My Daddy, the best dad there ever was

My Dad was the best dad ever, in my humble opinion. He was the first boy who hugged me and told me I was special. Then he continued to hug me and tell me he loved me and still thought I was special as I got older, until the day he passed away.

Daddy was always interested in what I had to say or do. When I wanted to learn how to ski, he researched the ski and boots market and found me the best skis, poles, boots, ski jacket and pants that his little budget could afford. When my mother refused to go to the movies, he and I started "movie night" where the 2 of us would go to the movies together, eat candy bars and drink Coca-Cola (which m mother never allowed in the house) and then discuss the movies together on the way home. I still remember seeing "Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia" with him. I was around 12 years old, but somehow he thought I was old enough to see adult movies.

He never let on to me that the world might impose any limitations on me, not because of being a female growing up in the 60's and 70's, nor because maybe I might not be able to hack it. He had great confidence in me, much more than I had myself, growing up. Whenever I think I might not be able to hack it, I try to remember my dad's faith in me, and how he thought his greatest accomplishments were the daughters that he raised.

My only regrets are that sometimes we all didn't live up to what he wanted for us all the time. And I regret that he didn't live to see my children grow up to be fabulous people on their own. He loved his grandchildren so much, and loved spending time with them. Once he told me that I was too hard on one of my kids. I replied that he would never have let me do what he was telling me that I should let slide. "Yeah, well. Maybe I was too hard on you kids", was his reply. He really wasn't.  Most of the time, his discipline was a harsh look and a comment that he was "disappointed" in me. All this makes me realize that what I do remember is how much he loved me, not how much he disciplined me.

Parents are never perfect, and kids, unfortunately, don't come with a simple How-to Manual. I'm sure he felt he made mistakes, and I'm sure that I've made mistakes, too. But I remember him with great fondness, and much love.

And that's how I want my own children to remember me when I'm gone. I want them to remember me just like I remember my dad -- I want them to know how much I love them, just like how much I knew he loved me, just as I am. 

Making money with blogs

Yesterday I signed up for Google ads....I'd already signed up for Adsense previously...in hopes that somehow I would be able to make a few $$ from writing something that somebody might like to read. Next I posted my blog address on my Facebook page and asked all my friends to click to the site and please to click on the ads.

Today, I checked the site stats and Voila!! So far, in 2 days, I've made a total of $5.26 !! How exciting! Now, if I make about $2.60 every day, that's, hmm...less than a hundred dollars a month. Not too shabby for my first attempt, but I believe I need to get serious about this if I'm planning on being able to live off of writing.

When I signed up for the ads, I applied to a number of ads that Google prompted to my site after I selected a few of my "interests". I immediately got 2 "acceptances" and a few other "pending" notices. Later, I received "declined" notices from all the rest of my choices. I've found that Blogspot and Adsense only allow 3 ads to appear on the blog. I searched around in the "setup" of the site, and found that I had previously set up 3 Adsense spots. Adsense spots are a rolling list of anywhere from 3 to 7 click-thru ads.  This prompted me to try to remove 2, but I was only successful in figuring out how to remove 1, leaving me with 2 Adsense ads and only 1 of the selected ads that I had uploaded to my blog. Why? remember, you can only have 2. So, I will have to rotate the ads, see how they work.

I also have a blog on Wordpress. Wordpress is much easier to manipulate, writing and design wise, but I haven't yet figured out how to monetize my Wordpress blog. I'm not even sure that it allows for paid ads. That's my next project.

"Monetizing" the blog....I'm not really sure I know what I'm doing?

And will this actually produce any money?

To date, I have learned the following about monetizing a blog:
1) Adsense will override any other ads that I've signed up with and are approved for on my blog;
2) Blogspot will only allow 3 ads to be viewed on your blog; so, if Adsense is set for 2 spots, you can only have one other money producing ad.
3) If all my 277 friends on FB click through just once on an ad, I may make about...$2.77...or less, if not enough people click through.
4) most ads state that if 100 click thru's happen, you get $xx.xx payment. Somehow I have not figured out how Adsense will pay, nor how much they will pay. I'm still learning.
5) whoever writes the "help" pages and the instructions on blogs and blog ads must be much more technology savvy than the average user.  IMHO, I am more knowledgeable than many, but there's a lot in there that is as bad as learning Chinese. Oh, wait, maybe someone in China wrote it and then google translated it?

Meanwhile, I should be writing on my contract job, but writing about Alzheimer's is so much less fun than figuring out stuff on blogging and how to get paid for it.

I better get back to my real writing job.