Inspired by the amazingly talented Jon Martin a ways back, I finally put Google Adsense on this website. Call me a sell out if you must, but if you had student loans sending you letters and were reading a bunch of financial books trying to figure out how not to be in debt forever while rationing the amount of OJ you drink because it’s expensive…you’d install something that could potentially make you an extra 30 cents off a month too!
For those who don’t know, Google Adsense is pretty sweet. You sign up (google it!) and decide what size, shape and type of ad you want to use (some examples below), and get the code to plop it where you want.
Because Google runs everything, it has a ton of data to figure out what type of content would be relevant to your site’s visitors. I actually like the ads it’s put up so far. I’ve seen ones for graphic design degrees, Brooklyn photo studio space, NYC Activity deals, self publishing a magazine, and social media marketing.
You get paid per page view, and more if people actually click the link.
I figured this would be a great way to get experience with yet another Google product, in addition to making another dollar a month maybe. Every cent counts! Don’t judge me!
Farts & Trailers for XXX parodies inside. An Interview with Vince Mancini
I had the pleasure of interviewing Vince Mancini of FilmDrunk after pitching him my 12 Movies with the Dirtiest Mouths Infographic. He is the writer and editor of FilmDrunk, “the movie blog that plays rough.” His full interview is hilarious and you should definitely read it all after the jump, but for all you busy people, I’ve summed it up.
Vince & James Nguyen Click for his twitter link! .
Takeaways
One of the great advantages of blogging is that you’re expected to be honest and to have personality. If you’re not blogging in that way. “If you’re not forcing yourself to be completely honest, you’re not playing to the strengths of your medium.” Mary Shyne of Lies About My Friends asked if blogging requires different skills than demands a different skill set from writers than print journalism. “It’s inherently different.” Another huge advantage to blogging is that you’re expecting to have personality, a background, a life, and opinions. It’s a shame if you don’t take advantage of that.
For people wondering how much google analytics plays into content choices, Vince doesn’t stress over it too much. “I’m sure if I had some middle management jackass looking over my shoulder, every week it’d be a meeting where we’d be like,”You know, headlines with “Fart” in them seem to do really well; could we do more of those?” Other than that, he tries to write about things he’d want to read about, if he wasn’t the writer.
Blogging Success
“I think the only way something is good — comedy, writing, music, movies — is if the person creating it is doing it because they themselves are honestly interested in it and passionate about it.”
Career Success
Vince credits getting his job to luck, but really he’s one of those people that made his own luck, he was being modest. His story proves it’s important to network and stay active within the field you are in. For instance, he had friends who got jobs as bloggers from being consistently funny commenters on other blogs, like Deadspin. Who would have thought?!
One thing he’d want someone to tell him if he were my age knowing what he knows now:
This question caught him off guard, so this was his second, more legit answer:
Read the full interview after the jump (seriously, DO IT!)
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