Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A Change to Blogger's Adult Revenue Policy

Well, this was a bit of a sucky thing to find in my inbox today.  Apparently Google has (or rather is very soon) changing their policy regarding monetization of adult blogs (note: "adult", it doesn't say "pornographic".  I'd consider some stand up comedy acts "adult", personally).  They say you can't have ads on your blog that go to adult sites or have ads that are "adult in nature".

Their wording is so vague and the changes are coming so fast, I have very little time to figure out what to do about the Tuskar comic link I have listed here for sale.  Lulu isn't an adult site.  And the ad for it isn't pornographic in the least.  But with potentially-arbitrary rulings against me, should I risk leaving it there?

It's such a headache.  Ugh.

Edit 1:  It seems like it only really involves blogs that are made to mass advertise other adult sites with the intent of making money on the blog.  Their own content policy says, "Do not use Blogger as a way to make money on adult content.  For example, don't create blogs where a significant percentage of the content is ads or links to commercial porn sites."  Those two things, however, are contradictory.  The first says not to do it at all, the second says don't do it "significantly".

Why don't they just say what they mean straight up without the fluffy, vague language?

Edit 2:  I went ahead and adjusted a couple of things to minimize impact on the blog.  I really don't think this would apply to Barbaric Brawn in the first place.  I've seen Blogger pages that are absolutely riddled with affiliate links and the like, and I can imagine that this whole policy change was likely born because of that.  But just in case, I took steps to protect it for the future.

Thanks for reading this, guys.  Time for me to get back to work on the things that truly matter: muscle art!

7 comments:

  1. Well it it becomes an issue here then maybe Telemachus will welcome you on his site?

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. :D It's nice to have options to fall back on.

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  2. It's funny, for no particular reason I was contemplating suggesting you look at DeviantArt . com, then I see this post. Well, if it becomes a problem here, you might want to check DA & possible start a group there if you like it. I do like the blogspot format much better, but DA is just a possible plan ‘B’. This genre is largely untapped there; you'd be a hit! Hey, in the case anything untoward happens here & you’d like to alert your followers, my email is TheeKidChaos@aol.com or (youtube) Thee1kidChaos, if there’s a rolodex to add it to.
    BTW, I finally finished Corky’s incomplete MightyMan... Wow... I found myself squeamishly skimming over the really graphic portions-not being a sadist myself-& what I found was some great detailed work & a very well illustrated story. Chapters 21-22 are GOLD. It’s funny, despite my familiarity with mortality, I was sort of reintroduced to it’s finality following the last paragraph. What a great author & loss to us.

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    1. It's quite sad. I'm seeing other people with adult blogs like mine absolutely baffled as to what this means for them. And some of them are just up and leaving for other venues.

      Thank you for the idea and offer! Hopefully it won't come to something like that, but at least since I bought the domain, it'll be easy to find me again since I'll just have the .com site redirect people to my new location.

      Yeah, I had to skim certain parts, myself. It can be quite graphic, but what isn't definitely makes up for it, I feel. I believe I read that Corky had finished the MightyMan story, but he never got to post it because of his illnesses and that his nephew is going through and trying to piece it together to distribute at some point. It would be nice to see how it concludes.

      And yeah, it's a bit surreal that he's gone. I remember worrying about his health way back when it first started, and then, some time later, he was said to be out of his coma and doing very well again. And then I suddenly heard about his passing after quite a few months later. It's quite saddening and yet another reminder to live and love life while you can.

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  3. Huh, I sort of dismissed the email as relating to sites that have paid advertisers (sites that paid to have an ad on your blog). It was rather vague. And, unfortunately, companies like blogger rarely give out warnings and Orders to Comply (I'm basing that on my recent difficulties with Photobucket); you just log in and find all your content is suddenly gone.

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    1. That's likely exactly what it's talking about, but the language is very vague and a bit scary to those who have built up quite a lot over time. It's definitely scaring away some people whose blogs I'm following.

      Yahoo is the same, unfortunately. They've been known to just up and delete groups without a warning and without so much as telling you why. It really sucks sometimes.

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