ad free but still caffeinated

I've been a blogger for over three years and an artist and graphic designer for 10 years. What I've come to realize is that in a world of multi-media, "digital this" and "digital that", and online interactivity, ideas are more important than ever before and the communication of those ideas must be handled with care.

One influence in my quest for new ideas and communication efforts is the blog of author and illustrator Keri Smith (http://www.kerismith.com/blog/). I appreciate the level of creativity and concept that is applied to her blog and creative approach; when I read her thoughts on advertising and blogs, I realized I had to mention this endeavor for not only the sake of my own work but for the positive impact it could have on others.



Here's an excerpt from the frequently asked questions section of the website:

"I am opposed to widespread advertising impacting every aspect of our existence. And I am drawing a line around the space that I deem inappropriate for advertising to inhabit. In this case it is my blog.

As an avid blogger for the past six years I started to receive numerous offers of money from companies to both advertise on my site and also to "mention" products as a form of endorsement in the content of my blog. Knowing this goes on it became necessary to differentiate myself from blogs that contain ads and inform my readers that they can know for sure that my endorsement of anything (whether it's a product, a book, a piece of art, an idea) comes directly from me and not influenced by any outside source/company/or corporation."

Am I saying that advertising is evil? No. It can be a good thing when handled responsibly; and there is certainly nothing wrong with advertising something that you feel strongly about. Although the site specifically mentions corporate advertising, the point of this endeavor is not to let advertising dictate the content and intentions of your blog and/or website content.

You have advertising badges in abstractLatte, does that contradict your article?

Yes, I do have advertising badges in my blog but I don't receive any money from these sites and I feel my readers may find these endeavors interesting, or even useful, when it comes to their creative efforts. Also, these endeavors do not dictate or influence my blog content. And no, the badges do not contradict my article.

I strongly encourage anyone that has a blog or website to visit the "ad free blog" site and consider what it's trying to accomplish; read the words and decide for yourself. There are also a variety of web badges to choose from if you are interested in displaying one in your site. Thoughts and ideas are the most powerful resources we have at our disposal; our voices communicate those ideas and our efforts make them a reality. Let's make sure those efforts are pure and not filtered.

url: http://www.adfreeblog.org/
frequently asked questions: http://www.adfreeblog.org/faq.htm