A couple of the blogs I’ve been following lately occasionally put a product link at the bottom of their post. At one time it was innocent enough, and if I was interested in whatever they were tooting, I’d have a look. But these days, since most people have jumped on the bandwagon of blogging for money, its not always clear if the site they are linking to is actually something they genuinely want us to see, or want us to see because it puts money in their pockets. I’ll make this clear: I’m not against helping fellow bloggers make extra cash, but it has totally turned me off clicking on anyone’s links these days.
And that brings me to this: I just have a question for those of you who do it. Is it really worth it? Are you really making that much per post to divert us to something that you may have absolutely no interest in or need yourself? I’m just curious. We’re already so inundated with marketing and advertisements in our real lives that it’s sometimes a little disappointing to see someone’s blog become a commercial. How much are actually selling yourself and your blog for? Please take no offense, this is a genuine question, asked with a smiley. See? 
I’ve never done the post marketing/ads, just BlogHer ads on the sidebar (and I’m actually considering nixing those soon…) I can’t imagine they pay very much at all. I too get a bit irritated at them, especially when they’re put in as an awkward afterthought. It’s just… weird!
I don’t mind people that have ads on their site… it depends on the traffic to the website, it could be just a few dollars a monht, or, it could be like Dooce who both her and her husband just live off the advertising income. In their case, I think good for them. She’s a talented writer who has a huge following of people that want to read her writing, why not make a living out of it?
What annoys me to no end is Pay Per Posts. When,you think you’re reading just an ordinary blog entry but then bam, you realize you’re reading a Pay Per Post which is really just a written ‘commercial’. I’ve stopped reading a few blogs for that reason…
I’m guilty of going the paied posts, however I only do them if they are $4+ this way it’s actually worth it for me and more often then not the whole post is somewhat related to the links.