Faraway, So Close

I'm experimenting (again) with having some Google text ads on the blog. It's one 468x60px block right after the first entry so it's not really that intrusive. It's funny because it's really not that I care about generating money from clicks, it's more that I'm a statistics geek and love to know little things like how many people have clicked this, or how many times this image was viewed or who else is talking about things with this 'tag' on it. The temptation though is to start throwing ads everywhere if/when you see a few dollars start trickling in. The reality is that it does cost money to do hosting like this, but I made that choice and I shouldn't really pass that 'burden' on to the visitors of my site (or sites). But like I said, the stats geek in me can't help it sometimes.

This is where flickr is so great because they have data on everything. Most viewed, most 'favorited', most comments, and their new one, most interestingness (their word, not mine).

So far it seems the advertising works. The first ad that popped up was for a Limited Edition Settlers 3D box set that costs $349US. Both Phil and I clicked on it.