Shortly after the dewy dawn of blogging I signed up for the seminal online service BlogAds, more to keep up with what was happening in online media than in hopes of making any real money. I used to get a fair number of ads, mostly political, and for a few years the little images on the left rail generated about $1K annually, with which I paid for my software and donated to other bloggers and online projects I liked.
Eventually that trickle of cash dried up and now they send me stuff like the ad pictured here, which I'm not interested in having on my site.
Yes, I know I just put it on my site, but that's different -- I'll handle the sleaze and exploitation around here, and posting it for fun or information is different than taking money to put it in your face all day.
Worse, BlogAds now posts ads automatically if I don't nix them the day I get the notification email. My life is too busy to jump when they tell me to jump, so, after a long time and a lot learned, it might be time to say sayonara, BlogAds.
I'll never forget finding them walking south on Elm after a ConvergeSue, following their GPS to Ganache. I disabused them of the notion and offered them a ride north, during which I offered them drugs and women. They were happy to exit the old Merc upon arrival.
Posted by: Fec | Jan 09, 2013 at 03:29 PM
Them being people from BlogAds, or Miley and Lindsey?
I met the founder, Henry, at Dave Winer's first BloggerCon. Not just a long time ago in internet years, actually a long time ago.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 09, 2013 at 03:40 PM
They were just kids and no names were exchanged, only looks of fear when they discovered the left back door handle didn't work. I did my best to represent a crazed blogger.
Posted by: Fec | Jan 09, 2013 at 03:58 PM
I've been moderately happy with Google's Ad Sense. Last year, they started to tour and meeting with publishers to help them improve their advertising opportunities.
Posted by: Don Moore | Jan 09, 2013 at 04:01 PM
And there is Miley's O face in the BlogAds column today. How'd they get that by you, Ed?
Posted by: Thomas | Jan 10, 2013 at 07:51 AM
Gah. Apparently the BlogAds system reads "reject" as "accept."
Fixed. Thanks, T.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 10, 2013 at 09:15 AM
So what's with the spam hotlinks showing up in comments where no hot links were placed by the original poster?
Posted by: bubba | Jan 10, 2013 at 09:43 AM
Sorry, Bob, not following you. Where are you seeing links?
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 10, 2013 at 09:53 AM
sounds like that's on your side, bubba.
Posted by: sean coon | Jan 10, 2013 at 10:21 AM
One appeared behind the word "cheaper" in my comment on the Lawn thread. It's gone now. I saw several more behind words on other people's comments on other threads.
It might be something that came via a hidden add-on to a recent download.
Posted by: bubba | Jan 10, 2013 at 04:03 PM
Yikes. Not seeing it here, hope you can kill it at your end.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 10, 2013 at 04:11 PM
I uninstalled several items I downloaded yesterday, all originally certified by Norton as "safe".
I don't see any of those strange hotlinks anywhere now.
Posted by: bubba | Jan 10, 2013 at 05:15 PM
Bubba, there is a really great free version of Avast if Norton isn't doing the job.
Posted by: Roch | Jan 10, 2013 at 09:13 PM