What follows is part of a longer posting at my other site, http://aftermidnightpage.blogspot.com. It's an issue that many bloggers [those who try to make money at Blogger by running a "monitization" site] are going to be facing over the next few weeks and months. I am not advocating ANYTHING at this point except a calm consideration by all parties of the issues on the table. That said, keep your powder dry. You never know...
As an interested observer [and a Blogger user], I find myself very concerned about an apparent new policy at "Big B"; namely, dropping blogs that are using non-Google ads. I'd have to be a lawyer to understand every word of the Blogger Rulebook, but I don't deny they have the right to do this. What I wonder about, though, is how long Blogger bloggers [there must be a more graceful way to put that, but I don't know how] are going to put up with it. With the exception of my EntreCard, I choose not to use any "monitization" features on my sites [and I have some doubts as to how much money is on the way to 'Carders; see [below], where I've written a three-part consideration of the soon-to-be-implemented EntreCard "purchase" policy]. But I do believe that every blogger has a right to operate his or her blog as they see fit. Host sites that will not acknowledge this right may find themselves deserted, or worse, populated entirely by old cranks like me [along with the infamous sites that include "wish lists". There's something about 13-or 14-year-old girls (and boys) posting sites that seem to be little more than "come-ons" for "Sugar Daddies" to make their wishes come true that just creeps my ass out, big time. I'd rather see them go than the commercial blogs]. If, on the other hand, Google [owner/operator of Blogger] is simply looking for a percentage of money made on their blogs from non-Google sources, I can understand that. After all, Google provides a free hosting service. If people are using the free service to make money, the site should receive some form of compensation. But I have yet to find any notification/warning/request for discussion from Google anywhere in the Blogger site. Blogger has what I think is an unfortunate reputation as unfriendly to money-making sites. This will not help. (Perhaps the ultimate answer would involve the creation of a separate tier of money-making blogs. A lot of bad feelings have been raised by the current "blog raids". But I don't believe it's too late to mend the rifts.) Google is, without question, powerful. Time will tell if they can also be reasonable with a group of blog creators who are, for the most part, small businesspeople.
Just a thought, campers...
-Mike Riley
1 comment:
And it's always Big Brother stomping on the little guy who is just trying to make a buck or two extra.
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