Mania’s Arcania

I did a bit of housekeeping around and about the blog this evening that I wanted to mention.

First off, I gave up on resurrecting my sexy form-based Contact page, but at least I fixed the broken link in the footer that pointed at it. The footer points at the About page now, which I spruced up in order to make my contact information more obvious. I also added a blurb about advertising (just in case any of the multi-million dollar companies reading this blog want to advertise here!) and a PayPal donation button. I won’t be asking for donations, but it’s there if you want it.

And speaking of money, the other housekeeping I did tonight involved switching around the ads again. (I don’t run ads here in the expectation of making a profit, but since I’m a freelance contractor now … well, let’s just say that every little bit helps. Especially with the economy tanking.)

But if I’m going to run ads I at least want something interesting! For the past week or so I was testing out some ads for online games from CPMStar, but I found the animations too annoying. So I removed those and stuck Google AdSense back in (although in a more discreet location down under the comments), and now I am trying out a couple of new things in the sidebar.

The top one isn’t exactly advertising — it’s a poll. In the future I may use it for polling you guys about your favorite pet or whether you want more stable slots, but right now I am just gathering demographic data. This is primarily for my own information — I am hoping to win a bet with my husband — but if we end up being a valuable demographic than there is the possibility that I can rent us out for market research polls, which might be fun. (Or at least more fun than more AdSense.)

Incidentally, the demographic data from that poll is collected anonymously and is never tied to any personally identifiable information.

The other thing I am trying out is a more normal advertisement from Project Wonderful, a broker of small online ads. I like Project Wonderful because it tends to be used by webcomics and gaming blogs and … well, knitting sites, for some reason. Think of it as EntreCard for cash, except with a broader, geekier base. (And the cash is maybe a couple of pennies a day most times. But every penny counts.)

Oh, I almost forgot! The final change to the blog I wanted to mention I actually made a few days ago: a Name That Pet page. Basically this page exists to help people figure out what they need to send me if they want help naming a pet. It also includes a list of all the Name That Pet posts so you can browse already-suggested pet names while you wait.

And that was my Sunday. How about you?