I wonder if you would have to go back and study your links for copyright rules. Some things I've used say for educational purposes only. You could get sued if you started making money off your blog.

I don't have a clue how to answer this. I recently started writing for the Examiner.com. I'm making about 70 cents a day. The numbers are climbing steadily. It's about history instead of plants.

I don't mind blogs that advertise unless it's a ton of them.

I pay 50% in taxes off what I make and that's probably going to go up. It hurts me because my husband is successful.

Lots to consider that is for sure.

If I was trying to make money on my blog (which I'm currently not), it would be changing the reason I blog, so of course it would change the content. My current content is personal. When I write it, I don't think about whether it will bring in searches or not (very important if you are trying to make money). Though I confess I do think about writing that one blog post to answer that one question everyone asks when coming to my blog, but that is just so the poor searcher will have an answer.

I have only made $100 from ads over two years of blogging. I thought it would be a way to earn some "garden money" since I retired from my career in technology. Ads haven't paid off for me and I don't know how much longer I will have them.

I've never been paid to post a story on my blog -- and never intend to do that!

However, my stories are often bought AFTER they've been on my blog and are republished elsewhere.

I'm also a paid freelance writer, but those stories are written specifically for my clients' use and not for my blog.

I turn down both freebies and discounts when I go out to get an interesting story that is outside my garden. I like to promote my home state, charities, public gardens, artists and local businesses where I've been pleased with the plants.

Cameron

I have monetized my blog to a degree. I was approached to supply links for a price and I gladly took the money and made posts about things I would have made posts about anyway. My purpose in blogging began as a selfish method of biography, in a way. It let me write - something I had always wanted to do - and in a pretty pain-free, yet still-connected way. This way, I still visit my nw friends and learn so much, but I can also contribute to a more general happiness and connectivity. It's why Blotanical is such a sinful pleasure, lol. If a person cannot understand someone is paying a few bills in a post, then I really don't know what to say. If it so obviously corrupts the blog, then you'll stay away anyway. By all means, allow people their urge to make a living doing what they love - that's my attitude.

Some extra cash won't hurt. But as I found out, it's not easy to make money from Adsense. While my initial purpose of starting a blog was indeed for money, I now blog for fun (I like it) and don't care if I make money out of it or not.

It is possible to write sponsored posts without compromising. And, while it doesn't pay the mortgage, my husband and I made 1,800 dollars last year. This year promises to be even better. It doesn't pay the mortgage, but most months, it pays for internet access and the water bill.

I have a disclosure tag on my sidebar. I don't apologize for writing sponsored posts, and I make the link word as part of a post that I might have written anyway. In someways, it's like having a writing exercise given to you. You don't know what will turn up and you have to use your creativity.

I'm with you, Stuart. It takes a lot of time, not to mention electricity, camera supplies, etc., to produce a decent blog. And if we're providing a useful service to others, whether it's sharing knowledge or just providing a little entertainment, why shouldn't we earn something for our efforts now and then? Like you, though, I'd like to maintain a little integrity and not sell out by promoting anything that I have not personally used and found worthy.

On another note, I keep seeing references to fair use copyright law in comments here and elsewhere, and I think we bloggers need to be a little more careful with this. For example, copyright is not just about whether we personally are making money off of someone else's material. It's about reproducing and circulating others' materials for any purpose, whether income-producing or not. Think about it this way: Even if you don't make money from someone's info, by spreading it for free you are potentially keeping others from buying the original author's work, which costs the AUTHOR income. Does that make sense? You're essentially taking money out of his/her pocket.

For things republished over the internet, I think we have to be careful even with items that are labeled as okay to reproduce "for educational purposes only". Once something is put on the web, we have no way of controlling whether it's actually used for educational purposes or not. In a classroom setting we would have more control over how the info is used. Either way, we need to be careful to credit the source and make sure we're complying with fair use otherwise.

Fair use traditionally has allowed for quoting small portions of a work within a larger, original piece. I believe it's generally accepted (though the laws are admittedly hazy on this) that quoted work should make up no more than 30 (some stretch it to 50) percent of the total (whether it's a blog post, newspaper article, or whatever). The other 50-70 percent should be original content, whether in the form of a review or just one's own thoughts related to the quote.

I've seen way too many posts that consist of a few introductory words followed by several paragraphs quoted wholesale from someone else. I think we bloggers need to be a little more careful about this, or we may lose the privilege altogether some day. If in doubt, we can always ask permission to reprint a piece.

By the way, I don't think LINKING to others' material is an infringement of copyright. Most authors would appreciate the publicity.

Well, it is simple for me. I started blogging so I could share what I was doing in the garden with family living farther away. Sending pics through email was getting hectic- This is why I blog today, but it has turned into much more. I've found a very large community of gardeners with the same passion for it that I have- A gold mine, if you ask me! I've come to know a few and enjoy sharing ideas and experiences with them. There are so many bright, encouraging, funny, and all around helpful garden bloggers out there and I'm glad to know them! I do put links to my favorite shopping places, or post about a great tool I've discovered, but it is purely for passing along info.

I was approached by a company that wanted to put a link on my blog in exchange for merchandise and I politely said no. I want to keep my blog personal...it's that simple. I Don't mind others choosing to include ads, as long as they are not distracting, and if they are I simply don't visit. Ads can be annoying to me for a few reasons, I wouldn't want to put something on my blog that is annoying to me on other blogs- just doesn't make sense.

Happy Gardening!

Thanks for this Stuart - I was wondering how you go adverts on your site. I am definately going to look into this. I dont think it will change the way I blog and if I can earn a little bit then thats great. My two post popular posts are both 'How to' ones so why not.

Wow, Stuart and all, I'm so impressed that your blogs are generating income as well as readers! I of course have big dreams for Poor Richard's Almanac---that it will lead to a MacArthur Fellowship, a book deal, or at least a regular column in the New York Times---but for some reason, it's just not happening!

My blog seems to have reached a tipping point this week with several people contacting me to advertise on there. All are for products or websites I couldn't recommend. I wouldn't have advertisements for companies I would recommend either, because I'm not blogging to make money and if someone had a bad deal because they trusted my blog and therefore the advert on there, I'd feel my integrity had been devalued.

Even if I did allow advertising on my blog, I'd be unhappy with providers such as Adsense where I'd have no control over the adverts being displayed. There was a classic case of this on the Top Picks page on Blotanical a couple of weeks ago. One of the articles was about a type of Salvia that has psychedelic effects when smoked. The article was humorous and serving as a warning, BUT as a result most of the the Adsense adverts for a number of days on this page were for websites offering this kind of Salvia and who knows what else. I found it amusing at the time, but also rather disconcerting and doubled my resolve not to go down the Adsense route.

It seems that if you have a wordpress blog you cant use adsense or have any form of advertising.

I agree with what many people are saying on the subject but there is a grey line between selling out and turning a profit on your blog.

If I am approached to do product review I make sure I let the company know that I only publish positive reviews of products that I do love. This gives you the opportunity to try out products without having to be obligated to provide a glowing positive review because they sent you free stuff and/or payment. I do offer to provide negative feedback to them directly if they feel it could be helpful.

Fortunately I have not been approached by any company that has required a positive non-biased review or scripted ones mentioned by other reader, which I would politely refuses. It comes down to personal integrity, but people are strangely motivated by money.

Seems that you are completely right!!11 I will quote this in my private forum to argue with people...