As you know, I recently took the first step in what I hope will be a running stream of non-invasive and unobtrusive advertising that will help augment Fringe’s existence as a more networked, widely-read site.
There comes a point in every blogger’s life when he sells his soul in order to keep doing the thing he loves. I recently arrived at that point when I decided to allow advertising on my site. The truth is, I strove to keep this site advertisement free, and for four years I was able to do just that. I also made approximately seventy dollars over the course of that time, through donations and/or sales of DVDs. That’s not counting hosting and domain costs, cost of production of said DVDs, and other miscellaneous fees.
So less than $20 gross profit per year for a site that has almost 6,000 posts covering a wide range of topics, from Politics to Ireland to Movie Reviews to Fiction Writing. I’ve been trying and failing to attract a larger audience for this site, which I feel is a showcase for my writing and other creative endeavours, most of which could potentially be leveraged into a career at some point. But for whatever reason, Fringe has not caught on. Oh, it’s gotten some notice from a few people, but I don’t have the traffic that I really want. I started Fringe to attract people to my ideas and thoughts.
The research I’ve done suggests that as long as I continue to provide quality content, I shouldn’t piss off too many people. Whilst I do feel like a bit of a sellout, it’s not devoid of merit.
Thanks for your continued patience as I experiment with some new models for the site.