Blogs + Links + Adsense = Hours of Fun
I’ve been participating in a couple of blog carnivals lately to help gain links for my blog and also in an attempt to join up in the personal finance blogosphere with like-minded bloggers, and I have for the most part been enjoying all the different viewpoints out there in the blog community. Today I was listed quite high by No Credit Needed for the Carnival of Debt Reduction (near and dear to my heart right now!) and almost at the bottom of the Carnival of Personal Finance since I submitted my post about 10 minutes before the deadline yesterday due to a 3 hour Risk game that raged on my dining room table. For the record, my 13 year old son beat both my friend the military history professor and myself, proving that stratgey is still subject to the roll of the dice!
So far it’s taken me about 3 hours to go through the articles in this week’s Carnival of Debt Reduction, because I see links to articles that sound too interesting to pass up…and I just finished reading my favorite link from a link from a link called What Do You Have Against Personal Finance Bloggers? over at Money, Matter, and More Musings. The post itself is just a question, but the long list of comments is what really got me thinking. Have I already committed some of the pet peeves commentors listed? Looking over my previous posts, I think about the only thing I’ve been guilty of so far is being a bit dogmatic…but if you know me in person you know I can be that way about virtually anything. Hubby’s quip back in the spring was “You’re so militant about this” in reference to my determination to rid us of any and all credit cards. The amusing part of this is that now the credit card debt is all gone, he too has caught the debt elimination fever 
One thing the commentators mentioned as a major pet peeve was the prevalence of Google Adsense ads all over most blogs today. Some have even blogged about it, like Dimes when she pleads, Enough With the Google Adsense! I’d like to take the opportunity right now to lay out my ideas on the great Adsense debate: When I started the blog (oh so long ago at the beginning of last month LOL) I said I wouldn’t put any adsense on it, because most of the ads that tend to pop up for keyphrases like debt reduction, credit cards, mortgages, and student loans are the exact things I tend to hate! Then my friend Michelle at Debt Beaters mentioned how much she had made on her adsense ads…and my little mind started calculating domain registration and hosting costs. Obviously, the ads haven’t made it on my blog yet. I probably won’t put them up either, because I am thinking along the lines of “Why assist someone through the online ad with Stupid Tax?” So I think I will just leave the little “Donate” button up top and be content with that and my little CafePress shop.
As for the rest of the pet peeves mentioned, I’ll work on those another day…because y’all KNOW each and every blog about personal finance simply MUST have that annoying “X Ways to save $Y in Z days!”