Have you ever seen The Social Network?
Mark Zuckerberg’s partner wanted to sell ads on “The Facebook” for a few thousand dollars. Mark Zuckerberg wanted to keep the entire site free of advertisements until it was big enough to command tens of thousands. Or hundreds of thousands. Or millions.
That’s the theory I’ve tried to apply to this website. I have so little advertising on my site, that you may not have even noticed it is there at all. I don’t want to drive people away when they are looking for my writing and videos because they can’t stand to sift through the advertising.
However, I came to a realization in the past few weeks. If people start paying me for advertising, I can take those profits and give them back to all of you with promotions and giveaways! And I know you guys like free money!
Here’s the other thing about writing four or five blogs every week. It takes a long time. I’m happy to do it, except it leaves very little time for creating my favorite content; music videos.
I’ve had the “Thousandaire” song written for almost a year now, recorded for a few months, and I’ve actually filmed about half of it. But I haven’t even started editing it and still need to film the other half. When you combine writing songs, recording them, and then scripting, filming, editing, and producing the videos, I can’t even guess how many hours it takes to make a music video.
So if I want more time for videos, I need to spend less time writing blogs. And how do I continue posting new articles every day without writing them? Ding ding ding! I can use sponsored posts.
Here’s the deal. I’m gonna keep blogging as much as possible, but also save some time for working on videos. When it makes sense, I will allow certain advertising partners to provide relevant personal finance content.Β When that happens, I promise to give away no less than 50% of the advertising revenue in the form of giveaways.
In exchange, all I ask is that you don’t hate me for “selling my soul” to the big, nasty advertisers. Plus I’ll do my best to ensure the advertising is relevant to my audience.
So, more advertising equals more free stuff and more music videos for you guys. You’re welcome.
And really, thank you for reading and commenting and sending emails and tweets. I have some pretty cool readers. You guys are awesome!
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT atΒ Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer ofΒ Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When heβs not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
So, who’s been hating on ya for wanting to make money? That’s ridiculous! I can’t even see any ads on this blog….and you SHOULD be monetizing it.
Good luck with your videos!
Nobody has been hating on me but me.
I don’t see this website as a source of income (yet). It’s more like my own little artistic creation. Part of me feels like I’m sculpting the David and then slapping a godaddy.com logo on it.
However, if I can do giveaways for my readers and have more time for videos, then I am gonna have to take the advertisers up on that offer!
Since a lot of readers in this cricle are bloggers hoping to make money from blogging ourselves, hopefully we will be understanding of a sponsored post or two ;). I’m getting set to post my first sponsored video tomorrow, so hopefully no one will take that the wrong way either. (Personally, I think it’s a pretty funny video anyway.)
Speaking of…I need to get back to those people who want to pay me for writing a review of their site! Here’s hoping it all works out!
Waiting for your music videos Kevin! its so important to keep Creating while you bloging.
You didn’t sell your soul to anyone π you are just making a living.
and …thanx for the music !! that’s what really matters..
More music videos- yea!!! I love your music videos π I’m happy to hear that you gonna clear some time to make music, the music is one of the most important things in life π
Nothing is better than music videos, after this one you made i believe we all looking forward to see more, you are really good at it and it was weird if you didn’t want to focus on what makes you feel good, thanks Kevin π
Looking forward for your videos Kevin, they are special and I love it π , it is a must for you π
very nice videos kevin…. We love whatever you do… hope for the same in future. All the best.