Monetizing the Hate: queer sites should mimic this mommy blogger
I’m a mommy and while I don’t read any mommy blogs, one of my mommy friends pointed me to this post by Heather Armstrong, the famous mommy blogger. She recently launched Monetizing the Hate, an online depository that aggregates all the hate-mail submitted at Dooce and she surrounds it by advertising. A lot of advertising. Ads galore. A good post at Jezebel elaborates on the Dooce-hate money-making venture.
This got me thinking that queer blogs should take a page from Armstrong’s playbook and profit from the hate too. After all, gay-bashing is still alive and thrives on the anonymous Internet. While Queercents doesn’t get much hate mail (unless I’m writing about the cost to circumcise my son or trying to get my equity line reinstated), there are plenty of sites that do. Destinations, such as The Bilerico Project, Pam’s House Blend, and John Aravosis’ AMERICAblog, that focus on politics or things that resemble the gay-agenda… you know, the kind of content that provokes the trolls.
They should start monetizing the hate and make a little moolah in exchange for all the effort that goes into moderating comments.
Photo credit: Dooce.
Every remotely popular blogger gets this kind of hatred. Just today, someone called my little daughter (who JUST turned two years old) a “fat, stupid hog girl” and I was told to “shut my ignorant inbred mouth” (I’m guessing the “inbred” comes from the fact I live in the Midwest). Not by the same person, of course.
I love it!
Trent: Since cyber bullying is anonymous (of course, you can track by IP address), I think some commenters use blogs to vent anger, rage, hatred – whatever you want to call it – at the expense of others. I was actually surprised to learn though that The Simple Dollar receives the same intensity with personal attacks. Your content isn’t confrontational or political… and yet, people still spend the energy to say mean things.
I cant help but when i see a “hater” a song sounds in my head: “Springtime, for Hitler, and Germany, Deutschland, is happy, and GAYYYYYY” from The Producers 😛
Could QC have a similar section? 🙂