The Shame of the Game (of Evil)

I have sinned in the eyes of Google.  

When a friend suggested a few weeks ago I should become a ‘lifestyle blogger’ it mysteriously awakened in me in a new joy in blogging I haven’t felt for years.  It was weird, because the idea at first made me cringe, and cringe hard, but as I’m trying to be honest all the time now, I’ll have to be honest here too.  The thought of earning some money just from people clicking on ads was suddenly very attractive indeed.  As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, I am against “work” – against the concept of “having a job” in particular, of having to work in exchange for money which is exchanged in turn for the means of survival.  (I am anti-capitalist in this sense, although not in others).  So on reflection it makes sense that I would be quite comfortable with receiving a passive income from advertising revenue. 

Comfortable yes; but fixated?  No.  I wasn’t expecting that.  I started blogging several times a day, downloaded the Adsense app to my phone and found myself constantly refreshing it.  By the middle of last week I’d reached a record new high of £0.97 from a single day’s clicks.  Then, on Friday, disaster! Google AdSense emailed to inform me my account had been suspended as a result of "invalid activity". My path to unimaginable riches was suddenly and impassably blocked. Woe.

Words to live by.

I know exactly the sort of thing thing they're talking about. In the post announcing my intention to start running ads on this blog - ads that met my standards of ethics and relevance, I hasten to (if you'll excuse the pun) add, I subtly implied that you might want to click on ads to support me in my endeavours to transcend the need for money. Yes, I am aware of the potential hypocrisy in action here, and whether or not you believe me when I say I have no interest in accumulating the vast sums that Google promises are available for some lucky bloggers out there, is of course outside of my control. Still, the thought of some day being able to sustain myself in such a way was...enticing. But this is against the rules. Clicks, say Google, must only result from "genuine interest". Repeated clicks from the same source imply a non-genuine interest in the content of the ad. Google knows all.

So, until June 12th, you won't be seeing any more ads on this blog. Should Google forgive me, ads may reappear after that. This, too, is beyond my control. 

If and when ads do re-appear, they will remain wholesome and appropriate, and so you may wish to click them anyway. But please don't feel you have to do so for my sake.  I'm going to keep on blogging anyway.  There are several things I need to discuss.

Mea culpa, Google.

******

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