Thomas McCloskey: The People's Blogger

So, here's the deal: I'm poor. Not like Oliver Twist poor, but pretty close to it. My best friend has become the 1:59 cell phone conversation, my worst enemy the 2:01 cell phone conversation, because I know those fuckers are billing me for the whole extra minute. Since my food stamp money has run out, and because I'm living at home, I don't qualify for them anymore, meaning that I have to buy my own Egg Nog (what do they put in the stuff, COCAINE? Because that would explain a lot). While my pay checks from Pacific are nice, between paying back my GDP-of Canada-sized-student-loans (the payments start this month), applying to law schools and fixing my car, I'm about as financially self-sufficient as an ugly stripper. The rest of my family isn't any better off since my sister still has two more years left in college. Christmas was officially cancelled last weekend. Seriously.

Enter: making money off of your blog. Blogspot has this adsense thing that would allow me to put adds on my blog and make money from them. It probably wouldn't be a lot of money, but hey, when your financial future is as bleek as Kevin Federline's rap album sales, every little bit helps. Lots of high profile bloggers do it, and for some, it is their only income. I'm not judging these folks; for them, it really makes sense. However, after careful consideration, I've decided to forgo giving Cliff Gardner corporate sponsorship for now. For me, blogging is the one part of my life that I want to shield from the stresses of my finances. The funny part is, I never thought of blogging as an art form until I knew I could turn down making money off of it in the name of preserving my artistic integrity.