As used today; the word “Monetize” is - to me - an ugly soulless word. Hearing it is like coming down with mental flu. There are too many discussions where every second sentence relentlessly turns to turning attention into money.
There’s nothing at all wrong with making money, I work at a company where any profit we make will come from showing advertising. There’s nothing wrong with being entrepreneurial either, great risk-taking entrepreneurs have done an awful lot for society and culture. But there is something wrong with using the methodologies like SEO, or even NPV, to describe the value of cultural content, and something even more wrong with pre-supposing that the reason someone is creating it is to make money. Both methodologies have utility, but are applied too broadly. Not everything is a business model.
The real value of culture isn’t merely its ability to make that money, but is innate, and it just happens to be possible to borrow against it occasionally. Smiles are more valuable than dollars, and they’re much easier to measure if you know how. As Dan puts it; it would be better if “Monetize” was “Monetize”.
And today, taking this photo of a nice duck at the Botanical Gardens Dublin, I tried to emulate the style of Monet, breathing another tiny glimmer of value from the air of a brilliant creator. It didn’t cost me anything, it didn’t cost you anything, and it’s making at least one of us happy. It’s my Monetize, and it serves to remind me that I’m keeping this photo-blog as ad-free and sharing-friendly as I can possibly make it. Normal service will resume shortly.
Comments
I’d buy that!
Comment by Dan Brickley — January 28, 2008 @ 10:51 am
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