Is this your first time here? If you're an average reader here, you either found this site through a link or a specific search, and are a new reader. For those who have been here before, you might notice that there are no longer any ads. I was using adsense, and while I certainly don't have a high volume of traffic (< 1,000 visits/month), I thought that I was earning about $1.00 a month. Barely worth even thinking about, but it was something measurable that helped to motivate me to continue writing and improving my site.

I had a bad sleep last night, and at one point I got up and started looking at adsense. I hadn't looked at it in a while (at least since last month), and I noticed that the "Finalized Earnings" hadn't changed in a while. When I changed the date range of the report, I saw that it hadn't actually changed since February 1st, even though I had about $10 in real ad clicks. I realize that Google automatically removes clicks that it thinks are fake, but there were no warnings in my Adsense account, and no spikes in my stats that would suggest click-bombing.

Am I supposed to believe that every single click in 8 months is fake? Bullshit. It's bullshit, and I think Google knows it.

So now, I have no ads. I will not be looking for a new ad provider, as I don't care enough about a few dollars to put the effort in to make it work. Besides, if Google is going to fuck me, why wouldn't every other company?

Does anyone have any suggestions for monetizing an amateur blog? Has the "tip-jar" worked for anyone? I haven't started one because I read that they were against the Adsense TOS. I'm a poor student, and even $1 a month is more than $0 a month.

Please leave any comments or advice below!