You see, I am a writer. I love nothing more than to research and write material on the area of my passion. In fact I have devoted my life to that very thing. Other than a bit of housework and meal preparation in support of my hardworking life- partner, my time is spent online researching and writing my own material. I am very proud of the material I have produced and offer in the form of articles and e-books on my website.

Once I have attracted a visitor to my site, why on earth would I want them to suddenly leave and go who knows where? At least if they clicked on an affiliate link I have something of an advantage for two reasons: (a) I have chosen where the visitor will go when they leave my site and (b) I could receive some income if they purchase the product or service on the site to which I am an affiliate.

With Adsense, the most likely place my hard-earned visitor would end up would be my direct competitor! That's like owning a Pizza restaurant and advertising the local Chicken Take-Away in my establishment. Yet, that is in effect, the type of thing I would be doing if I displayed Adsense on my site. Yes, it might make sense to Google to provide contextual advertising. It would probably even make sense to the advertiser (otherwise why would they do it). But it makes no sense to me.

I write because I believe I have something worthwhile to say. I believe, in all honesty, there are a lot of people who would benefit from hearing what I have to say. . I also believe that laborers are worthy of their hire, so yes, I offer some of my material for sale. I put my material before people. If they like what they see, if it fills a need in their life at that particular moment in time, they may buy. If they don't like what they see, that's okay. But the last thing I want is for them to rush in and out of my store because their attention has been grabbed by my competitor who I allow to stand in the entrance to my place of business for the purpose of diverting my customers across to his store. Will they come back to me? I don't really know, but I sure as heck would rather it didn't happen in the first place.

On the other hand, I recognize that I am something of a crusader. My site is not there specifically for me to make money, although the income is appreciated. If I was only interested in making money (and it seems, if you believe everything you read you either make millions or you make zero when you are in business on the Internet. There is, apparently, no middle ground) then I could provide the mega-store approach and offer you anything and everything your heart desires.

I heard recently of one entrepreneur who has 75000 websites! Apparently the content on those sites is so unappealing that he makes tens of thousands of dollars each month from Adsense alone. To that I say Great. I trust he enjoys his money I choose to journey along a road apparently less traveled. What I lose out on in the area of financial gain, I certainly make up for in satisfaction of achieving my life's goal and a career path that I honestly love. There not much more I could ask for.

Graham Hunt is the Founder and Thinker-in-Residence of The Ultimate Success Center, the website of which can be found. Graham has also started an interactive blog on Aglet Marketing. An aglet is the small metal tip on a shoestring. Aglet Marketing, therefore seeks ways to promote your website on the tip of a shoestring.