TwoBlog

So I’ve been intrigued by Google’s AdSense and how it can be incorporated into a blogsite to make some small coin:

Google AdSense is a content-targeted advertising program. This means that you do not select keywords or categories for your ads. Instead, Google’s servers determine what your posts are about and display the most relevant ads to your readers. So, if you blog about baseball, there might be ads for Major League Baseball memorabilia next to your post. If you blog about painting, there might be ads for art supplies. In fact, when you blog about something specific, there’s a good chance you’ll earn more, as Matthew Haughey discovered when he put ads on PVRblog. Haughey wrote about his experience in an essay called Blogging for Dollars in which he included four of his own hints.

Haughey’s Hints for AdSense Bloggers

1. Focus, and be as specific as you can.
2. Write content related to real products.
3. Don’t start a blog just for money.
4. Use a professionally designed template.

All I need to get this working is to open an AdSense account at Google, customize my ads, copy some HTML code and paste it in the right place in my blogsite - probably a place in the php that will generate the ad per posting.

I may try this out just for the fun of it and to understand how it works, but I don’t think I’ll keep it around long on the site once I get it working.  Can’t really see myself making money unless I narrow my focus to a single topic like golf or poker or cooking.  Which is a thought that I’ve been kicking around.  Right now I enjoy floating around different topics but have thought about shifting to one or two areas only. 

Comments are welcome if you have any advice / suggestions for me!

In the meantime, you can get an idea of what AdSense is and how to get started at this site.

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Ok, so a little over a week ago, I was skiing in a winter wonderland.  -5C with a good snow base at Horseshoe Valley.  7 days later, there’s no snow to be found, just the expected plethora of bottles, bags, and various garbage items that are hidden from view during the winter months but appear after the melt.  I was ribfesting in 10C on Sat and yesterday, it made it up to about 18C. 

Then, the wind came in.  Strong 80km gusting winds overnight and still going strong now.  And, here comes the heavy snow.  From 18C to 0C (-8C with windchill) in the span of about 8 hrs.  Strange.  Yet not uncommon for this neck of the woods.

I was going to start whining and complaining about the outrageous weather we get here.  But then I realized that maybe I shouldn’t complain afterall:  the US has some pretty crazy weather phenomena that puts them head and shoulders above us.   With respect to dramatic temperature changes, the southwest takes the cake there.  For example, on January 22 (not sure of the year):

In Spearfish, SD, the temperature rose 49 degrees in 2 minutes (-4 to +45 degrees). Later in the day, the temperature fell from the +56 degrees to –4 degrees in 27 minutes.

So, the little temperature shift we had over night?  Not so impressive after all.

How about the strong winds?  Well, over the weekend, through the infamous “Tornado Alley” there were reports of over 100 twisters touching down (see here)!   So, can’t complain there either.  And what about this snow that’s going to hit us?  Well, talk to my friend Chris if you want to really know what it means to be hit by snow.

Well, can’t complain I guess…..except that since I am a Canadian, my favourite past-time is to complain so here goes:

“%&$*, I hate this cold weather!   When’s it going to end?  Why does it have to always snow?  Freakin’ wind!  I hate it when we get teased with nice weather and then get nailed well into April with this crap!  I heard it’s going to be a ‘cold’ spring this year while the East Coast gets to enjoy a mild spring.  Why do they deserve to have the good weather?  Oh, and don’t get me started about our summers.  Summer is not a season up here — it’s a day!  Why did man decide to live here?  When can I move to Phoenix?”

If it’s a cool summer I’m going to have to complain some more…..just you wait.

Oh, and one more thing, why is the Prime Minister in Afghanistan?  Quit wasting my money on meaningless trips!  Couldn’t you do this goodwill stuff over the phone?  C’mon!  Get crackin’ on the things you promised (for good or bad) to do here before the next election. 

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