As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t put much effort into promoting my blog as a money-making vehicle. I’ve browsed some of the literature on search engine optimization and such, and while I find it interesting/impressive that some people are essentially able to be professional bloggers and earn a living off of ad revenue, I’ve got no interest in that. I’m sure my time is worth more at the tables than it is swapping links with every other poker blogger on the ‘net.
I do, however, use an amazing free program called StatCounter to track some basic data on how many people visit my blog in a day, what link they followed to get here, etc. While browsing this info today, I saw that I was getting a fair number of referrals from a site called PokerTips. Turns out they ran a little piece recently on a few notable poker blogs and were kind enough to list mine along with those of Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Shannon Shorr, Terrence Chan, and Shane “Shaniac” Schleger. Here’s what they had to say about me:
“…while he may not be a household name, Foucault writes a great blog titled “From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher”. In it, he shares book reviews, interesting hand histories, and various insights on the poker world. With an unparalleled rate of new content, it’s clear that Foucault takes a lot of pride in his blog. Those uninterested in reading hand histories might find this blog to be too saturated with them. Thankfully, Foucault uses a hand history converter. Without it, perusing his blog would be chaotic.”
Apparently they had some trouble finding my real name, which is surprising, since it’s front and center on my website. Anyway, I’m flattered, not just to be noted in this company, but specifically by the things they said. It’s always been my goal to write really substantive and useful content rather than the self-absorbed bragging and whining that you’ll find on a run-of-the-mill poker blog.
If this were any other kind of website, I probably wouldn’t even bother with the Google Ads. In the months that I’ve had them up, they’ve made me literally pocket change, nowhere near the minimum that you need to get a check from Google. But I figure that since I’m giving away some valuable advice that could make you serious money, I may as well have a few ads up. I’d really like to get to the point where ad revenue at least covers the cost of hosting the blog (not that it’s expensive, it’s just a nice goal), so maybe I’ll look a bit more into how optimize my earning.