VARIOUS PEOPLE have asked me questions about the blogads on the site, and I thought I’d round up some of the more common ones:

Does it help you if I click through the ads? Yes and no. I don’t get paid by the click-through, but I suppose that if you do — and especially if you buy stuff from the people who are selling things — it makes them more likely to advertise again. So don’t kill yourself, but as Hugh Hewitt points out, you should always try to patronize the advertisers of sites you like.

Why do you run ads from so many lefty sites? I decided early on to take ads from pretty much anybody unless I thought they were offensive to me or to too many readers. I’m not easily offended by political views short of Nazis, Communists, etc. I don’t do porn sites — I’ve got nothing against porn, but it’s not my idiom, as they say — and I won’t do hate groups. Otherwise it’s pretty open. Most of my political ads have been from the left (though my biggest advertiser has been an art gallery) and I’m pretty sure that most of them were funded by George Soros one way or another. I figure the money’s doing more good in my pocket than his, and at any rate this insulates me from claims that my content is dictated by advertisers! And of course, some of the lefty groups — like Planned Parenthood or the pro-gay-marriage folks — are groups that I support.

Are you getting rich? Will you buy a Gulfstream? The answer to that question is summed up by the headline to this article: Bloggers find clicks don’t equal cash. Considering that I’m getting money for doing something I used to do for free, blogads are a great deal. But I won’t quit the day job.

What about donations? I still get those, and I have to say that a dollar of donation money makes me happier than a dollar of ad money. There’s something about someone paying you when they don’t have to that makes it nice. It offsets any number of hatemails. . . .

Do you recommend blogads? Yeah. It’s very easy, costs you nothing, and I’ve been pretty happy.