[donatj]

I run a blog that gets about 200k unique users a month. My wife lost her job at the beginning of Covid-19, and I slapped a single ad on my most popular post to supplement our income. I hate ads, but income is income. It’s bringing in over $300 a month.

Fast forward to now, my wife has a new job. I still hate ads, but I have become accustomed to that extra $300 each month and have had trouble talking myself into taking it down.

The moral here? I am working on that myself.

[willis936]

I moved to an area where the only engineering work is defense contracts. I have been and am morally opposed to the MIC both for its primary product being death and for its massive societal waste. We have high rent and bills to pay and I am working for a defense contractor.

My joke since moving has been "I like my morals and will stick to them as long as it's convenient."

[sparks1970]

"These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others." - Groucho Marx.

[quacked]

Can I ask why you don't just move somewhere else?

[willis936]

For similar reasons as the parent: my SO's research group moved. Their PI then got diagnosed with a terminal illness and the department leaders are taking the lab space and grant money. To quote a friend of mine, we got "hyperfucked".

It's a tough crossroads. I am applying for work I really care about far away while my SO may still have a path to finish. No good answers, but we'll stick together through thick and thin.

[11101010001100]

I'm sure this occurred to you, but is remote work an option?

[willis936]

It has, but it's pretty hard to find. I sent out about 100 applications every time I try to find a job, hear back from maybe 20 and get offers from less than 5. I've never heard back from an application for remote work. I have thrived in my short stints of remote work in the past (mid 2019).

I'm not really a tech insider here, more of an engineer in search of discourse more stimulating than reddit. Also, I think discourse with wealthy and influential people is one of the few ways I have to attempt to better the world.

[tornato7]

You might consider a move to the blockchain industry if it interests you at all. More than half the jobs are remote and there are plenty of wealthy people to talk with. Let me know if you want any advice there, my email is my username at Gmail.

[holgersindbaek]

Congrats with the side income .

I've kind of thought about the moral of it myself. I ended up integrating Stripe to let people remove the ads. For a blog that might not make sense, but for a solitaire website where some people play an hour or two a day, it makes sense. I think the lowest pricing I had was a one-time fee of $5 and basically no-one uses it. I'm super surpriced how few people use it. But if you won't pay for playing, you're gonna get ads . And from what I can see, people are fine with this arrangement.

[Kye]

1: set up a Patreon or Ko-fi with monthly memberships enabled

2: replace the ad with an ad for your thing

You don't even have to offer any perks. In my experience and in those I've heard, most people don't care about "rewards." They come to support. Just make a few tiers since people tend to pledge along them.

[donatj]

I might try that. I've got a PayPal donation button that used to fetch me maybe $30 a month but it's been far less since the ad went up.

[revicon]

Which ad network/provider did you use for your ad? Did you shop around for the best paying one?

[donatj]

I just use adsense. Haven't shopped around at all. If you have recommendations I'm all ears.

[ignoramous]

You could try this if you want to: www.ethicalads.io (by folks at Read the Docs).

[revicon]

I've got no experience in shopping around for ads, was hoping you did :) My blog gets decent traffic these days, seems like I should stick an ad or two someplace so it pays for itsself.

[holgersindbaek]

I initially started with Google Adsense, but has later moved to Freestar. They basically connect you with 10+ ad networks (including Google Adsense) and then all the networks will compete for your ad space each time an ad is shown. In my experience the revenue is a lot better.