You may have noticed that over the past couple weeks that I've added a few additional ads to Free Money Finance. I've done this for two reasons:
1. To earn more for charity. All the revenue from this blog currently goes to support an orphanage in Latvia called The Sparrow's Nest and every little bit helps out. I'm not saying that all the revenue from this blog will always be donated to this charity (or even that it will be donated to any charity), but that's the way it is for now and the foreseeable future. As such, I'd like the amount we send them to be higher rather than lower. As a result, I've added some ads.
2. As a service to the readers. While you may find this to be an unlikely or even unbelievable statement, it is certainly the truth. If you're reading this blog, you're interested in financial products, websites, articles, books, investments and on and on. The advertisers here offer those products and as I see it, this gives you more choices in your shopping. In addition, I do not allow ads from any product that I do not use/endorse myself. For instance, I only put up ads for financial books that I recommend (I'll be posting about each of these later). That's why there's a limited number -- it's hard to find a really great personal finance book. ;-) There will be a few other products coming in the future and you can rest assured that I will only add ones that I believe in. I'm not into selling you things just to make money. I'm here to help you and part of that is recommending services/products that will help you increase your net worth.
That said, there are two sets of Google ads that I can't vouch for (since they are served by Google, not me). However, these ads are supposed to match the content of my posts (i.e. if I write about investing, then investing ads should be shown), so they do provide some service. In the future, I may get away from these ads, however, at this point in time they are the best option to generate some revenue.
If you have any questions or comments on this, I'd love to answer them, clarify something I may have missed, or address a related issue you may have. I appreciate your time and visits to Free Money Finance and never take them for granted.
Update: For 2006, I've decided to spread the donations around a bit. I still give 100% of the blog's profits to charity and near the end of the year I'll post a list of what I've given to.
Update #2: Here's a list of the charities I supported in 2006.
Update #3: Here's a list of the charities I supported in 2007.
Update #4: Here's a list of the charities I supported in 2008.
What drove you to the idea of donating all your revene to charity?
It's very kind of you and has inspired me to write a post.
It will be titled "Giving Back to Society."
Posted by: Smarty | January 18, 2007 at 12:13 AM