I stated in the last post that I disapprove of the programs in which people are paid to blog about a particular business, deceptively, as if it were unsolicited praise. I do; I think they’re sleazy. However, I do want to clarify that I have no problems with people, including me, monetizing their blogs in other ways. I have a CafePress account which sells official Lake Neuron merchandise and an Amazon Associates account through which I get a commission when people buy items after following a link from my blog. If you were to click on the little image of Steve Martin’s book in my post from last night, and buy a copy, I would eventually get a commission. (This program generates very little traffic for me, and so it takes several years for me to get to the $10 threshhold at which Amazon will actually send me money.) But nobody paid me to endorse Steve Martin’s book or blog about it. I decided to blog about it, and then as an afterthought I put a link to the book on the post, partly as an illustration and as a service to readers who might be interested in buying it. I don’t think that’s the same thing.