Here I am 18 months away from wanting to be a full time podcaster and blogger but still when people approach me about putting advertisements in my RSS feed it makes me really cringe. It’s one thing to have a ad on the website as it does not interrupt the flow of information on the page. But putting banner ads in the RSS feed is like breaking some sacred rule that says though shall not place ads in RSS feeds.
When I see ads in feeds from Engadget and others it distracts me enough to put their feed on the last to read list because I don’t want my river of news to be interrupted by someone trying to sell me something. I have taken some heat from some bloggers recently for talking about some of my projects in this space. But hey it’s a blog and the things I am involved in are important to me. I received an e-mail from one person that saw the posting and said don’t worry about it they are just jealous. But I don’t think that was the case, I think some expect this site to only be about tech news, but this site is really about my opinions on what is happening in the world of technology, science and media. I even got a lot of heat when I announced my book in this space earlier this year. That sort of surprised me after all I would think publishing a book would be a pretty big event in anyones life. But hey I guess self promotion is not allowed unless it’s on a personal blog. Want to know how long it has been since I posted on my personal blog? It’s probably been about six months.
Regardless I am still not happy about ads in RSS feeds but I understand some need to pay the bills. [www.redherring.com]