I got an email from Google AdSense informing me that now they will be allowing other ad networks to advertise in AdSense spaces. You can see it on the AdSense blog too.

The idea is to allow even more bidders to compete for the space you’re offering through AdSense. Sites should be able to earn more money that way.

And it’s not just and ad networks allowed in. Google certifies them for adherence to user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You can also block any networks you don’t want on your site.

Personally, I’d like to see samples from the networks to have a notion of who’s advertising what. It’s going to take some research if I suddenly see ads I don’t like. Who do they belong to? I don’t know how easy it will be to tell.

They have only about 9 networks listed right now, with more expected in coming months. It should be interesting to see how this all works out.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HyJPOVLd3I]

It seems to be pretty popular right now for moms to talk about how “bad” they are, basically making light of their mistakes and trumpeting that they’re not the perfect moms that there’s so much pressure to be.

All in all, that’s not a bad thing. We shouldn’t hold ourselves to such excessively high standards. But it’s a far cry from being a really bad mom.

Making a parenting mistake doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Taking time for yourself doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Forgetting a promise you made to your kids doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Matter of fact, most of the mistakes we moms make just mean we’re human. Sometimes they mean we’re tired. But so long as we aren’t doing things that really harm our families, we aren’t likely to really be bad.

Just imperfect. And thank goodness for that.

I’ve long had a love/hate relationship with AdSense. On the one hand, it’s an easy way to monetize a site. On the other, there’s this sheer lack of control over what appears on your site.

Yes, there’s long been the ability to block individual advertisers, but it’s not terribly effective when new sites start advertising all the time and you don’t always see what your visitors see.

Well, they’re letting categories be blocked now. Not a lot of categories, and they’re pretty broad, but it’s a nice start. And this isn’t too new, but I only just noticed the AdSense blog post. Really need to make it over there more often.

You can pick up to 5 categories from the list, and they show you what percentage of impressions each category currently has on your site and the percentage of your income it generates. Nice to know what you’re risking.

It’s a huge category for me, but yes I did decide to block the “Get Rich Quick” category, along with some others that are not relevant to any of my sites. We’ll see if that cuts out some of the too close to scammy or flat out scams that drive me nuts when I think about AdSense.

The next part will be seeing how it goes with earnings. I don’t get as much as I used to from AdSense because I made them much less prominent. If the ads are improved enough, they might get more prominent again to see how much I can earn. Otherwise, I can always keep testing other ads.

How would you spend it?

I don’t care if you already have a home business and call it an added $1000 that you could spend on your business however you like or you haven’t decided what to do and need the money to get started.

How would you spend it?

I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days. I’m terrible at spending money, which is good most of the time, but bad when I should be investing more money into my business. This is a pretty tough question for me to answer.

If only I could say “buy more time” and be done with it! But it’s really not that simple.

I’d probably put the bulk of it to marketing. A part of it to this site because I love this site, but also for some of my other sites that have had less of my attention but have good chances to make money.

One of the strategies I’ve considered is putting up flyers at local colleges. The ability to work at home is great for college students, and I wouldn’t mind getting a little more attention from that area.

Another possibility would be to use it to get a great prize for a giveaway, such as an iPod or similar item. Something that might generate attention on its own as people tell their friends about it.

I’d probably also hire someone for some blog topic research. Probably not writing the posts, just getting some of the research out of the way. I like writing my own stuff and I think I’d be too prone to rewriting the whole thing if I hired a ghostwriter for my posts.

All that could easily use up $1000. How much to each part would depend on what seemed to be working. I wouldn’t suggest throwing money at something that hasn’t been tested on a smaller budget first for the marketing stuff, and hiring help always includes a search for just the right person, and that can cost money too in paying those who just don’t quite work out.

Your turn.

You probably enjoyed making paper airplanes as a kid. Why not go at it again with the whole family?

If you don’t remember how to fold a paper airplanes, there are online instructions to make a variety of planes, from simple to more complex.

It’s also a great way to reuse paper, so long as it’s still in good shape. Or the kids can decorate the paper before or after folding.

Kids are likely to enjoy competing with their planes, seeing whose plane can fly the longest, highest or whatever. If you’re worried about things being knocked over by paper airplanes or (more likely) over exuberant children chasing after their planes, make sure you send them outside to fly the planes.