I was a participant in the Google AdSense program for 3 days. I made 35 cents. The Terms and Conditions of my agreement with Google prohibit me from revealing the clickthru rates for the ads; the 35 cents should speak for itself in this regard.

In the discussion about my original post on this topic, reader “Wayne” said:

The “in your face” money-grab commercialization has spread far and wide. Perhaps it is the new reality, but nontheless, a sad one, faced every day by us all, everywhere. And, I think it has conditioned us to develop personal filtering systems that require “shock and awe” to penetrate.

And reader “Ken” said:

Freedom of speech does not apply to repetetive viral conditioning from McCains, McDonalds or Coke. Especially when phone ringing, door-bell, horn-tooting anoyances grab for our attention by preying on our conditioning to these alerts.

Both insightful comments. From my end of the bargain, making, on average, 10 cents a day from advertising doesn’t come anywhere near close to compensation for the intrusion of advertising into the writing and reading space. For that matter, I’m not sure how much, if any amount, would warrant this.

In any case, this space now returns to its regularly scheduled ad-free configuration. Apologies for the disruption.