Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Monopoly, anyone?


I've decided in these dark financial days that the only treats I will buy myself are going to come from my advertising revenue from these two sites. I need every other penny to go toward credit cards or savings.

Currently, I make only around $7-$15 per month between An Examined Life and SHELTERhome and am about two and a half months away from my next $100 check from Google. I'm considering changing up and trying the BlogHer advertising program. Since you are the ones who do the clicking, does anyone have suggestions as to which one is better? What kind of ads would you like to see here? I'd really appreciate your feedback.

To clarify, my goal isn't big bucks (Though I wouldn't send it back!) since treats for me are simple: jewelry (currently have no earrings or a working watch), makeup (I want a new lipstick but I have several in the "still can scrape it out of the tube" stage), a professional haircut (been cutting my own since 2002), and new sheets and towels (mine are six years old or older).

Yes, those are the kind of things I deprive myself of when times are lean. As you can see, I'm not even talking trips, shoes, or clothing. That kind of money has to be secured ahead of time before I even think about those things.

In the future, the things you will see me make or sew on these blogs will be from materials I already have in-house.* Almost my entire fabric stash send me pangs of guilt each time I see it because the many unfinished projects represent money I could still have. So I won't buy new things until I finish the old* or secure the money elsewhere (via Lowe's gift certificates, selling something on eBay, trade, etc.)

By the way, I was raised that you don't look complete if you don't have earrings on, so the purchase of earrings was first. (I just ordered two very affordable pairs from this Etsy seller.)

*With a few exceptions: a cardigan or winter jacket and a warm knit or corduroy dress/jumper for my climate-controlled office.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been really curious about the BlogHer advertising too. Many years back I tried Google ads, but didn't think it was worth the $3 a month or whatever it was bringing in.

drwende said...

BlogHer does nice-looking ads; I think in the past I've actually clicked on a few.

If you're getting $10-$20 a month from Google ads, you're doing really, really well.

lsaspacey said...

Well, to be honest, $20 only happened once.

Antoinette said...

No idea about advertising. In such strange economic times, I am even more grateful that I can sew! I am all over refashioning/ recycling/ upcycling clothing and have some fun projects coming up, including converting womens' gigantic wool coats into either blazers or smaller wool coats, or maybe jumpers. Picked up both of the original source garments from the thrift store for 99 cents each! Wish there were some fabric swap for those of us with big stashes and not a lot of inspiration for some of that fabric.