My Back Yard

 Steve Pavlina’s blog has an entire post on "How to Make Money from Your Blog."

 Some specific recommendations include:

1. Google Adsense ads (pay per click and pay per impression advertising)
2. Donations (via PayPal or snail mail — yes, some people do mail a check)
3. Text Link Ads (sold for a fixed amount per month)
4. Chitika eMiniMalls ads (pay per click)
5. Affiliate programs like Amazon and LinkShare (commission on products sold, mostly books)
6. Advertising sold to individual advertisers (three-month campaigns or longer)

I wonder if Amazon might be worthwhile on my business blog. Or maybe it could even work here when I recommend specific books — especially squirrel books. Is it tacky to include this kind of link? The Google AdSense link on this blog belongs to Blogsome.com — not to me.

Oops. I’ve been eating the wrong foods.

My nutritionist just told me I’m allergic to eggs, oats and shrimp. Eggs and oatmeal have been staples of my breakfast. In fact, I’ve got an 8 1/2" x 13" Pyrex container that’s four-fifths filled with an egg casserole that I made for our New Year’s Day party. I’ve been planning to eat most of it contains sausage innards. Iggy, my vegetarian husband, won’t help.

Iggy doesn’t eat oatmeal, either. That’s a matter of taste, not conviction, which didn’t stop him from buying me an industrial-sized box of oatmeal at the warehouse club. I’ve sprinkled a handful of oats on my patio to see if our sparrows like it. If not, I’ll have to relocate the bird food recipe that incorporates oats into a mix with cornmeal, shortening and other ingredients.

Shrimp is one of my favorite ingredients to order in restaurants. Goodbye, shrimp! My Christmas Day plate of shrimp saag will be my last. Of course, that’s assuming I’ve got willpower.

I haven’t shown much willpower lately. Since Thanksgiving, I’ve been spiraling off course with sweets. How can I turn over a new leaf?