Several readers have emailed asking why I don’t do advertising or a tip jar or otherwise "monetize" the site.
I wouldn’t want to mess up Joelle‘s lovely design with visually unappealling Advertising. Its not worth uglifying things for a few nickels, and that’s all my traffic — about ~10k a day — would generate.
As to a tip jar, well, its not exactly "Wall Street." A more Street-like approach would be for you to sell me your grandmothers, then part out their organs on the black market. That’s right, let’s arb Grannie. Unseemly, yes — but more Street-like than a tip jar. (Yes, that’s a bit of sarcasm).
But since more than a few of you have asked, here are some suggestions:
As opposed to cash, I’d prefer something that’s a product of your thought process: Books, Music, DVDs, any item from my ginormous wish list — reflective of you — would be just fine.
Since the holiday season is also one of giving (rather than receiving or arbing the elderly), here are several charities I support:
• Major Bob Bateman’s Iraq school supplies (you can use paypal for contributions);
• Americares is the most efficient relief charity in the U.S.(make Katrina/New Orleans donations to them);
• Donate your Airline Miles to help Tsunami victims;
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One small caveat: If you (or your firm) is a client of my firm, remember that the NASD has giftgiving rules.
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UnCaveat: If you are a market professional (fund manager, trader, broker) who I have helped make an enormous bonus this year, and you are not a client of the firm, well then by all means, you should feel free — indeed, common decency compels you — to go absolutely wild!
been reading your site for the last 2 months after waiting eagerly for your weekend linksfest posts on street. I love it, love the reading material, opinion, and great reading that you provide and refer me to. thanks again best wishes for the holiday.
“visually unappealling Advertising. Its not worth uglifying things”
Are Google ads “ugly” and “visually unappealling”?
Targeted ads give people exactly what they want and when they want it, and do not waste paper.
Sunday advertisements in newspapers are, on average, uglier and less appealing to me than artful or modest amount of electronic ads. Electronic ads do not waste paper or toner.
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BR: Hey, thats just me — they look ugly!
Some more gift giving ideas:
http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2005/12/xmas_post.html
52 page wish list? my goodness
Cool ways to donate $
Link: The Big Picture: Why No Tip Jar?.
I guess one man’s “few nickels” is another man’s mortgage payment! I’m gonna do about $1,500 in ad revenue this month on just under a fifth of your traffic. So my guess is that you could easily do $7,500/month in ad revenue.
An BlogAd on “Michael”‘s blog made me aware of a new Enron DVD that is coming out in the near future. This interests me. So I think ads are not inherently ugly.
Barry R has very interesting blog that has been much appreciated. He has analysis and insight that may be lacking in business and stock-talk media. He also is very responsive. His writing is interesting, and he has made me aware of much I did not know (eg, Jump the Shark). I also know that Barry is not calling me an ugly person. So I will very thoughtfully consider Barry’s input on ads.
Barry: your forecast for Dow around 7000 or lower looks suspiciously low to me. You may look like a genius or an excessively argumentative outlier.
I think the Dow could crash but have a hard time thinking that far. Big industrials have worked a lot on blocking and tackling and other fundamentals in the 2000s, and I have a hard time believing they drop to 7,000. It might happen if there is some huge international foreign relations change – people dumping U.S. bonds, not paying for products sold on credit, and a spike in U.S. interest rates. Otherwise, i have a hard time believing stocks drop to 7,000. I also think box office sales at movie theatres will increase due to the large number of interesting films recently released, which will get people’s moods improved and possibly the economy (didn’t Barry R have a posting on following box office trends and the correlation with markets?)
Avoid the ads. If you start making any interesting amount of money it will change you and your blog for the worse.
“A BlogAd” not “An BlogAd”
generally speaking, my posts are stream-of-conscious.
My finance blog has about a 100 people a day and I make about $10-15 a month in ad revenue. So you’re looking at 100 times that if you’re at 10k a day which is $1000-$1500 a month or $12k-$18k a year which is hardly chump change. It’s a nice little Christmas bonus for yourself if you ask me.