Yesterday I received a check in the mail from Arts Journal, my first income from the ads over on the right side of your screen. Since 2003 I’ve now made nearly a quarter per entry for all my musings on this blog! – although, if you limit it to the last eight months that we’ve had ads (as I should), I’m really making just over $2 per entry. I’m going to call that pretty damn good for now, considering I started this without a thought of making any money at all.Â
I suppose plans for making the internet yield money are slowly creeping into place. I note that it costs about $13 a month to subscribe to the Times on my new Kindle (yes, after reading Paul Krugman’s paean to the thing, I requested one for Christmas – more on that another time), and I’m told that reading the Times on Safari will eventually cost something again too. If I could duplicate my academic salary by what I make from blogging, I’d be writing these blog entries faster than you can read them, which I’m afraid I could probably do. Those who occasionally wonder how I do so much work can console themselves with the realization that my writing has a compulsive quality – it sometimes take me more effort to refrain from writing than it would take most musicians to write. (I’ve never in my life experienced writer’s block as a writer. I used to get it as a composer, but not in the last 15 years.) In any case, thanks to all those who’ve clicked on the ads, and know that your clicks are adding up.