On the other hand, there are those people who have something to say, and they blog for the purpose of sharing their thoughts and receiving feedback from their audience. Within this group, there are a handful of writers whose work is actually worth reading, and with luck and perseverance they can rise above the masses and be recognized for their contributions. A few of these people are successful enough in attracting readers that they can eventually generate a small income, but these folks are the exception. While I believe that advertising is always a distraction from content, I am more likely to tolerate it if the content is truly exceptional.

The reality is that it takes an enormous readership to make a living as a blogger.
As much as I would love to be able to earn a living from my own site, I recognize that it’s never going to happen unless I can magically generate a thousand-fold increase in readership. Since that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, I can at least hope that through my interactions with readers, I might come across other opportunities to profit from my writing. I would rather reap the rewards of my blogging indirectly than rely on readers to click on Viagra ads.

I ignore all ads seen anywhere on the computer.

The thing is, though, that there does seem to be many good people involved in this who simply care deeply about patients and are working to find a way to mitigate some of the anxieties that patients have during a dreadful time in a dreadful place. Compassion might be the ruling motivation. My fiend had always wanted to be an artist, but his spiritual teacher told him to become a doctor in order to help others. He’s now retired from that and very much hopes he’s helping others through his art. Certainly, though, he doesn’t mind that he is making more money than he ever did in a family practice in a rural area, and is having more fun.