The Thinking Blog ~ Knowledge Grows When Shared

There has been much debate lately about whether or not its acceptable to take money for writing blog posts. Blogging for money without disclosure, along with opportunities like PayPerPost and the like, takes it all to a new level. I don't think we want blog police, but I also believe trust and credibility don't happen by themselves. What do you think?

Advertising seems to be the way to generate revenue from a blog. There is nothing wrong with that. However, content and advertising must be distinct. Well, yes I do blog about interesting ads that make me think, but that is not what I mean. Do you see 'Ads by Google' at the bottom of my AdSense links? That is called disclosure. So, if I'm ever offered payment to blog about some product, have no doubt it will be clearly marked as sponsored post. Having said that, if all you do is AdSense, I don’t even consider it a source of income. As far as I can tell from my experience, readers avoid clicking them (20 clicks out of 14,700 page impressions generate a grand total of $4.89)! Its passive and obvious.

I am in favor of any tactic that will enhance and point to a blog's credibility. The Blog Honor Pledge is designed to help bloggers make a statement to be authentic and transparent at all times. Even though its a kind of link bait, I like what it stands for and the ethics it represents. Thus, I adapted the Blog Honor badge on this blog, as you can see in my sidebar, with a little tweak so that it links back to this post where I take the Blog Honor Pledge (there is a link here to the original Blog Honor page anyway).

Do the right thing by the reader and the rewards will eventually come your way.

I have chosen to pledge to you the following:

1. I will endeavor to continue to bring you the highest quality content that I am capable of

2. I promise to attempt to disclose or clearly mark any content or advertisements or other monetization attempts that help me keep my blog operating

3. I pledge to never write "fake" blog content solely for the purpose of trying to generate revenue without complete and clear disclosure. With exception, my blog may exist for business purposes, therefore I use it to talk about products & services that relate to my business, thus assisting me in generating leads & sales for me indirectly

In return, I hope that you will continue to read my blog with the knowledge that I produce my blog out of a passion for the topic I write about, and not because I'm hoping to fool you into making money for myself.

Please note, I have nothing against generating revenue from my blog, in fact, your ongoing support of my sponsors and advertisers (text links, partner ads, etc...) helps me keep my blog operating so that I may endure to create better content for you.

I do appreciate your support. Continued thanks for your readership.

"Once the weapon of choice for everyone from Native Americans to Turkish armies, the bow and arrow is one of the oldest hunting (and fighting) tools on Earth. While it's no match for modern weaponry, or indeed for modern archery equipment, a primitive bow and arrow can still save your life if you have to hunt to survive in the wilderness.

A high quality bow can take weeks or months to cure and construct, but a simpler version can be made relatively quickly and with readily available materials. The instructions here, based largely on the U.S. Army Survival Manual FM 21-76, can teach you how to construct a 'field-expedient' weapon."

[Via: WikiHow]

Unless you have been living under a rock past few weeks, or if you are still not actively networking in MyBlogLog, then this Internet meme might be news to you. It is one of those "how come I didn't think about that idea first" type of thing and reminds me of Alex Tew's Million Dollar pixels. However, this time it is not about making money. Its more like, Blogosphere Love!

This project, created by Tino Buntic, is basically a blogroll with photos of 2000 Bloggers. So each photo is linked to the author's blog and the list is reproduced all over the Internet. The collection includes all kinds of bloggers from celebrities (can you recognize Donald Trump?) to the girl living next door. Currently, there are about thousand something blogs but this thing is contagious and its spreading in the blog community like a virus! If you are a blogger, I would recommend you to join in by leaving a comment there.

Finally, I would like to recognize that Tino is putting in a lot of effort to this without getting paid. So, I thought I might give a little help by contributing to his creative project with these things:

1. Signed up 'The Thinking Blog'.. Obviously!

2. Designed a standard sized button (120x60) for those who took part and support the '2000 Bloggers' idea (inspired by Serendipity Mine. Unfortunately, that design didn't fit in my blog). Clicking the button should take you directly to the 2000 Bloggers page. I will be displaying it here on the side bar under the 'About this Blog' section. Moreover, I have uploaded it to both Imageshack and Photobucket in case anyone would like to use it. Enjoy!


3. Created a baby project: 'Pixel 2000 Bloggers'! Actually, no, I haven't started anything (so don't email me your blogs). All I did was to shrink the photos a little bit to include all the 2000 bloggers here in a neat way (I will update this post once the project is complete). Visit the actual site to see the full-sized photos where you can look for someone you might recognize or browse each and every one blogger. Otherwise, happy pixel hunting!

[Special thanks to Tino Buntic for including me in the project.]