Some Reasons This Blog Will Not Be Monetized

Just as I was formulating a post outlining the reasons this blog is not being monetized, I received this lovely letter. It explains some of the issues I have considered regarding advertizing.

One reason I avoid advertizing is that the products are from companies and brands that are already super-rich. They offer the blogger less than a pittance per click, erstwhile promising to help you make money. It would take me years to make money, and if I advertise for them I am making them even richer while they pay so little.  A big advertising company would charge much, much more to run ads, but the companies pay a tiny bit to the blogger.  

If you do not make over, say $100 a month, the amount you earned does not count, and you have to start your earnings all over again the next month. If any employer did that to an employee, no one would work for him. It's not honest and definitely not Biblical. 

When these rich businesses keep your earnings unless they are $100 it drives you to seek more attention to the ads to get more clicks, and when it is all analyzed, it will take a year to get $100. In my case, a year of ad clicks will result in less than $20, which I will never get. Each click represents only a fraction of a dollar, and in some cases, a fraction of a cent. It isn't worth the time from a busy homemaker. It may also cost you money, since it takes up so much time.

Thinking they are helping me, ladies have bought art posters from Allposters, or tea sets from Amazon, two things I have featured for sale.  If I make a commission of five or ten dollars, I never receive the money unless my sales commission goes over $100 or some other required amount. That is why I put the donate button on the side bar. If you want to give me $5.00 I am happy to receive it and at least you know I will be getting the donation.  

That being said, I do not mind helping friends sell the products of their own hands.  I just do not like advertizing for the corporations that are already rolling in wealth. If they want to run their ads on my space, they will have to pay me a lot more. How about $100 a click. They can afford it.

Another reason is that I do not like endorsing things that make us focus on buying and selling all the time. The ads make the blogs ugly, they are a nuisance to click off, they are not really about making a home. They are about their companies making more money. These companies also donate huge sums to things that cause trouble., and the products often contain caustic ingredients.

Please enjoy this letter:

Dear Lydia,

It has been several years since I last wrote to you.  Sometimes it will be many months between visits to your blog, and then when I have a moment to sit down and look for edifying things to read, or, when I am trying to write words of encouragement to my daughters-in-law or to other young ladies in the church I will type in http://www.homeliving.blogspot.com/ to do a little bit of reading.  As I'm typing in the address for your blog, I'm usually thinking:  "How is Lydia doing and what has she been writing about lately?"

When I walk through the door of your blog it's like I get to visit with a dear kindred spirit.  The sights of lovely portraits and vignettes of domestic glory delight the eyes of one who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness.  And then to take the time to read what you have written is like filling one's cup with the wonderful word of life applied to homemaking.  

Before it sounds like I am gushing I'm going to reign myself in and tell you one of the reasons for writing this little email note to you.  Like you, I'm in my sixties and I remember when I first started to read blogs written by ladies filled with delightful inspirational articles on homemaking and homeschooling and encouragement to live a sweet, contented Godly life as sisters-in-the-LORD.  In the last several years I've gone from homeschooling my three sons to now helping my daughters-in-law to homeschool my grandchildren so I've had very limited time to browse the old places I looked at several years ago.  Many of them are no longer there and some of the ones I used to go to have changed drastically.

Now, when I walk through some of their doors I still see some of the things that drew me to their blog in the first place.  However, I don't feel so much at home anymore because the ladies who author those sites have turned their blogs and websites into a money making business.  And to top it off some of the ladies who started out encouraging other ladies to "come home" from their jobs downtown to learn contentment in homemaking, relying on God's means of provision through their husbands - Now those same ladies are tutoring other ladies on how to make an income through blog writing.  And they are making a profit while teaching the other ladies how to do it, too.

So, the reason for my writing to you is to not only thank you for your work that you've done over the years in writing good sound counsel for other ladies on your blog, but also to thank you for not turning your "Home Living" blog into a "Business Making" blog.

It is true that the ideal woman described in Proverbs 31 is a shrewd industrious woman who re-invests her husband's capital to make a profit, but I believe she acted more as a steward of her husband's provision than the women in the church today who work to bring in a second income to add to their husband's provision.

The resulting message of all this is confusing to our daughters and granddaughters because we tell them to come home and focus on homemaking and then we set before them examples of homeschooling moms who are making thousands of dollars on their computers.  The only thing we've done is to change the geographical location of their work desk from downtown to their office at home.  Their attention is divided and they certainly aren't learning contentment and how to trust in God's means of provision through their husbands.

And, now I must abruptly bring this letter to a conclusion because my husband has finished working on the taxes and is about to go to bed.  I beg your pardon for a hastily written note which hasn't been proofread before sending it, but I won't be able to get back to this until toward the end of next week because I'm going to be at my daughter-in-law's house helping her keep her house going.  She just had a baby eight days ago.  So Olivia now has a sister named Evelyn.

May God bless you as you seek to walk faithfully in The Way that He has laid out before you.

Vivian