A Dilemma

Here's another clipping from a story of the old days. It was a doozy. However, I'm probably not going to post the story.

Here's the situation. Over the last 15 years I've penned some 250 pages of my unorthodox history. Many people have told me I should write a book. Lately, I've had several people tell me to blog. So I blogged since it sounded easier and I thought I might make some money with it like some do.

I allowed Google to post their ads on the blog as they promised a few cents would come my way every time someone clicked on the blog. I racked up a few hundred dollars in clicks from readers and then the other day they sent me notice that for an unannounced reason, they weren't going to pay.

I signed with Google in the past to advertise for my co. and they promptly took all the money I had in my ad account with no accounting for where they advertised or what the money was used for. It was a poor investment since we didn't get a single call from those ads. From my limited experience, it looks like Google is taking ad money from the advertisers and then not paying the sites (at least mine) and pocketing the entire amount.

I would guess that when and if they read this post, my blog will be gone.

After I started this blog, for a couple of weeks I posted a donation button in case anyone enjoyed my stories enough to throw some change in the hat. Didn't make a dime. Do you know how embarrassing it is to stand there with holes in your jeans and broken shoelaces and your hat in your hand while the crowds pass by and not get a single dime?  A few clicks after my ego hit the suicidal level, I pulled the donation tab off.

So why am I looking for a little dough? I've got a documentable million-plus tab on money people have weaseled out of me. I've spent another exorbitant sum on the asinine experiences contained in my "book", a few of which have been documented in this blog. Some of the best years of my life have been spent putting this stuff down on paper and so far no income.

When I did the blog, I had some hopes a little ad money would come in, especially at first. The first couple of weeks the blog readership skyrocketed. I thought I had a great thing going as the hits exponentially multiplied. However, the shine wore off and things leveled out after 3 weeks or so. I also fished to link up with a few other sites to increase the readership and all I got was moss. I'm now thinking a historical account is not going to be a commercially successful blog.

I asked one of my daughters the other night if she had read my blog. She said yes. I asked how many posts she had read and the answer was four. I've posted something like 25 or 30 posts.

So what I'm saying is I have posted approximately 50 pages of material and I have approximately 200 pages left. I'm thinking I need to bag the blog and start putting the book together. Basically, I would like to find a way to make a little dough off this thing. Any ideas or suggestions?

If anyone wants to be contacted after I finish the book, email bgcasper@hotmail.com