Today we were having dinner with a relative who works at google.
He convinced me to use Adsense. He was asking me why I don't use Adsense. I did not understand. Told him that
1. somehow the ads would clutter up the template 2. don't care about the money 3. don't want to be indirectly responsible for suggesting products that I might not recommend
and he said "totally not true!"
You can completely select what kind of contextual ads to place and it might actually help you, if not the people who read your blog and point them to some interesting related links..
So tried it.. and it messed up my template for sure. So have signed up for an account and now I have to figure out how to get it into the sidebar instead of the top of the blog!
If google wants me to use Adsense, they should make it more idiot proof for simpletons like me (who are still on the same old template from four years ago!).
Maybe those who have this on their blog can give me some pointers?
Does this actually help point you to interesting links?
Have been watching how the mommy blogger circle is catching up on plagiarizing of posts. Kiran, who I read regularly (especially her self deprecating posts crack me up) was copied. So were other Mommy bloggers.
One possible theory based on a funny conversation I had at a party recently with a friends friend.
Me : So what are all those guys in that circle doing these days? FF : Most of them have gone back to India over the last two years. Me : what about that dude? and his roomate? FF : "that dude" is still here. His roomate went back and is now settled in UP and he is doing great. Me : what does he do? FF : Oh, he is making a lot of money in advertising! Me : Wow! that is nice. didn't know that he was into advertising.. FF : No NO.. not that type of advertising. He is making money by generating internet traffic! Me : ????
FF goes on to explain
FF : He has hired a lot of women, mostly women with kids who want to work parttime from home. They all generate a network of websites using blogger and generate cross traffic. The people he hires read other blogs, pick up things of interest and create cross linked blogs. He promotes these and gets a cut on the ad. revenue!
Me : My god.. this puts Amway to shame by a wide margin! This is like the Borg that keeps assimilating things in star trek! Even people who are not part of the original clique will get sucked into this ring!
FF : exactly!
This conversation is now three months old. I guess the whole thing is so legit that it has blurred the difference between real traffic and fake traffic.
Imagine a thousand people clicking on each other's blog ad's a few hours a day..
now Imagine some dude laughing his ass off watching people who pour their heart out in blog posts realize
1. they have been plagiarized 2. they are fuming 3. the more they fume the more traffic comes to these sites 4. the copycats get to make money and blur the lines 5. they can calmly lose a few of the sites and start new ones and keep making money
It is a funny world, no?
ps. Not sure if that is what is happening here, but thought all bloggers should know that there is such an outfit out there with hundreds of "employees" working on a blog generating company!
pps. How do you find out if you have been plagiarized? Is there a utility? Or like the iphone ads say "is there an app for it?"
After a long time, a tag, thanks to Gauri, originally started by HBM, whose blog I had never read till this tag started.
A tag that was ciculating amongst the mommy blogs over the last one week. Read at least 12 posts on this chain on my blog reader, enjoyed all of them and just when I was thinking, "hmm why won't they include a few daddy's in this loop?", Gauri sends me an email.
The people who get this tag are Terri, Anu, Animom, Swatantra, violet, and Witchyangel.. if she chooses to accept this tag and come back to blogging! Hey, one can always try...I know you read this blog every once in a while.
The rest of you that were obvious choices have either completed an entry, don't want to blog and only comment or have not declared to the world that they are soon to be mommies. That said,
Here is the first five things that came to mind when bringing Jr. and the little one to the brains foreground:
1. The little one comes running to me when I pick her up from school. The smile on her face when she comes and gives me a hug, the pride in her eyes as she looks back at her friends at the sharing table that says "He is my daddy and he loves me, see..." that has got to be way up in the top. Almost always makes my day. (jr. doesn't want to leave the playground these days, but she used to do the exact same thing three years ago). There is unconditional love there and sometimes makes me wonder if I was like this at 3 or 6 years of age. My parents told me, yes. I definitely love my parents, but this glow is something very special.
2. Watching the little darlings grow up and the challenges they throw me! Last night mom and grandma had gone to the airport to drop a cousin with clear instructions for me to put the kids to bed. That was when Jr. started wiggling her tooth. She spent the next forty five minutes in front of a mirror wiggling it and made me disappoint the ladies. It was so much fun watching her wallow in self toothery! (that is another thing I love about being a dad. get to coin terms like self-toothery)
The video taping finally distracted her and got her away from the mirror
3. The things they say and do that is just outright gorgeous, funny or ridiculous, but all of which end in a big hug or a kiss.
The on demand fake crying, the angry looks that melt into a smile, the tantrums that make mom's mood swings look like tyres on a rope from a banyan tree, the list just goes on..
4. The constant thought of these gorgeous creatures leaving us someday after they are all grown up. Dad's IQ in the eyes of his girls has fallen more steadily than the stock market over the last six years. The "Daddy you are sooo smart" has slowly given way to "You don't know anything daddy!" while his patent count has steadily increased and even online IQ scores seem to suggest otherwise.
Guess, IQ is in the I of the beholder.
5. The obsessiveness with which they support me. They are my biggest fans. They will defend me against anyone and everyone, including but not limited to mommy and grandma. If she feels that daddy is being cornered the little one goes to the extent of screaming "why don't you go cook or watch TV or something and leave my daddy alone!". Jr. will promptly redirect the ladies to their laptops and ask them to leave me alone. From reading this blog, to watching and appreciating the few things I cook, to admiring my music, they are really my biggest fans and somehow I never disappoint them.
Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 11:05PM 
