My Blog Won't Go Commercial

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2005-03-20 00:01 · Blogging

I am not surprised if people ask me about the question: “Why did you turn your blog into a commercial site? I am sure you can make a lot if you sell it”. Well. I believe that. But the problem is, I won’t sell it. :-) With 10,000 unique visitors everyday and 1 million page views, I am happy that this blog covers most of the expats to Shanghai (correct me if I am too confident here). Lots of my foreign friends tell me that they know my blog before they come to Shanghai. Typically, people get started with a search on Shanghai in Google. Andrea told me that all her girl friends know the site, which really flattered me. Of cause, I am very happy to know that.

It is natural that someone proposed to me to turn the site into commercial websites or even sell it. It is some option that I won’t consider. Why? It is part of my life. I enjoy helping and sharing. I enjoy the emails I got everyday with “thank you” as the first sentence, and I enjoy to have my tea house and invite wise people to come and discuss about many topics from different perspectives. It is my baby and I won’t share it with others. I have give up the option to get rich via this blog. Above all, the Google Adsense on this site treated me well already. The worst thing I can do is to get money from someone, anyone I can imagine, and I lose the passion to stay late and write. I may mention something in a dishonest way just because I get money from it. 1% presence of such dishonest content ruins my confident to write in the days to come and may ruin my readership. Now, I also recommendate business on my site - just like where to go and where to get hosting. It is based on my experience. All the information is not always correct - sometime I got fooled and cheated, but I won’t cheat. I thanked my reader who offered to **donate **for my work. I appreciate it. But I want to respectfully reject it. Now the small money I collect from Adsense program pays my hosting fee and I don’t think donation can me a millionaire. If it does, well, let me think again. :-) If you want to donate, I accept gifts - a post card with international stamp is a good choice, and a link to this site is another good one. I accept that. Isn’t it fun to have a famous blog than having a lot of money? Money won’t make people happy. Achievements do.

The backlog of my emails is still not cleared out. If you wrote to me in the last week, chances are, you will NOT get a response. Send again if you do care a response. Sorry for that, but my bandwidth is limited

11 Comments

This is just one of the many reasons why so many people appreciate both you and your blog, Jian Shuo. I have come to believe that the desire to help other people is almost as basic in human nature as the need for food, clothing and shelter. Without an opportunity to feel good about ourselves by making the world, or personal circumstances, a better place for other people, life becomes quite meaningless. And, from my personal perspective as a mom, I do know for sure that if you were my own son I would be just bursting with pride! :-)

— Carroll · 2005-03-20 01:20

Now that Adsense program policy change allows revealation of earnings, would you please share your ad income to assure us you are in ok shape and don't need to commericiailize the site?

— MT · 2005-03-20 05:56

huh? Why does he need to share his ad income with us? Doesnt seem like MT cares about him, but somehow thinks Jianshuo is making more money from ads then he is impying. I am sure he isnt lying when he said it covers his cost. We all know JingShuo is doing really well with his career, he bought a house, a car and doing great. I doubt even if the ad income doesnt pay for his expenses, he will not be 'ok' as MT tried to imply. So its stupid to ask him to 'show' his ad revenue to us for some ulterior motives. But I sure hope he makes a lot of money for all his help to us. Thanks again JianShuo!

— Chinese · 2005-03-20 10:56

haha, Jianshuo, I'm sure your quality writing and helpfulness will gain you some opportunities in the future. Well, I really enjoy reading your blogs and offer you a meal the next time I'm in Shanghai.

— boran · 2005-03-21 11:19

Hi, Jianshuo,

Great to know your passion to what you are doing. You have a good heart. As I always believe, money is something but not everything. Go ahead, your love to life will bring you every thing!

— Carmen · 2005-03-23 20:10

NOT a commercial site?

You have adverts here. Nice speech, but you made the choice to put adverts on here rather than not.

Do you realy have 10,000 visitors a day? I simply and positively cannot believe it. I only saw this site linked from another one. It is just the blog of one guy. A million a month seems just impossible.

— Ricky · 2005-03-26 17:47

ooh someone seems to be pissed off and jealous... if you cant get that many visitors that doesnt mean no one can. First, I bet most of his visitors are people looking for information for "Shanghai", so its not only about someone's blog. Second, this website has more information about Shanghai, than actual websites solely about Shanghai. Third, shut up when you dont know Jack.

— chinese · 2005-03-27 00:11

I didn't say this site wasn't *great*, which it is, I said I can't believe it get 10,000 visitors a day. That is a lot of visitors. Maybe internet traffic is just more than I thought it was.

No need to be rude, is that the chinese way? I think not.

I am not jealous as I don't have a site.

My point was about the commerciality. This site is commercial - and a million visits a month is a lot of revenue. I'm discussing, please do not be rude.

— Ricky La Bamba · 2005-03-27 19:54

I am sorry for being rude, but your post was pretty ridiculous. It wasnt about "commerciality" as you claim, you were basically calling him a liar by saying there is no way there could be that many users that Jianshuo claimed. I dont see any reason why he would lie. On top of that, "Nice Speech" what did you mean by that?

geez bro, dont change your stance after someone called on you for your comments.

— chinese · 2005-03-28 02:41

Hello, Nice blog, wow good accomplishment with that many users,, i hope you get more soon too, please check out http://www.chinacarforums.com i noticed you interested in chinacars and globolization, please visit chinacarforums.com,

— Victor Chen · 2006-02-13 08:59

Wang xiansheng,

congratulations from a viewer in Luxemburg. I appreciate the variety of items which are touched upon in your blog, and admire your continuous effort at improving it.

On my own bilingual blog, in English and in French ( http://serenidee.over-blog.com/ ), I just started pointing out to my readers some of the websites and blogs I visit, not just by providing the electronic link to them, but by giving an evaluation of their content as well. The idea is to give the internet community, especially in Europe, a wider view of reality in the world, by attracting attention to blogs which I find worthwhile. My very first selection was a blog in India (view here: http://serenidee.over-blog.com/article-6055274.html ), and my second is about "Wang Jianshuo's blog" (view here: http://serenidee.over-blog.com/article-6079240.html ).

If you think my blog deserves a bit more than a few dozen viewers a day, I would be grateful if you provided a link to it at "Wang Jianshuo's blog".

Wo shi Faguo-ren, xuesheng shidai xuele yidian'er zhongwen (sorry, I cannot insert Hanyu script). Yexu jingnian xiatian, zai Zhongguo wo you yidian shiqing, dai Shanghai 2-3 tian. Xiwang you jihui pengdao ni.

If you wish to reply, please use my e-mail address, or post a comment after my short article about your blog. Thank you.

With best wishes from Luxemburg.

JJS.

— JJS · 2007-03-20 18:45