It is popular today for people to distinguish between free as in liberty and free as in don’t pay money for something. However, I think people often forget that there is a difference between free as in sunshine and free as in free food. Sunshine is free in the sense that God provides it at no cost- and for you to enjoy sunshine it doesn’t have to cost anyone else something (ignoring obtrusive solar panels and such). Free food costs somebody: taxpayers pay for school lunches, complimentary breakfasts at hotels are included in the cost, people pay for pizza to encourage attendance at meetings where they can try to solve problems or sell you something more expensive than the pizza you ate. Online content is like food not sunshine.

There are monetary costs to keeping a blog; time is a bigger cost. I started writing about a variety of business models for blogging, but that was getting boring. So I deleted a bunch of stuff and decided to go in this direction: if you appreciate content, occasionally consider how a blogger might hope to benefit from your visit.

Some bloggers blog to make money. This doesn’t make them evil; it makes them professional. Professional bloggers frequently provide some of the best content. The case was made for not blocking advertising this weekend on ars technica.

We don’t currently sell advertising space on elehack.net. The main reason is because we would want a lot of control over the media and the message (so at our size it isn’t worth the effort). We have some fairly decided opinions about formats for ads (flash is not cool, animation and noise are bad). We would only want to sell advertising for companies/products we support.

We don’t currently make any money, but we do have the potential to get free books. We are in Westminster Bookstore Blog Partners. We think their purpose is worth supporting, and they have a lot of high quality products at great prices. (Never click on links just because that would get me closer to a free book; that is fraud. I want to support Westminster not swindle them!) I’m also in a review program Book Sneeze that allows me to request books in exchange for honest reviews. We considered other affiliate programs, but things like privacy issues have ruled some out. It is possible that we’ll find other programs in the future. I am committed to giving honest opinions on my blog regardless of whether or not I might benefit from you purchasing something. I would rather give a helpful review than be a little closer to a free book.

Most bloggers blog to be read. If someone just wants to write, they use a diary rather than a blog. I hope to encourage readers. I want to make them think. Occasionally, I try to make you laugh. If I do, let me know. I find it super encouraging if someone links to my blog because they thought the content was worth sharing. Nice comments are definitely a motivation to keep blogging.

You might say I blog for books and comments. I don’t expect you to provide me with either of them, but keep in mind I do put effort into this. So do the people who write content all over the web. Not all of that content deserves to be rewarded, but consider accepting some advertising or leaving an occasional comment when you enjoy free content.