As you can imagine I am online quite a lot, reading things I can access for free. Normally these are supported by ads which I ignore as much as possible. But the advertisers believe the fees they pay to advertise are worth it and who am I to argue?
A bunch of things to which I’m offered links are behind paywalls, meaning they want me to pay to read them. They incorrectly believe what they are creating is so valuable to me I’ll pay for the privilege.
As what I do online is not a business, I can’t write off the expense of subscribing to dozens of different sites as business-related. So I work around the paywall when I can and shrug off reading those things to which I cannot gain free access.
I don’t ask readers of COTTonLINE to subscribe as what I do here is a hobby and my only daily expense is my time. Every few years I have to buy some piece of electronic equipment but I view that as acceptable hobby costs. I am retired and, while working, saved the money that now supports me and my hobby.
In 30+ years of college teaching, and another few years of lecturing on cruise ships, I became accustomed to having an audience for my insights, such as they are, This hobby fills that vacancy in my life.
All of the above is by way of saying where I am with regard to making money via the web ,.,, in short, I don’t. I blog because I like doing it, and if I don’t do much for a few days, you may drift away and stop reading, but my ego can handle that and there’s no impact on my wallet.
