Blog Ads!

Around a month after reactivating Nuffnang ads on this blog and Superb Senora, I've started earning from the latter. I've been posting my thoughts online since 2004. The prospect of actually making a buck from blogging is a welcome thought, in light of my need for additional income. 

The first ads that popped out of Senora was a Safeguard promo about Rio dela Cruz, the celebrity running coach. I've known the humble Rio from our college track & field days. His success story is truly remarkable. I'm honored to run Coach Rio ads on my blog!

A food ad whose title I've forgotten and an Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter movie header came next.

This morning, Nuffnang began showing promo about a Beauty Bar sale. Since Superb Senora is a blog that honors female athletes, the aforesaid ad relates well with the content of the site.

The amount I've accrued from the blog ads are still pitifully small, considering the relatively light traffic of Superb Senora (Around 4,000 hits last month, thanks to hurdler49 referrals), but it's a good start. Senora has only 52 posts, only a handful of which are popular. It doesn't generate that many daily hits (around 200 on a given day), but a consistent stream of new material could change its fortunes in the coming months.

Dealing With Technological Stress

My friend Ivan calls it "technological stress." 

We live in a day and age where gadget use is inevitable. Broadband connection makes information exchange instantaneous. People are interconnected, thanks to social networking, computers and the ever-increasing use of mobile devices. The time we spend on websites like Facebook and Twitter has grown considerably the past few years. 

With this change in lifestyle, the virtual has an obvious effect on real life. 

For instance, I get easily pissed off when my internet connection conks out. Although it is a rare occurrence (PLDT My DSL is reliable enough), I get these mild withdrawal symptoms whenever it happens. A computer failure is even more stressful. Yes, I am a cheap skate. My being frugal (and at times, cash-strapped) has forced me to use obsolescent gadgets.

I bought my main PC second-hand three years ago. It is a cannibalized IBM ThinkCentre, originally manufactured back in 2003. Come to think of it, my motherboard is now approximately 9 years old! In terms of gadget age, my trusty old PC is a dinosaur. And yet, I've been prolonging purchasing a new machine for the longest time, opting to use my computer know-how to prolong its shelf life. 

Despite the occassional coughs and colds, my PC works like a charm. I'd have to put in new RAM chips, though, to ensure that it stays this way.

When it comes to my choice of cell phones, I follow the same, no-frills mantra. Instead of shelling out a good Php 15,000.00 for a savvy smartphone, I have opted to make do with my mom's hand-me-down Nokia 5130. I love the fact that it's lightweight. It also doubles as an mp3 player. I've been tempted to join the smartphone bandwagon many times. But a deeper reflection of my personal needs and wants always reiterates the foregone conclusion: I do not need 24/7 Facebook and Twitter connection. 

With my three blogs and active social networking presence, getting a smartphone might just be the last nail on the coffin of my social life!

Gadgets and the our oh-so-precious internet connection are bound to conk out once in a while. Perhaps the best - and cheapest - way to mitigate the effects of "technological stress" is to keep things simple.

Blog Ads... Finally!

I've been posting my thoughts online since the summer of 2004. Back then, I dabbled with my old Livejournal account (I shan't post the link. I'm too embarrassed). I migrated my stuff to Multiply, once it usurped the former in terms of popularity. Most of my stuff were sentimental musings or posts about my sporting experiences. 

My quixotic quest to balance a full-time job with an athletics career necessitated a reboot in my blogging activities. I started hurdler49 to chronicle my travails. After more than two years, I decided to call it quits to focus on far bigger things in life than hurdling. 

By then, I was maintaining three blogs: (1) a personal blog, (2) Superb Senora and, of course, (3) hurdler49. Hurdler49 has met some measure of success. In its two years of existence, it has amassed more than 200,000 unique page views (thanks to my weekly Track Beauty feature). My personal blog (3,800) and Superb Senora (11,900) have more humble stat sheets. I started the two other websites to capitalize on hurdler49's online footprint - and to hopefully earn some extra dough through ad placements.

Google AdSense was too tedious in its approval process. I tried to put Nuffnang ads, but it slowed down the loading times of my two other sites. Besides, Nuffnang seemed to display the most mundane of its default banners. The ads weren't even about products, for crying out loud! Hence, I scrapped the advertisement boxes. 

The past weeks have seen a resurgence in my blogging activity ( I have tons of free time since my retirement from athletics). I began to post more and more articles on Superb Senora and my personal blog. Then it hit me, why not put Nuffnang ads again? 

   

It's astounding to note that putting Nuffnang ads was even easier, with today's Javascript and Flash technology, than two years ago. Perhaps because of the maturity level of my two blogs, the Nuffnang ads now are more relevant! (The default ads are actually Cost per Click (CPC) campaigns by Nuffnang's sister company. I still have to wait 20 days to eligible for paid ad campaigns!)

With these ads, my blogs now load slower than usual. To the readers of my blogs, I'm terribly sorry. I gotta earn some extra cash, even if it comes at a trickle!

What to Expect

Over the past three days, I've setup two other blogs to complement my main sports blog, hurdler49. The steady rise of readership of hurdler49 stemmed from my Track Beauty of the Week entries, as well as my honest-to-goodness posts about other well-known tracksters and sporting events. I also post my training logs and training reflections on the site (although hardly anyone ever reads these!).

I originally wanted to migrate all my hurdler49 content into my own domain name, just to take advantage of the financial opportunities offered by web-based advertising. But then again, transferring my content from the free Wordpress.com blog to my own domain entails much work. And this entails an additional fixed cost as well. I'll let future Joboy worry about this problem!

The main reason for my yearning to move is to open the popular Track Beauty of the Week feature to financially lucrative world of web ads. Then it hit me, why not setup an offshot of the aforesaid feature that encompass all brawny beauties from all sports? And so, I utilized the services of Blogger, since it offers seamless integration with Google AdSense. As of now, the traffic to Superb Senoras - my new blog dedicated in honoring the women of sports - is a mere trickle compared to hurdler49. But soon enough, I believe, the hits are bound to come.

Furthermore, I decided to create another blog - this blog! - to create an avenue for my non-sports posts. After all, I as a writer, have so much more to offer than hurdles, sprints, pole vault, jumps, basketball and a multitude of anecdotes about pretty athletes.

Back in college, I used to post my crude compositions - from essays, feature articles and poems. I've also written quite a few short stories myself. I shall post my old works, as well as new ones, into this blog. Since I'm also a history buff, I'll be uploading political commentary and retrospective entries too. Aside from these, I'll be dabbling in the reviewing various products that pique my interest (from gadgets, shoes and cars) and, if time permits, the customary post-vacation travelogue.

But most of the all, the centerpiece of my work is the human condition. I like writing about how I feel. I achieve a certain sense of solace each time I successfully put into words my inner emotions.

Looking back, I've come a long way from my days in Livejournal and Multiply. The convergence of social networking and various forms of media, under the mantle of the ever-so-powerful Internet, has paved the way for an evolution in my literary inclinations - and personal passions.

I love to write; I fully appreciate the value of a wired (and wireless) world. Here's a toast to the age of convergence!