or calzones for the family and note that my intermittent blogging paid for the treat.
It has been interesting to see some of my work quoted in college papers and other things that people have later put online. Most often, it has been my analysis of the 2000 election that gets quoted or used. But there has been some other things too. It’s a bit difficult to track but some folks are nice enough to do thorough sourcing of their stuff.
I would bet that with all your quotable content and traffic, you would see a lot more from Newstex if you used it.
@Tony: Once I installed the AdSense code with Adam Gaffin’s help, it was zero work. All I had to do was sit back and wait for Google to steal my money. But Newstex Royalty sounds interesting.