Nothing in this world is free.

It’s true. Even walks in the park are paid for by our tax dollars (unless, of course, you’re in the country illegally… then lots of things are free!).

One thing about my blog is that currently, it is free. I pay for my domain name and hosting, I give my time to regularly write posts. You of course give your time to read it, but hopefully you are getting something back (entertainment, thoughtful topics, ideas, etc.) or you would simply move onto the next blog. I enjoy writing, and having a blog is a big part of who I am.

This is all to say that there is a way I can make (some) money off my blog. I have been looking into putting ads into my sidebar as a way of generating some income from the traffic I get here. And by ads, I mean simple, tasteful ones – not gaudy and flashy. Another possibility is sponsored posts – I write a completely honest post about a certain product or service, and get some income from that or from click-thrus related to that post.

For me, I am looking for ways that I can contribute to our household and lower our debt. And earning money while continuing to do what I’ve always done – i.e. blog – seems like a good thing.

Recently I signed up for Amazon Associates. You may notice my “currently reading” and “recently read” items on the sidebar. If you click on those book covers, and end up buying the book, then I get a (small) percentage back. The same is true for any link (even text links) from my site from now on for Amazon – including my “booklist”. I’m excited about this. I ask that if you learned of a book from my site and have decided to buy it, could you click through the link on my site?

My hesitation about ads and sponsored posts stems from a discussion over at Sallie’s blog, and a lot of people seem to think she should not have ads or sponsored posts. I’ve also read about how people avoid sites with ads on them. That scares me – I don’t want to chase away any readers! So I’m looking for your opinion. What do you think? Would you avoid my site?

Anyways, things to think about. Let me know your thoughts about this.

** One thing that I’ve wondered since I wrote this post is if I really have the readership to make doing ads/sponsored posts worth it. And if I don’t have the readership, is that something I want to try and gain? Or am I okay with the amount of readers I have now? I’m not sure I want a lot of readers… I used to be obsessed with getting a lot of comments, but now I am wondering if that’s what I really want. I think I will have to ponder this idea a bit more.