I'm a little torn on this one. There are no ads on nicolasix, but it's not really for ideological reasons. The simple truth is that this is my personal blog and I think it would begin to take on a different context for me if I tried to make money from it. I may change my mind about that someday, but that's how I feel right now. I'm not blankly opposed to ads on blogs, however. In fact, I'm working on launching another blog and, while it will also be somewhat personal in nature, it will contain ads.

'Adfreeblog.org' say ads 'devalue the medium.' But they don't really explain how or why this is the case. They just declare it as fact. What they're really saying is that they are of the unshakable conviction that advertising, in general, is devaluing our culture. And I have to admit I sympathize with this sentiment. I'm pretty sick of advertising, too. There's even that hippie, anti-establishment part of me that would love to get all righteous and stand up and say 'down with the man' and 'corporate ads suck' and crap like that. But taking that approach won't really help my own situation. People can admire my principles, but that won't put clothes on my back. Another way to look at this is that the ad revenue potential in blogs is leading to a new class of independent, creative people who can support themselves without having to go to an office and sit in a cubicle. I suppose the cynical would say the relationship is still inherently a parasitic one, but I say so what? You can't really get much more anti-establishment than this. I think the trick for this new class of independents becomes trying to strike a balance where you can make money and not whore yourself doing it, where you're actually helping to sell stuff you believe in at the same time that you're serving ads that have 'context' for various pages on your site which somebody might stumble upon when doing a Google search.

Some bloggers are coming up with their own solutions, like The Deck. Even though this particular effort slaps of a sort of 'elitism' that makes me cringe (read: we are A-list bloggers and we have Very High Standards), I do like the stated intent: "Sell us something relevant to our audience and we'll sell you an ad."

Other people are experimenting with different networks aside from the omnipresent AdSense and finding success, along with a better aesthetic experience.

It's easy to take the stance that advertising on blogs is somehow wrong. Period. End of discussion. I'm not saying I don't understand the mindset, here. I do. But aside from giving yourself a warm fuzzy feeling over the strength of your convictions, I'm not sure the attitude really helps anybody, least of which yourself. People have to make a living. And how cool is it that bloggers are finding ways to do that? I think there are reasonable ways to make advertising on blogs work for everybody: bloggers, audience, and yes, even 'the man.' It's just a matter of getting creative and finding a way that makes sense to you.

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