Money, Money on my wall...

I switched over to the new Blogger interface this evening and was browsing through the new layout since in the end, we're all going to end up here anyway. Why fight it? And noticed for the second time, the AdSense button. AdSense, if you haven't stumbled across it, is an online advertising-based venture through which bloggers can make some extra profit by allowing companies to post ads related to their blog, directly on their blog. I've noticed it before, looked into it before, and refused to do it before. But today, I was a little more curious. My gut reaction, is that I'm selling out. My blog is a place where I stop to rest a brain weary of traveling in our high-paced, over-sold, jam-the-next-greatest-thing-in-your-face world. I come here to spill my thoughts, open my mind and share with you and myself, my thoughts and wonders of my horse-obessed world. Now, my thought this second time around, was that this "AdSense" might prove to be a great little way to make some extra horse-dollars to put towards that new show shirt I need, or an actual dressage girth rather then continue to ride in my brown fabric aussie one. Or maybe it would fund an extra trip to the barn or even a chance to audit a dressage clinic?! But it still didn't feel right. Why? Because I felt like it wasn't fair to YOU, the reader that you should be forced to view advertisements when you come to my blog to hear my story. That's not why you come here. If you wanted to be bombared with ads, you'd pick up the flyers, or turn on the television without the PVR or hang-out on your favorite forum or the google homepage. But you don't. You're hear to read, and it's not fair for me to sneak in some money making scheme and sell YOU out in order to get the things I want a little sooner. Perhaps that sounds silly, as they're just tiny advertisements and I'd only be getting cents for each one viewed, and no one is forcing the reader to actually CLICK the links. But it still feels invasive to me. It changes the reason WHY I come here and blog. I come here to tell a story, to share a memory or express a victory or failure. I don't want my motivation to write, to develop a good blog, to be because I want to make a couple more dollars this month. I should admit, I track my pageviews. I get excited when I see them rise, smile and investigate every new follower who signs on, and spend time thinking about ways to make my blog more entertaining, more enjoyable and more fun for you to read. But I do it only because I love the opportunity to share, as a newsman shares, as a journalist shares, as a writer, as a story teller. My only motivation is to keep you coming back, so we can continue to share our stories. The blogger community is one of people who have such common interests, common experiences, that we flock to one another to learn and grow and support each other. We may not truly 'know' one another, but we're a community in our own very rights. And I don't want to canvas my community, my blogger friends for a few extra cents a month. Brown aussie girth and all. The lame-o statistician in me wanted to see something though. I wanted to know of all the blogs I am following, how many are making a pretty penny of my interest in their lives, their stories, and how many remain just a friendly neighbour, sharing their tale? In a moment of insanity (okay, nothing better to do 'cause it's pouring rain outside, the BF is working, there's nothing on cable, I watched EVERYTHING on the PVR and I shouldn't be internet shopping for anyone but the BF who's birthday is coming up...and THAT's not fun), decided to browse every blog I'm reading to see how many are profiteering from our sense of community. So, I follow a total of 55 blogs...wait, make that 54 as one shut down recently. Unfortunately, some are severely out of date and their writers have lost interest. But of those 56 blogs: 1 - Prairie Nerd 2 - Fat Girl/Fat Horse (Looking for advertisements...none actually present) 3 - Behind the Bit (Claims to have no paid ads, but is still riddled with them...seriously, if you're going to try and encourage me to spend money, at least profit off of it). 4 - Bitless Horse 5 - Dressage Mom 6 - Eventing A Gogo 7 -