There’ll be no more advertising on this web site unless it’s for my products and services and the products and services of people I know and personally endorse. Same goes for Twitter.

(Insert cheers and hosannahs and cries of “It’s about time” here.)

Why the Change?

What can I say? I’m always experimenting, always trying things out… and I always try to listen to my audience when they’re kind enough to offer their opinion.

The ads I served on this site were from a site called Project Wonderful — an neat concept and very DIY / creator friendly. I checked out every single site of every single ad I allowed to appear, and believe me, I rejected many more. My intention with Project Wonderful was to accumulate enough income from those ads to turn around and serve some of my own. It took about eight months to earn $10.00. I burned through that in a weekend of “Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights” advertising. That’s hardly worth it. So, no more banner ads on the right sidebar or on the footer of the page.

The ads I served in the RSS feed of my blog were from good old Google Adsense. I’ve been enrolled in the AdSense program for many years and I’ve activated ads on various sites in various ways off and on now and then. I’ve earned just over $6.00 total in all that time. Let’s face it, no site I’ve ever run has been the kind of mega-ultra-SEO’ed traffic magnet you have to have to make any money from AdSense. So that’s done, no more, probably forever.

Then there were the ads in my Twitter stream. These were from a UK company called Magpie, and as with Project Wonderful, I personally checked out and vetting every single potential ad before they appeared. I rejected about three times as many ads as I approved, and the ads I approved only showed up in my Twitter stream (clearly marked with the #advert tag) once every twenty tweets. Even though the majority of you guys said, “hey, go for it” when I asked if I should try Magpie, great googley moogley did some of you complain and raise your indignant fists when those ads actually appeared! Ultimately, the infrequency of ads I felt comfortable running meant I barely made any money on them. I’ve canceled my Magpie account and didn’t make enough to cash out, so that’s done, too.

Honestly, as much as I value your opinion and I respect the folks who spit and hissed about my monetization efforts, the ultimate reason I’ve decided to eliminate unrelated, non-endorsed advertising as a source of income in this time when I really, really need sources of income is a simple one: ads aren’t worth the screen real estate they take up or the social capital they erode.

Other Models

As I intimated above, I am open to accepting advertising from people I know and respect whose products and services I can personally endorse. I don’t have any rates worked out or anything like that… every month, this site averages about 4,000 page views from 2,000 or so unique visitors who spend about two minutes here. If we know each other and get along and you’ve got something to advertise, tell me what that’s worth to you and we’ll figure something out.

Also, I’ve got a number of affiliate arrangements with companies and individuals I personally use or find worthwhile. I’ve moved all that stuff over to the Mall page — if you’re going to shop for books, movies, independent music, media downloads, writing software and pretty much everything else under the sun, please consider bookmarking this page and using the links that are there. I’ll get a little kickback — from four to fifty percent, depending on the service you use — every time you spend money from there. Don’t underestimate how much that could help me out while not taking anything away from you.

The primary monetization model I’m adopting is the one that matters most to me: neo-patronage. I make stuff, I do stuff… you pay me for the things I make and do… or you pay me to keep making and doing things in a general sense. In the coming weeks, I’ll be making some changes and additions on this site that will reflect my renewed commitment to that approach.

What Is Neo-Patronage?

The definition of neo-patronage found at my colleague Kristopher Young’s site, Another Sky Press is so clear, it’s Google’s number one search result for the term. You should check that out, and you should buy books from Another Sky Press.

I’m going to lift mightily from what Kris and company have already said, with my own take mixed in:

Neo-patronage is the practice of compensating an artist for works they’ve created and works they’ve yet to create. Through direct and easily executed payment methods made possible by PayPal and other systems, it’s simple and affordable for many individuals to contribute small amounts to the support of an artist’s creative endeavors. Unlike the classic one-to-one patronage of the Renaissance, under the neo-patronage many-to-one model patrons do not have control of an artist’s creative direction or the automatic right to ownership of everything the artist creates.

I’ve played with this in the past, but soon I’ll be rolling some things out on this site to emphasize this approach. While I haven’t worked it all out just yet, I’m planning a number of different ways and different levels folks can become patrons if they would like to do so.

For those who don’t want to support me through neo-patronage, the opportunity to hire my services or purchase my books, music and other creative products will still exist.

Stay Tuned

Watch the blog, Twitter and Facebook for announcements and new features as I work all this stuff out. As always, your ideas, comments and criticisms are not only welcome, they’re necessary to my process. Thanks, in advance, for your thoughtful engagement.

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