I’ve been thinking recently about advertising on the Internet. As some of you may notice, I have an ad running along the right side of my blog. Specifically, I’m a member of BlogHer’s advertising network. BlogHer pegs itself as “the best conversations led by women in social media. A curated selection of authentic voices.” Their advertising network serves ads to members of the BlogHer network, giving advertisers the opportunity to focus on a (relatively) targeted audience. As a bonus for blogs serving BlogHer ads, the ads will link to other blogs in the BlogHer network – I get traffic from other people hosting BlogHer ads, and they send traffic to me. That means that being a BlogHer advertiser not only gives me a small amount of money, it boosts my traffic, further boosting my ad revenue.
I don’t make tons of money from the advertisements on this blog. It’s been about $10 a month, which basically covers my hosting costs for this blog. That said, it’s really exciting to get some money – no matter how little – for doing something I enjoy doing anyway.
For all that, I’m a bit of a hypocrite: I block ads when I’m online, and strongly recommend that everyone else should, too. The difference is pretty incredible.
There, isn't that better?
Continue reading 'Hosting ads while using an ad-blocker'»
(Trigger warning – this post discusses rape, albeit in fiction.)
I saw Trust at Lookingglass Theatre tonight. It’s a play about a 14 year old girl, Annie, who is befriended online by someone who is eventually revealed to be (at least) 35. They end up meeting, and he rapes her. The rest of the play deals with the aftermath, particularly when Annie’s family finds out.
To be totally honest, I was really expecting to dislike this play. I walked in ready for a sensationalist movie-of-the-week about the dangers of newfangled technology, and of writers who were my age when the Internet became mainstream preaching about how things should be for kids who have grown up with and around this technology.
Instead, I saw a piece about bad things happening to good people, of parents doing all the right things and nevertheless seeing their daughter get hurt, of a teenager who made poor – but not unrealistic or unbelievable – choices. It was well-done, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in the use of projection in live theatre, or of dealing with sexual assault, particularly directed at minors. One thing I thought Trust demonstrated particularly well was how cruel it is to label something as not “really” rape, or to dismiss someone’s experiences as “not as bad as it could have been.”
For all that, I can’t say I enjoyed seeing the play.
Continue reading '“Rape” is a four letter word'»
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