Someone sent me an email asking if I would consider any form of advertising or sponsorship for the blog. I replied, “I wasn’t planning to have any advertising or sponsorship on the blog, but I guess it’s possible (if unlikely).” And he offered $1000 to sponsor us over two years (for a link in the “Research supported by…” section, where we currently list NSF, NIH, and Yahoo Research).
For $1000 it certainly wasn’t worth the hassle. At this level, at least, blogs aren’t big business quite yet.
What can I get for 20 bucks?
Not worth the hassle? It may not be big business, but I'll take $1000 in supplemental income to just keep doing what I was already doing, any day!
Adam,
I'll take free money too, but there's a risk in taking a sponsor I haven't heard of. I don't want to lend my credibility to something I don't know anything about.
Fair enough :)
You could have Google ads – they are very easy to put on; they provide relevant ads, which are *sometimes* helpful; and (I think) you can redirect any payments to a good cause of some sort, if you didn't want to keep the cash.
They are also unobtrusive, most people understand you don't control them, and if someone you particularly don't like appears, you can block their ads.