I guess I should have clarified, that $38 is how much brands have paid us directly. Advertising income is a separate line item, although Internet advertising pa

I guess I should have clarified, that $38 is how much brands have paid us directly. Advertising income is a separate line item, although Internet advertising pays just as well as you would expect it to. Most months we're lucky just to cover hosting and expenses. Another thing to consider is that sponsored/branded posts don't get as many clicks as you might think. Brands want social media presence and they want links to their site, not yours. Going through the funnel of "clicking from Facebook to my site, then clicking from my site to the brand's site" is the same funnel as any other web interaction. 10% CTR from Facebook, the same or less inside the article. And Instagram is worse, since there are no links allowed in an Insta post.