Schools of thought on Adsense

FOUR fellow "serious" bloggers weighed in on my recent post regarding the measly $1 credited to my Google Adsense account 45 days after enroling.

Urbano empathized with my disappointment. In his case, at $1 per month, he was doing better than my batting average; even then, the puny earning is definitely not worth the invaluable lessons on urban development he shares with readers. So off the ads went.

Maryanne Moll agrees wholeheartedly, ditching the ads that merely messed up the design of her blog -- which she really liked -- after a week or two of test drive. She even prefers the old Blogger software over the new one, which does not render the Scribe template well in its default mode, unless one tinkers with the HTML code under the hood. Not to disrespect Oliver, but I agree with Maryanne that Scribe in the old Blogger did look much better.

Dominique, on the other hand, encouraged me not to give up just yet. In his case, it took him only three years -- not the 12.5 I arrived at -- to hit $100. Yes, Adsense will not earn one a living like Maryanne said, but there are silly laughs that come with the ritual of checking the latest Adsense tally.

Irvin did not seem to give a damn, but it is because his blogging sofware (or is it webhost provider?...hell whatever) does not accept codes that allow ad placement. But I have a feeling he is interested, given the traffic he generates out of Filipinizing the English language. Just check his latest post on English films and their Pinoy translation, which had Dune Padre crying out laughing.

This conversation underscores certain realities about the internet economy and the Google business model that is helping power it. An obvious one, I think, is that it does not reward quality; just look at the Pinoy Top Blogs that Irvin mentioned and you will see what I mean. Which actually mirrors our society at large and their preferences: if Filipinos are voting with their feet because the Philippines seem so hopeless, the Pinoy online community is voting with their clicks -- to our dismay.

But blogging for the committed is not about Adsense alone; ads are actually icing on the cake, which one can dispense with. Blogging is really that cake: it is about getting a voice and making it heard; it is about community building using internet technologies that bring distant places together; it is about sharing what one knows so that lessons learned elsewhere can be applied to make life better; it is about celebrating life and its complexities expressed only in the choicest words.