Ad One For The Good Guys

I suppose I'm too small a fish in too big of a pond, but the various attempts I've made with "blog ads" have not produced any tangible results for me. I initially tried "Google Ads" and I was pleased that they gave me some control over content, although I found I had to monitor them to ban ads for sexually oriented sites or sites that I certainly didn't want my kids - even though they're all grown up - visiting. After several months the ads produced less than 10 dollars worth of revenue and Google doesn't pay you until you at least make 10 bucks. I don't blame them. So I took down the Google ads and tried two different services, one called LinkGrotto and one called Pheedo.

LinkGrotto ran a small unobtrusive ad on the sidebar and like Google was supposed to pay me "per click" after I received a selected number of clicks. I ran it from July until now and I think the total revenue was about 2 dollars - which they didn't pay me because like Google they require you to at least make a certain amount before they go to the trouble of paying you.

Pheedo isn't designed to generate revenue as much as generate web traffic. In return for allowing Pheedo ads to run, an ad for my blog would run on other websites. This site, depending on which measuring service I use - I have four available to me - averages between 200 and 600 unique visitors daily which I find startling actually...there are a lot of bored people out there. Anyway, I couldn't see any vast difference in those statistics after I became a schlepper for Pheedo and some of the ads that ran on my site I found led to places which made me uncomfortable. So Pheedo has been cast to the wayside.

Thus I am ad free except for the blatant plug I put up on my own for ReallivePreacher's book, Chuck Sigar's book and the recently added - albeit reluctantly - PayPal button for donations to the Gomez Family Project.

Call it serendipity if you like but while making these changes I noticed that my link for RLP's book needed updating and I also spotted Chuck's latest column in the newspaper for which he writes. It's about the Gomez family and the Main family.

Chuck had recently sent me an email asking if I would mind if he wrote about us. I figured his proposal was better than the multitude of ways I envisioned my name coming out in the newspaper so I said okay. I didn't really give it any more thought until today when I stumbled upon the memory of our brief email conversation and his column.

It's funny how these things work. Those of you who know me know I believe God has a hand in this type of stuff. In a few minutes - Lee just came upstairs to prod me saying, "we're going to be late" - I will hop in the car with the Gomez family members. We will giggle and laugh our way down the road...to church. Once there we will listen to Amy sing, and to Gordon preach.

And I will thank God for the multitude of ways He reminds me of the truly important things in life...no advertising required.