Wednesday, January 25, 2006
 in may i was laid off from my job of four years. i experienced equal parts relief and anger, but my friends and readers were so supportive it turned into a really beautiful summer.
about a month into the vacation i realized that it might be the right time to experiment with ads on the blog.
i was petrified that it would change me as a blogger and that some of my readers might think less of me.
i was afraid that it would change me in that i might suck up to bloggers who were capable of giving me more hits. or i might not criticize those who could one day help me get ads or spikes in my visits.
so what i did was i tripled the ad rate that i probably should get that way even if i did get a few spikes throughout the year (a normal occurance for any blog) then it would still not be justification to raise the rate due to the link(s) from the patron.
here we are now seven months later and not only have i had a very successful relationship with blogads, whom i highly recommend, but i believe out of hundreds of thousands of visitors ive only received one negative reaction to having ads on my blog. i'll take it.
its been so successful that i have recently considered raising my rates in the near future. not out of greed, but to get one step closer to my ultimate dream of being a full time blogger with no boss other than myself.
currently im gainfully employed, as you probably know, at Buzznet where i am very nicely taken care of, and i have no intention of leaving any time soon, but still, it would be nice to fall back on the busblog's ad revenues if four years down the road i hit another icy patch.
 late last week i received an email from one of the good people at blogads asking if i would be interested in participating in a program with an exclusive group of bloggers who have blogads to go to amsterdam for five nights. five star hotel, airfare, and a few other incidentals comped.
they said i wouldnt even have to blog about it.
all id have to do is let holland.com have a slot in my premiere ad space for a month and put a button on the side of my blog for a year.
as i generally do when i find myself indian-wrestling with a new runway model, or front row at a secret rock show, or in the midst of my amazing friends, i pinched myself to see if i was dreaming.
amsterdam? my third favorite city in the world? (isla vista, los angeles...) free?
i couldnt say yes fast enough.
so last night when the blog about the program was put up and i saw the list of the other bloggers who had also accepted i felt extremely grateful because theyre all insanely talented bloggers of whom anyone would feel lucky to be included with
101 Cookbooks, AMERICAblog, Blurbomat, Brian Flemming, Celebrity Baby Blog, Chromewaves, Cityrag, Coolfer, Culturekitchen, Dooce, Ezra Klein, Finslippy, Jossip, Majikthise, Oh la la Paris, Oliver Willis, Outside the Beltway, Perez Hilton, Pink is the new Blog, Scenestars, Slice NY, Suburban Bliss, and TalkLeft
in order to stabilze the balance of the blogosphere, we are not all going there at the same time or on the same airplanes. i wont be going until february 21, and even though i am looking forward to finally seeing the anne frank house, and revisiting the van gogh museum, i really hope i get to meet trent from pink is the new blog. dude fucking rules. no disrespect to the others.
and i get to finally meet JaG!
so there you have it. either it pays to sell out, or what they say about one door opens after another closes is totally true. so thank you blogads for considering me and thank you e! for letting me go cuz theres no way i woulda had ads if i still worked there.
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Previously on busblog...
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