How to improve this blog (with your help!)

(George McGovern and the Bobover Rebbe zt"l, May 1972)

My friends: It's been almost 4 years since we embarked on this very noble venture and started the blog. Back then we were new to the game, we saw the need and jumped in, not knowing where it would lead or how long it would last. Much has changed - for the better, I think, despite losing the "anti" aspect of it. We learned that we can have intelligent discussions here without trumpeting the vices of today and without doing major attack jobs on people who live in our communities. We're pretty much unique in that sense. Over 500,000 unique hits later and I've been told by faithful readers that we've reached the next level. I've been told that this blog has what it takes to turn into a serious blog that can support itself make some cash, pocket change, yes, but cash nevertheless, without asking for the support of the readers. In other words I can get advertising dollars, also known as "making money while you sleep." Don't worry it won't be in the classic, DovBear schnorrer fashion, of "please buy my book." It won't really involve much effort on your part at all.

For the last few years I've had several amazon ads up on the sidebar. They add a bit of the color and make me an affiliate. If you click on one of the icons it'll take you to the actual product that you clicked on, but you can also browse all other amazon products and - if you make a purchase - it'll be as if you were referred to them by Circus Tent and I'll get a shtikkel commission. Amazon pays you your referral fees in 100 dollar increments. I've added some new widgets and stuff to the site, some of which may not be all that appropriate for my readers, but you'll excuse me while I tinker with the site a bit. There's also the "I liked" widget that rotates the products (books, mostly) that I clicked as being my "favorites." The same goes for Google ads. There the system is based on clicks, you don't need to buy anything from them or from the advertisers. I don't expect people to sit and click the Google ads for me. The Google people got tired of my ads not being clicked on so all I see now is "Help Hurricane Katrina Victims" ads or other very generic (not specific to what we feature) from them on my site. Maybe I'll throw myself into that a little bit too and see what I can gain from their ads.

My point is simple: I need to get some sort of compensation for all the work that goes into writing and moderating and commenting without passing it onto you, the reader. I know there are ways to make money when you have as many readers and visitors as I have and I want to take advantage of it. Please, do not think that I'm slowing down or giving up, on the contrary, I plan on making this blog bigger and better, especially since I see that the efforts pays off in the amount of new readers. I may have to broaden my horizons a bit, whatever it takes, well, almost whatever. But from what I understand, what it really will take to make it is soliciting ads from Jewish (and non-Jewish) businesses and getting google and amazon to work for me. Where you people come in is if there's somebody out there that works in this line and can help I'd love to hear from you. If you have ideas and experiences to share - even discouraging ones - I'd like to hear them too. If you think it'll never work tell me why, but I need to know, and from what I hear it can work, and not in the "Earn $5,000 a day and work from home" type of way either.

my email address is neveler@gmail.com

Thanks for listening!