I have long resisted monetizing any of my blogs, mostly because the ads seemed to make the blogs look cheap and crappy. However, tonight I did a little bit more exploration and realized that I could link to Amazon for books and films I am already talking about on my blog and get a 4% commission from any book bought by clicking through my blog (as long as it was bought within 24 hours). As I am in the last agonizing year of my dissertation and on a tight budget, the idea of getting a little income for something I already do, whether blogging or freelance seems like a good idea to me. I've added what I find to be a rather attractive slideshow of some of my favourite books/movies/music at the top and bottom of this blog, as well as a "my favourites" widget. If you find the slideshow to be annoying, you can just click on pause and it will stop scrolling. And as I have time, I might go through and put in amazon links to books and films that I've reviewed in previous posts. (Update: I've also started working on a "
bookshelf", that shows off some of my favourite books and provides links to them.)
I also run a wordpress blog, which i post on more often, but they don't allow advertising, so I might have to start posting more often here on this long neglected one!
Anyway, dear reader--if there are any dear readers left--I hope the monetization of the blog doesn't annoy you, and if you do see a book you have been wanting to read displayed here, clicking through and buying on Amazon will give me 4% of what you pay!
Cheers, T-C
