New Jax Witty: This Article is Not a Paid Placement Written by a Guest

I get contacted all the time about allowing someone to write an article on one of my websites, many times about a topic I've covered. These people either want to send me full text articles or links to articles that I can copy from another site. They never say how much they want to pay me to host their articles, and I don't really know how much to charge (if I were to do it), but I got a bit of an idea what it might be worth based on a Craigslist ad I saw. Still, I won't be offering my website to the highest bidder like the local news sites do.

Fine, it's possible the Google ads I have on this site include links to clickbait articles elsewhere, and I apologize for that if it's happening. I have to stick some ads on here in order to maybe almost partially pay for my expenses in hosting this website. Actually, this one just costs me $12 a year because I use Blogger, but it's still $12, people. Like a small meal or a really large, fancy coffee.

Local news sites link out to computer-generated articles. Google's news feed even sees some of these articles as real and from the local news source, which is corrupt in a few ways. I am sure it's the only method for these large companies to run "free" websites, or at least that's the argument. It's disappointing, but that's kind of the world we're in, and people expect free content, so I end up with ads on my site.

But ads get me almost nothing. Maybe $100 every six months from Google. And somehow, even with dozens of clicks per month, I never get any commissions with Amazon. Basically, I run several websites for nothing more than being seen as an authoritative voice on odd topics that interest me. People don't read my articles to join my club or buy my books or purchase some service I offer. And it's totally my fault for not setting up a click funnel with email subscriptions and all that.

Still, it's all mine. OK, I have added a few items written by my wife here and there, but I am pretty much the person behind the content. That's why this guest writing thing bothers me. I understand the concept: get an ad in the form of an article to be published on a website with plenty of hits. It looks natural to search engines, supposedly, because it fits with the other articles I have written. It just feels wrong somehow, like I'm violating the trust of all three of my readers. Then again, if local Jacksonville news websites think it's not tainting their objectivity, then maybe I should follow that example and cash in on having popular websites. Or hope someone finally clicks on an Amazon link to buy a Lladro Chandelier, or a Rolex. Actually, if you live in Ponte Vedra and were going to buy an fancy chandelier or watch anyhow (and I know you were), please click on my link first for that I can finally get something for bothering to stick these dumb links in my articles.

Please feel free to click on several ads on this website. Because of those ads, I don't have guest writers or links to AI-generated newsy articles. However, I can see why doing so might be tempting, like this hot tub.

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Thursday, July 16

This Article is Not a Paid Placement Written by a Guest