About This Blog: Advertising

As some of my regular readers may have noticed, I recently added Google ads to the sidebar on the right. I've been fascinated by the way they change depending on the content of my posts. While reviewing yogurts, all the ads were about yogurt and weight loss. When I write about bird watching, all the ads are about bird feeders, attracting birds, and, ironically, about warding off annoying bird incursions (always a sensitive topic around here; just yesterday I had lunch at the Tides restaurant in Bodega Bay, scene of carnage in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds). When I write about wine, the ads change to wine, wine glasses, and wine storage equipment. When I write about movies, Netflix appears. I get a lot of ads for luxury cars and cell phones--not sure exactly why (are my topics generally upscale?). When I write about plants, nursery stock is the pitch of the day. Always something new. Interestingly, when I write about books or art, the ads don't seem to react much--or maybe those help feed the car and cell phone ads? Who knows? No one seems to click on them. They certainly haven't generated any revenue--not that I had high expectations.

Today I got Tylenol sinus medicine ads. I hope that doesn't mean my writing is getting stuffy....

[Update: I killed the Google ads not long after I wrote this, but it was interesting to watch at the time.]

About This Blog

I've decided to add a new category to my blogging (I do this cheerfully, with enthusiasm even, as if someone is reading what I write). Tidbits: A category for random thoughts of a line or two that don't seem to need elaboration.

About This Blog

I had intended to keep subjects separate, in discreet threads, but I can see no way to do that, so I guess this will become a linear affair, with topics indicated by their headings and with various subjects interwoven. I intend to attach key words to each post, in the hope of making distinct trains of thought easily navigable.