There are a few comments that I’ve received on the Reader Survey so far that I’d like to respond to:

In response to “How could I improve the blog?

Running spellcheck on your posts (see, I told you I was a jerk).

I had thought I was doing a good job of making sure I used spell check, but this reminder has already helped me remember to hit the spell check button one last time before I click on “Publish Post.” I would hate for my poor spelling to detract from an otherwise good blog post. This is constructive criticism, so it doesn’t make you a jerk.

The background is a little boring.  A little color might make it more eyecatching/memorable. 
A touch of color wouldn’t hurt. Everything is so gray.

I changed it, then I was told that it’s distracting, so I’ve changed it again. Have we found a happy medium yet? If not, I can try another theme. If any of you are graphic designers, feel free to give me some guidance.

Is there any way to stop so many Christian ads from showing up?

I’m sure there is, however I kind of like the idea of Christians supporting an atheist blog.

On a more serious note, Google AdSense works well for those with a very large audience, not so much for me. The first payment has a $100 threshold, so with my small audience and enough tech savvy readers who utilize ad or script blockers, it would take another three years to get that check.

I have been considering dropping AdSense for quite some time. It has felt like I’m giving advertisers free space and that I’m just making money for Google. Since I have to show other people’s content which I do not support or approve of and have yet to have any benefit from it, the theoretical $25 a year just isn’t worth it. Yes, I have removed AdSense.

It should go with out saying that I don’t blog for the money (since I have netted $0 so far). I do it because I enjoy it and I do it for you, my readers. But, if I could actually get a little compensation for the time I put in to this, I wouldn’t complain. Not that I need it, I have a good job and my direct blog related expenses are a whole $10 per year. That’s a pretty cheep hobby.

I reserve the right to resume utilizing the AdSense service at any time. However, I wouldn’t imagine doing that unless my readership increased 10 fold and if I did I would probably just have it run in the side bar.

For some contrast, I ran two ads for another service last week and I’ve already received my payment. It was actually the exact amount to cover my domain renewal and part of the deal is that the images had to make sense in the articles they were posted in. So I’m definitely not done with advertising, AdSense just doesn’t work for me at this time.

In response to “Is there anything I can do to make the site more accessible or user friendly for you?”

It’d be handy if the latest comments were viewable without checking the thread in-depth.

Look for “Recent Comments” in the side bar. If you didn’t see it before, don’t feel bad, it wasn’t very obvious. I switched from Blogger’s widget to the one from Disqus a few days ago and the new widget looks a lot better (plus it won’t show comments from Mabus, who I’ve banned).

Side Note
The self identified “jerk” was one of the few readers who completed the survey and the one who provided the most topics to write about and the most constructive feedback. You may think you’re a jerk, but if you started commenting you just might become my favorite reader. If you want help with your computer you can email me and I’ll help you troubleshoot it, as warning I’ll probably just tell you that Windows is just being it’s usual self and its time to hose your system and start over (reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS), or better yet you could always switch to Linux.