Changes to the look of the blog

Some of you might have noticed some changes to the look of the blog in the last week or so. Yes, we now have advertisements. But before you conclude that we’ve “sold out,” let me explain.

My oldest son is 15 years old, and convinced he is a better businessman than me. He told me I was missing an opportunity in terms of advertising, which is ubiquitous on the gaming web sites he frequents. I had my doubts about doing this on our site, but I wanted to engage my son in a way that we both would remember. So I told him if he wanted to try it he had to buy the advertising rights from me.  He offered a 50/50 revenue split but I told him 50% of 0 is 0, as it was after Halloween and I didn’t want to take his $ which he gets from me anyway I offered him the rights for a large Hershey’s chocolate bar.

You now see a rotating series of ads that have been placed by a company that analyzes both our content and the perceived demographics of our audience. This, in itself, is a source of great interest for me. Who exactly is the audience for this blog? I’d always assumed that it was people with an abiding interest in public policy.

Several thousand people actually visit the site each week, and I surmise that the typical profile is that of a middle-aged person, well-educated, perhaps a professional, perhaps associated in some way with state politics and government. But I really don’t know for sure who the audience is precisely.

It’s going to be interesting to see what products and services are advertised. Could we see a political ad?  

Rest assured that we’re not selling out. And for those that care about winning and losing, in under a week the ads have generated far more revenue than that candy bar would have cost.

The other change is the countdown clock at the top of the page.  It’s counting down the number of days that the Public Integrity Commission and its disgraced Executive Director, Barry Ginsberg, have left.  To those that wish to purchase sponsorship rights to the clock email me but I’m done with chocolate for the time being.