Ed’s Projects

Donald Allen raised an interesting theory in the comments of an earlier post, where he suggests that the reason I write about him is for blogging profits. As I understand it, he seems to think that I’m profiting off of him due to the amazing amount of traffic this blog receives when I blog about him.

Donald Allen
March 9th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
I can’t believe your actually trying to get traffic to your blog this way – how funny, but brilliant.
…
I hope you make some money

While I do run ads on The Deets, Don is delusional if he thinks the reason I write about him is for the money I make from it. Here is some data to back up that statement:

The above chart is a daily breakdown of the revenue generated by the ads that have run on the pages where I’ve talked about Don Allen. If you study that closely, you may notice a huge spike on Feb 22nd, followed by a return to its normal pattern. That was a special day for me. That was the day that I made 64 cents off the content I’ve written about Don Allen. And, that was the ONLY day that I’ve made money off the blog posts I’ve written about Don Allen.

Here is another way to look at the data:

That is a post by post breakdown of the revenue generated from the posts I’ve written about Don. One person clicked on one ad on one story, which generated 63 cents. And the ad impressions in aggregate have made me a penny off of Poopgate.

When I write about how ridiculous Don Allen is being when he threatens local reporters, I’m not doing it for the money. Instead, I’m taking a moment to say, in public, that Don Allen is being ridiculous when he threatens local reporters.

And, just in case things aren’t crystal clear already, I’m donating the 64 cents I’ve earned to the TC Daily Planet (following Erica’s lead). However, since a 64 cent donation would be largely eaten up by merchant fees, I’ve nudged that up 100X:

If I’ve followed this chain of events correctly, I think it breaks down something like this:

1. Sheila Regan, writing for the TC Daily Planet, writes a story that mentions Don Allen.
2. Don Allen Threatens to sue them if they run it.
3. TC Daily Planet runs the story anyway. They don’t get sued by Don. The earth keeps spinning.
4. Sheila Regan, writing for the TC Daily Planet, covers the Jerry Moore v. John Hoff trial, where Don Allen testifies.
5. Don Allen threatens Sheila again.
6. TC Daily Planet runs the story anyway. They don’t get sued by Don. The earth keeps spinning.
7. I write about Don Allens ridiculous ongoing threats against journalists.
8. Don Allen accuses me of profiting off this type of content.
9. I demonstrate that I don’t.
10. Rather than buying a Supermom’s chocolate chip cookie with my blogging profits, I donate 100X the amount to the TC Daily Planet.

I hope this clarifies things a bit.