…just click it…

I was just on a website that a friend runs called Burncards http://www.burncards.com and it all became perfectly clear.

I like this guy, in fact, I like him a lot. He’s a smart guy and has some interesting things to say. He’s not the only one though, There are a number of blogs that I regularly read and I run a few sites myself where I spend a great deal of time writing articles, sell a few of my own products and services and then, I have those Google ads on my site.

For most people, running an informational website or a blog is a passion about a particular subject or locale. One of my sites is a community events and calendar site for Reno/Sparks area called Reno Datebook (www.renodatebook.com). I spend countless hours every week making sure that it’s interesting, up to date and a useful resource. I give away ads to businesses in the community and have some Google ads on the site.

In case you missed this, let me do it again…

I spend hours and hours writing articles and finding press releases (I don’t get paid for this…it’s because I love my community)

I give away ads to businesses in the community in the hopes that this will bring them business or push traffic to their websites. (Give away, as in, I don’t get paid for this…I do it because I love my community)

I run some Google ads and unless people click on them, I don’t get paid. Just like the majority of bloggers out there, it’s fun and it’s a passion, but what if people came to these sites and before they left, they checked out some of the advertisers? What if they clicked on the Google ads to see what the advertisers were selling?

They way it works is pretty simple. The blogger sets up an account with Google or another similar site. Google sells advertising to companies that get their ads placed contextually. This means that if you are looking at my Reno Datebook site, you’ll see ads that, for the most part, make sense based on the subject material on the page.

There is more to it than this, but that’s the snapshot of how it works. Google agrees to pay bloggers on a pay for click basis in hopes that people will find something of interest and will click on the ad and visit their website and purchase from them.

When you click on the ad, the blogger get paid….not a lot, but enough to make it a little profitable and more fun to do. If a lot of people click on the ads, they get paid more and it becomes a lot more fun.

Then, to make it fair to the advertisers, odds are, a percentage of people who click on the ads will purchase from the advertisers and will buy from them.

Everybody wins….you, the reader, get cool content. The person running the blog gets gets paid and the Advertisers get customers.

Bottom line…click away, and support your local blogger.