Kicesie & the Tip Jar

I was a little flattered when I checked my stats and came across this: The Tip Jar. Kicesie is a 21 year old woman from Louisiana who has a My Space account. She also posts quite a few videos on YouTube including a continuing sex-ed series. What intrigued me more is her discussion on blogging as a job and about monetary recompense for blogging. The subject of money frankly embarrasses me. I don't like bringing it up or talking about it. I feel squicky when thinking about my writing in relation to money. Also, to be absolutely frank, I do have alternate income. I don't need to make money from my writing to live. But Kicesie's video post did get me thinking about the value of good content on the web and how most of us take it for granted. What if one day, all those funny, sexy, intelligent, yummy blogs you usually go visit and get so much from, were gone? Or behind a pay-site portal page? Now, I've always thought I believed that good content was worth money. Heck, I subscribe to the select version of the NYT, I even donate to PBS (even though I'm not a US citizen, and it took me about two months to figure out how to give them money! I watch the Frontline Programs online). But I never really thought about blogs - blogs I love. Creative, funny, sexy people who put a great deal of effort into making the internet a more interesting place and not filling it up with ads and marketing hype. Kicesie is right - more bloggers ought to have tip jars. Now, if I could only find a way to establish a paypal account from Vietnam (they really DON'T like my IP address), I'd even donate some!