Should TonbridgeBlog charge for ads?...

I few people have reacted rather negatively to the idea of TonbridgeBlog charging for putting links in the Useful Links and Blogs column on the left of this page. Let me reassure those social clubs and organisations on there already that they won't suddenly get a bill for twenty quid a month. No, not at all. But there have been many commercial organisations over the past few years who have wanted a link on here and a few have been prepared to stump that sort of dosh for it. After all what's wrong with it? The issue is whether the integrity of the editorial content is maintained and, since I'm mostly in control of that, I would ensure that it is. Let's face it most successful magazines, newspapers, TV stations and, for that matter, web sites simply wouldn't survive in the long term without having an income of some kind. Granted TonbridgeBlog was not set up as a commercial site, and some say that that is the essence of it, but the balance will be kept right have no fear. The google ads which have been on the site for about two years now caused a similar stir when they first went up but nowadays no one complains.You might even say they compliment the look of the blog. There will be a few companies and organisations who will benefit from the highly targetted, locally focussed audience which TonbridgeBlog offers but the rest of you just won't even notice them doing it....