I have thought about this long and hard. As you may have read on this blog here, Google for me to pay it to advertise this blog elsewhere on the world wide web (it wants my cash) but being a bunch hypocritical frigging puritans it will not allow advertisers who use its adsense network to advertise here because it reckons that this website promotes gambling and contains adult content.
You can read my take on its spurious objections to my site HERE. and about its rank hypocrisy HERE.
And so I have a choice. I can take down pictures of the UK’s top chanteuse Ms Cheryl Cole in a partial state of undress and remove any elements of swear blogging on my site and take Google’s easy advertising money. Or I can leave the blog unaltered and rely on those who advertise outside the Google network to generate a few pennies.
If this was part of a PLC it would be no contest. You cow tow to the great Google. Frankly I cannot see any PLC I have worked for allowing me to say what I think about a whole range of issues in the first place. But TomWinnifrith.com is not part of a public company. This is my call.
I wonder where the boundaries of Google lie now or will lie in the future. If I cave now would I get an edict in a few months saying that my views on Islamofascism or Global Warming or how you cut the defict or on the Evil Empire are somehow unacceptable. So bollocks to Google. I think that Ms Cole deserves celebrating and I have no intention of holding back on saying what I think in the way that I wish to write. If folks want to read my stuff ( which is patently not encouraging gambling or an adult site) – and the evidence is that they do – then great. My hope is that those advertisers who operate outside the Google dictatorship do well from this site and the Google sheep advertisers lose out.
As such, if you are in the habit of spread betting please consider clicking on the London Capital button on my homepage and transferring some trade to a new account there. Use that link and this site generates a few pence every time you trade. London capital is financially solid ( it has stacks of cash) and offers the same sort of service as all big spreadbetting firms. But for NOT using Google they merit support.
I have had a couple of other folks approach me about advertising ex-Google and that is much appreciated. Life is not always about revenue maximisation and the easy route. It should be, if you have a choice, about having some fun while you work. And I continue to hope that the frigging hypocrites and Puritans at Google burn in Hell.