Category — Blogging

The clicks for the first couple of months totalled less than $120 and Google never pays unless the total is over $100 and withholds payment for another 30 days past that point. Not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. Except possibly for Google, if it routinely disables small accounts without paying. Are unpaid funds returned to advertisers? Who knows?

After signing up for an account, and after there are at least $10 worth of clicks in your piggy bank, Google asks how you want to be paid. It can mail you a cheque or direct deposit to your account. I chose the latter, so Google asks for the bank account number and does a test deposit to see if it works. For some reason, the amount that appeared was not one cent but 44¢.

As it turns out, 44¢ is what I made on the whole experience, but the fun part was seeing what kind of ads my site would draw. Sure enough, if I wrote about Macs, computer ads would show up. An article on the public library brought in book ads, and so on. Sometimes I couldn’t see why a particular subject was being advertised, but most times it was apparent.

There are ways to block particular ads, if you want to. For example, if I was selling T shirts, I could block competitors selling their T shirts on my site. When Christian book sellers began to monopolize my ads, I blocked their source and they stopped appearing quite prompty.

Of course, it’s a no-no to click ads on your own pages, so I never did that. Why the account was suspended, I’ll never know. Google doesn’t tell, but I’m glad it is gone and my site is ad-free again.

A Far Cry is a new collection of poetry written by John Robert
Colombo. The composition of these poems took place during
the calendar year 2008. The sweep and depth of treatment of
subject and topic are bracing. There is a memorial for designer
Yves Saint Laurent and a description of Malta’s prehistoric
temples. Included are considerations of the composition of
the human brain as well as of the complexity of love. Poets
are recalled: Akhmatova, Cavafy, Darwish, Outram, Rilke,
Whipple, Whitman. Nostalgia is served with descriptions of
films noir, specifically actress Patricia Jessel, Dr. Ordway the
Crime Doctor, and Chester Morris as Boston Blackie. Word
play and love of language and odd bits of learning are everpresent.
Here is a book that celebrates in an imaginative and
idiosyncratic manner the extrania of life.

John Robert Colombo is nationally known for
his collections of Canadiana. Among his latest
publications are Footloose (a consideration of
Gordon Sinclair’s travel books), Whistle While You
Work (a collection of essays written since 2000),
The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories (a compilation
of psychical experiences with commentaries), and End Notes
(a volume of poems composed in 2007). Reacting to some
passing criticism, the noted cinéast Reg Hartt made the
following statement: “The truth about Colombo is that he has
the wisdom of an old man and the enthusiasm of a young
man.”

Cover design: David Shaw
Cover image: Detail of Orion Nebula, Hubble Space Telescope