Thank Grog It’s Firday!
I mean it. I am really, really glad that it is Firday…as I really, really, really need a(nother) drink. Lucky for us, this latest update is ALL about drinking, and carousing, and getting pounded…as is our right to do! It is protected by our Constitution…right? Or it was…until it wasn’t…and then was again. No wonder Homer feels the need to make his own bathtub gin.
But, the real reason that I am in need of some liquid diversion, is that yet once again, someone(s) decided it was important to “school us” on the annoying nature of the ads that pop up when you use this site. And while Alissa is generally more inclined to try to explain the “why we use WordPress” and why we have ads to help pay the freight in a nice way… I am more inclined to revert to my CrankyOldGuyness…and remind people that NOTHING is free. Nothing.
This game isn’t free (although you can play for free if you are willing to not place any value on your time). This site isn’t free (although the advice and entertainment we dispense doesn’t cost you a nickle). And, being part of a community isn’t free, even though you do have the option of sitting in the corner and just taking the assets that are offered by others, without contributing.
But, even more important…there is a true VALUE on what those “annoying ads” provide to the team here, as well as many, many others who benefit.
This is the chance to just move on…or perhaps treat the rest of this post like you would an “ad blocker,” (which is always an option if you are annoyed by ads). Because, I am about to be really, really, really honest about why we do what we do…and for whom.
As many of you know, I ran “another site” for years, that was in most ways, a direct competitor of this site. You can find the details on other posts…but, the bottom line, is that doing a daily site, to millions of readers, is unbelievably time consuming and tiring. I simply had run out of enough reasons to continue it…even though loads of readers were pissed…and have never totally forgiven me for quitting, and “joining the enemy.”
That last line is completely nuts. Because the fact is…when you stand back and look at the TSTO Blog-O-Sphere…to claim anything but your own little piece of this global insane asylum would be nuts. Anyone who takes any of this so seriously as to offer advice to anyone who is nuts enough to do this daily, is even more insane than the people doing this insane job in the first place. Plenty of insanity to go around, folks.
It is thankless. It is overwhelmingly tedious.,,and yet, we do it.
When someone implies that Alissa is “making loads of money” from the site, they are making it clear that they don’t understand how “ad words” and the monetization process works. It varies…month to month…and is affected greatly by the ebb and flow of the game. Some months it makes about as much as a poorly paid minimum wage restaurant worker would make (without tips). Other months, it makes as much as that worker with their hours cut in half. Nobody is getting rich from this, especially if you affixed an hourly rate of return on the time invested. There are WAY better ways to make money…like collecting bottles to redeem for their .10 deposit.
We do it, because we can…and still love the game…even when we hate the game…and yes, that makes sense to anyone who plays regularly.
I have an agreement with Alissa to receive a small percentage of the monthly take, that goes directly into our work in Uganda. If it weren’t for the ability of TSTO blogging to add some sort of “Do it for a GOOD Reason” factor to all of this…I would have stopped years ago.
But, do in large part to Alissa, her Family Guy counterpart “Russian Tigger” and a very few of you who donate when asked…the work continues.
THESE are the faces of why I not only continue to write for Addicts…but, also put up with the ads (the same way as all of you) when I visit the site.
These kids’ test scores went up from 23% passing to 92% passing…because they now have books and school supplies, and clean drinking water, and shoes, and bathrooms, and more…bought almost entirely from TSTO contributions and ad revenue. There are 273 kids in the Buyijja Village school in Uganda…who rely on funding from this site and those who visit it. THAT is worth continuing…
So…the next time you want to whine about an ad on this site…please don’t. There are simply more important things in the world…and you don’t know the WHOLE story.
Don’t like it? Leave…or get an ad blocker. No worries. Because we know in the long run, the people that “get it,” and don’t mind a little inconvenience as payment for doing something that matters, or at the very least, saying “thank you” to Alissa for countless hours every week…will continue to be valued and treasured by those of us in the TSTO trenches.
Nothing more to say on the topic. I’ve found that truth usually speaks more loudly to those who are listening with open ears and hearts to hear it…or something like that.
Meanwhile…I’m gonna go have another drink. It’s past 5P somewhere…and it has been a week that deserves to be capped off with some suds.