I’ve recently joined Linkworth to try out a new way for me to earn some advertising revenue. Amateur Bloggers certainly do not have to apologize if they want to generate some money for themselves, or for hosting costs etc.

Linkworth is a very simple program. You sign up and get your websites/blogs approved. You then set up some parameters about your websites such as if you would like to run ads on the homepage only, on every page, or to run banner ads. The compensation is a simple cost-per-month figure. This is quite different from the cost-per-click compensation that you are familiar with Adsense or Chitika or other advertising programs.

If you have a decent site with good traffic, there will probably be more advertisers willing to enjoy the impressions exposure, as well as repeat customers. I chose to ask for the minimum bid of $5 per month just to see if anybody would advertise on one of my blogs. To my surprise, AmBlogger was the first of my blogs to get a willing advertiser! I’ve approved the sponsor, so you can now check out who it is by looking at my sidebar on the right!

Why Am I Surprised?
As you may know, I run a few other blogs. I should do a comparison or report on how each of them are doing. So far, every blog of mine has its own success stories and things that I am looking to improve on. I was actually expecting advertisers to be interested about another blog because of its niche and traffic statistics.

So go visit my sponsor this month! For the advertiser, it’s a good way to maintain fixed costs and target/control which sites you run your campaigns. I wonder how other webmasters or bloggers are doing with Linkworth? Do you have a Linkworth story that you would like to share??

P.S. I have decided to get rid of the poll of the month for the time being. I may bring it back later, but I’m looking for better ideas to incorprate into the sidebar!

As part of my midnight reading, I came upon fellow Canadian blogger, Melanie McBride, a Toronto writer and communications specialist. She had written an article a while back on her blog, ChandraSutra, in response to local magazines’ views and articles about blogging.

Her rebuttal revealed some very interesting tidbits about old media journalists vs. bloggers. She also chimes in her views of “pros” vs. “amateurs”. Here’s some excerpts I noted along with my commentary!

Most of the bloggers I know and link to feel compromised at the very idea of advertising. And of the good bloggers who have decided to feature advertising, most have done so with great reluctance and/or embarassment. Don’t get me wrong, I do not have a problem with bloggers who choose to advertise. Particularly if advertising is about paying for your hosting or a blog related cost. And most especially if you are producing content that is not dictated by Google adsense revenues. This is the difference between taste and money grubbing.

Wow! This is very similar to AmBlogger’s theory! It is true that too many people are relying on Google adsense for revenue and quite a few prominent bloggers like Chartreuse are starting to encourage people to look to diversify and be creative with their revenue streams. I do use Adsense but I also regard it as a lazy business model. (more…)

January 1st is for the children of the sun. Today is the day for those who celebrate the moon’s glory! The Lunar New Year is not only celebrated by myself but by many other Asian ethnics as well, so to simply say Chinese New Year is a little bit of an inaccurate statement in this political correct world.

To celebrate, AmBlogger will be going on hiatus for the next 48 hours. Blogging was always meant to be fun, I don’t know how much fun it will be if I ever took it as my work (go pro). Here, I wish for every Amateur Blogger out there to be able to inspire and get inspired through their Blogging, help someone discover and also help themselves rekindle their passion, in the Year of the Dog.

Speaking of Dog, I love that Google has changed their logo for the Lunar New Year. They’ve always cared about the little things, the little details and included every one in their celebrations. That’s why they can differentiate themselves from other search engines, and built a community following.

Many other Blogs have also reported on Google’s Holiday AdSense themes for the Lunar New Year. I won’t repeat or repost what they’ve all said. My view about Google slowly moving towards using images in their contextual text ads is that they seem to be on the right track! It’s a no-brainer that images draw your attention, and attention is always welcomed where advertising is concerned! The point is not to be annoying with those images. A cute dog faded into the background can only help, not hurt these. If your site has been showing these ads, what were the clickthrough results? Do Share!