Mostly Lisa Backend advertising only $100,000. Any takers?

One of the hot topics discussed at the first Vancouver Tazzu Wordpress Camp was blog monetization. Guest speaker, John Chow, talked a lot about how much money he makes from ads on his blog… a staggering $100,000 a month. Yep! His side bar ads go for $500-1000 a piece. That’s some serious monetization!

And anyone who is a serious blogger will know that good, original content does not just happen. It takes hours and hours of time and resources. Time and resources that you are probably taking out of your work and play time. I think every blogger gets to the point where they want some a wee bit of monetary compensation for their blogging time. But… any blogger who also places blog design, content, and their readers ahead of monetary gain will find it really hard to slap up a load of spammy, crappy, ugly ads all over their beautiful blog.

As you can see, I don’t use Google Adsense. Why? Cuz Googly Ads look crappy and they annoy me personally, and let’s be honest, I’m the person who spends the most time on this blog. Gah! So sick of my face. It’s huge. Also, Google Ads don’t make any money if people don’t click the ads, so you have to embed them right into your posts. For me, it’s just not worth it. I want my readers to come here and be entertained, not to be sold Viagra. We all get enough of that junk in our inboxes to last a life time.

So what are the options? Well, I’ve opted for sponsored sidebar ads. I only put up ads of sites I respect or feel are of an interest to my readers. I don’t feel that they are intrusive or take away from my blog so I’m happy. And so far my sponsors have received a of link love so they are happy.

Another option is OIO Publisher, a direct sales platform, which John Chow swears by. Basically the company finds the advertisers and you just choose the ads you want, customize the size and position of the ad and badabing you’ve earned some $$$. Unfortunately the plugin costs $37 dollars, but hopefully you will make that money back pronto. You can view a live demo of the OIOpublisher Direct Pro WP Plugin. I will take it for a test ride in the next week and let you know how it works out.

I’d love to hear what you think on this topic. Does monetization ruin a blog’s integrity? Are Google Ads the spawn of Satan? Or are you like, yeah money! If you are a blogger that has monetized your blog, it would be great to hear about your successes, failures, and experiences. I courage you write a blog post about it or leave a comment.

PS. Contact me re: $100,000 adspace asap. Kevin Rose has already offered $105,000 to Digg my butt.

That’s right. Vancouver! We have events too. Good ones. Ones that promise donuts. And there will probably be some sweet schwaggy WP stickers that I won’t stick on my computer cuz it’s lame. Unless it was a sticker of a giant, fire-breathing, biscuit-eating dinosaur. Rarrrr.

The event is being held today (April 30th) at the swanky Network Hub from 5:30 - 8:30pm sooo if you are in Vancouver and l0v3 WP pop on by. For more details on the event go to Miss604’s blog.

This is my very first Vancity geek gathering. I look forward to totally geeking out with Vancouver’s finest WP gurus for at least an hour. After that you will find me perched in front of the donut table. nomnomnom.

Is it true? Is Canada finally getting the iPhone?

Canadian wireless carrier Rogers Wireless said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with Apple to begin offering the iPhone later this year, putting an end to months of speculation on the subject.

Well. It’s. Aboot. Time!

Now, I can finally ditch my unlocked Fisher Price Skytalker Walkie Talkie which I’ve been using for the last 12 years as a method to communicate with my friends, family, lost polar bears, ice skating beavers, and the Mounted Police within a reception range of 1 - 25m… assuming they have the other Walkie on them… and they turn it on at exactly the same time as me… and the batteries don’t die in the subarctic temperatures.

It’s a crap shoot, I’ll admit. But, you know how Canadians love to be the underdog in a long and arduous, losing battle.

Another great screenshot I see. Sometimes you just can’t win. Zoink.

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Photo by my mum Jane Bettany.

My last trip to the Mayan Riviera marked my sixth trip to Mexico. Every time I am in Mexico, I am always warmed by the beauty, kindness, and generosity of the people. Here are a few pictures of people I met, or passed by that I captured in Akumal and Tulum.

I saw a small school and library from the road and walked into the courtyard. I saw this tiny boy playing with blocks in front of a bright blue wall with an aquarium mural. I was just able to grab this shot before he ran off.

She was soooo shy and I had to pester her for quite a while for her to allow me to take a photo of her. But she was still so shy and giggling, so I quickly snapped this candid while she looked away.

nomnomnom these kids were shucking these coconuts so quickly with their teeth!

Super fantastic Hollywood tribute show at the Grand Sirenis Resort where I was staying. It was almost as fun as the sweet Pixar themed blacklight show they put on the next night.

There is a lot of development going on in the Mayan Riviera down near Tulum. i really hope they don’t develop too much. It would be such a shame to destroy the natural beauty of this area. These construction workers were not really thrilled at me taking pictures of them. A leedle bit of attitude.

En español:
Mi último viaje a la Riviera Maya marcado mi sexto viaje a Mexico. Cada vez que estoy en Mexico, siempre me ha calentado por la belleza, bondad y generosidad del pueblo. Aquí están algunas fotos de gente que conocí, o pasado de que me capturaron.

Like a typical geeky overachiever, I had a very grandiose plans for blogging/vlogging on my Mayan Riviera trip. I was psyched. I packed all my gear and cables and set off into the sun.

But like the cruel fate of reality, the Mayan gods were against me from the get go. They toyed with my emotions, liquored me up, and booted me off the ledge into a giant sink hole of doom. I know. Intense.

Within 30 seconds of arriving at the ultra modern, lo-tech resort hotel, I encountered my first major hurdle.

Me: do you have wifi?
Reception dude: Que?
Me: Internet?
Reception: No.
Me: No??? *eyeballs pop out of my head*
Reception: Si.
Me: Si? *eyeballs return to head* You have internet? Computers?
Recption: Only in one place.
Me: Donde??
Reception: Down in the bottom of stairs derecha uhh… there you will find computers… you need to pay 7 USD for 30 minutes
Me: zoink.
Reception: Que?

This situation was less than ideal as the lobby was a 15 min walk from my room and carrying that amount of gear in the ridiculous, sticky, muggy heat was beyond lame. Plus, I really didn’t want to spend my holiday in the hotel’s business centre.

Then the worst thing that could ever happened, happened: My blog went down. Crashed & dunzo. All my pages vanished and were 404ing and I couldn’t post. Thanks to all my twitter pals for offering to help, but this problem was seriously tricky. Tricker with 3 pina coladas clouding my mind. Luckily, an uber coding monkey was there to save the day.

So after that fail, I just let go of my vacation blogging plans and headed to the beach with Wired and my iPod. Then I watched Sir Digby Chicken Caeser with my new friend.

Today was Mother Earth’s big day. Coincidentally, it was also my mother’s birthday. Hizzah. Happy Birthday! This has been an amazing trip with you!

Last year I spent Earth day rollerblading around Jericho Beach in my home town of Vancouver (yes I actually bladed on the sand, lived to regret it, got the photos to prove it).

This year, I spent the day at Xel Ha, an amazing ecological water theme park in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico. I swam alongside sting rays and 8 ft long chomp-jawed fish (official name) and colourful fish that nibbled on my leg a little and really skinny, silvery fish with a sword nose. I named him Sir Anthony Wiggins. He was quite posh and a bit uptight.

Another thing that’s awesome about Xel Ha is that they have a sunscreen swap program where you trade your icky dolphin/fish/etc killing sunscreen for biodegradable lotion which won’t kill Sir Anthony Wiggins. Yeah!

Three cheers Mother Earth!!! She deserves a hug. *hugs and kisses sand… pleh…*

How did you spend Earth Day? I hope it wasn’t throwing batteries into a duck pond.

Besides failing miserably at putting on suntan lotion evenly, I was attacked by an albino Mexican sand bear! swathhhhhh. After he pawed me, I gave him some tortillas with cheese dip. This seemed to settle him for a bit while I made my get-away!!

Congratulations to our new Champ: Emily Wong of Ninja vs Penguin. Her ninja penguin was certainly a hit. How can you not love a ninja penguin? Impossible I think.

I loved all the entries with all my heart and I’ll give all the designers some link love (right after this stawberry daiquiri) and can’t wait til next month to see what everyone will create. (and I will extend next month’s competition for a few weeks so busy designer peeps can have some time to create uber vectors.

Thanks to everyone that voted. There was some serious smack talking going on… It was a little scary at times, but I guess the pursuit of vector glory brings out all kinds of craziness.

PS. Saw the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itza yesterday. Was seriously cool. I’ll post some picts later. Right now I’m heading to the beach to do some snorkeling and frolicking in the crystal clear waters. Don’t feel jealous, I’m taking loads of photos and videos so you can all feel like you were here…. but you weren’t so I guess it will still suck for you. I could photoshop you in?

We were friends and then he just attacked me. Jerk.