If you spend a lot of time on your blog creating quality content then you deserve some type of reward. Selling ads is a great idea, and text ads are much better then graphical ones if you ask me. People pay the cable/sat bill every month. People pay for the newspaper, and magazines, so why can’t they put up with a few text based ads?
BTW: I just realized that you have no place to enter an email address! Needless to say I don’t read the text above the form before I start typing, sorry :-(
You do realize it’s all virtual, right? There’s no actual money changing hands, just shares which have a certain value in a fantasy market. I am, in effect, using my virtual fame to increase my virtual wealth, which seems appropriate.
Of course, it’s a small step towards accepting real text ads for real money, which is itself a small step towards introducing subscriber services and going Premium.
http://diveintomark.org/premium/
— Mark 
Well, it also really depends on how many times blogshares indexes you during the course of that week. I mean, I could give you a hundred shares of my blog and BS indexes you three times that week. Then another guy comes along and gives you shares to his blog, but BS indexes you only once that week because they slow down or something. So technically I got more bang for my buck than the next guy.
I’m in. How does the exchange work?
— Matt
David, there are lots of things beyond my control. The original “point” of advertising was simply to get clickthroughs to raise the profile of your blog in the real world; buying it through BlogShares was Dougal’s idea, which I jumped on because I’m interested in this right now, and I want to see what effects it has on the system.
— Mark
I’m game for this, although I’m not sure how to give you a hundred shares. Then again, since I’m currently valued at $0.00 you can just literally pick them up and make a pure profit:
http://www.blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http://boston.conman.org
Matt, go to your BlogShares user page and click “Gift” next to your own site’s holding, and send them my way. I’ll add your site to the top of the list when I get a chance, and leave it in the list for a week.
— Mark
Sean, I added instructions for gift-giving in the main post. Be sure to use the correct email address: f8dy@diveintomark.org
— Mark
Thanks, but I see you already took advantage of the deep discount on my shares. So, does that mean I get 38 weeks worth of linkage?
I’m in. I don’t have shares to give yet, Blog Shares hasn’t spider-ed me yet is my guess. As soon as I have them to give they’ll be 100 with your name on ‘em. Fun stuff!
— Keith
I just had a very Gordon Gecko moment.
— Matt
Sean: no, but thanks for the hot tip. :) (I don’t understand why any sites are available for $0, that makes no sense. In the real world you get delisted when you go under a certain price.)
If you still want to advertise, you may.
— Mark
I’d still like to advertise, so I sent you *an addtional* 100 shares. Sigh. Guess this is why I don’t play the stock market.
Re: Gordon Gecko. It will be interesting to watch market reaction to this. Assuming this works the way I think it will, smart players will catch on and try to buy up shares in sponsored sites before the BlogShare Bot notices.
Note that all of this is largely irrelevant, even taking into account the fact that it’s just a fantasy market to begin with. The entire BlogShares system is (probably) going to be reset at the end of the month when it goes out of beta.
— Mark
How are you defining warbloggers? I’ve got the idea on my head that it just means ‘people covering the war,’ but you seem to view it differently.
— Raena
By “warbloggers”, I meant the sort of people Dean Allen makes fun of. People who advocated going to war and are now patting themselves on the back because we “won”.
But since you mention it, no political sites at all, on either side. This is not a political site, I’m not good at discussing politics, I don’t enjoy it, and every time I mention it I get my head bitten off.
— Mark
Raena, sorry I didn’t answer quick enough. If you send me an email I’ll refund your shares first thing in the morning.
G’night all!
— Mark
– smart players will catch on and try to buy up
– shares in sponsored sites before the BlogShare
– Bot notices.
ahem! No shares in the Boston Diaries because a certain someone bought the lot! :P
— Raena
Eh, keep em if you want. :)
— Raena
Heh, here, have 300 shares, that three weeks right?
Whatever
As the shares are valued at $0.01, then they aint worth a great deal at the moment anyway!
— Matt
Or I could just add a comment and get linked ;)
So can I just promise you 100 shares as soon as I’m listed? :D I need the start valuation to be high enough, and your blog would be a nice way to speed that up. Of course there’s not really a way I can prove I’m going to give you the shares, you’d have to trust me on that one. (http://www.blogshares.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=201)
— Manuzhai
Dive into Adwords?
— Jesper
OK. I gave you 200 shares. Only at 0.03/share right now, but hey, that’s life :)
I’ve given you 100 of my worthless shares. An incoming link from here might raise the value of the floor, though actually I think its value is more a reflection of the BETA nature of BlogShares after discussing it on the forum.
Because I hand code everything and don’t use blogging software, I think that I don’t get picked up by any of the major networks - although I did notice that Technorati has me listed with incoming links from Tantek.
For the record, I’ve been linking to you for months!
Perhaps a similar investment opportunity might work well on Raging Platypus as well?
Just gave ya 100 shares. I’m also your top shareholder besides yourself :)
— Jeffe
Do the links actually have any effect? It will increase the target blog’s “valuation,” but this doesn’t seem to do anything to it’s actual share price unless the valuation surpasses some magic ratio (valuation > share price * number of shares (presumably 5000) * 7.5 (arbitrary multiplier)). It doesn’t work like that in a “Real” market - a publicly listed company’s “valuation” or market cap is *determined* by the share price times number of outstanding shares. Here, if everyone points to your weblog but nobody buys the shares, the valuation goes up but the share price doesn’t move. This seems designed to resist most small-scale manipulations but leave the door open for large-scale gaming of the system. Well, now that I think about it, that’s very similar to the real stock market, where the individual investor has no control while large institutions can move the market to a limited extent.
Paul, I have no idea if a single link from me will have any effect. Most of the sites who’ve signed up so far have $0 share price (or very close to 0), and also have no shares to buy — either because the owner is hording them, or because people bought them up in speculation when they announced they would be sponsored by me. :)
I don’t really understand the real market either, but I’ll take your word for it. My father was an economics professor for many years; mostly I’m just playing with all of this so I can talk to him about it afterwards. He may have some other strategies; heck, he might even play himself.
— Mark
Mark, I’ve “gifted” you 100 shares in Time Is Tight. In fact, you’ve inspired me to make an offer of my own:
I’m going to run this idea in reverse: I’ll give 100 BlogShares in Time Is Tight (http://timeistight.com) to anyone who links to me. Heck, I’ll probably link back to them, too! Just email BlogSareGiveaway at timeistight.com and let me know.
— Arthur
I’ve gifted you some worthless shares of my own, although if your plan works, they won’t be as worthless as when this started. :)
— Bill
I have gifted you 100 shares, not because I think I’ll be on your sponsored list anything soon, but because I’ve made enough playing off the fluctuations of your site (it was really undervalued) that you deserve a cut. — Stephen
So when do the sponsored links come off the home page?
— Ryan
I just notice this on the blogshares home page (http://www.blogshares.com)
In preparation for the move to the new server, all the various bots have been turned off. This means there will be no new sites added, no ownership claims processed, no price adjustments, no new IPOs and no sites reindex
— Ryan
Wow, a lot of comments…
Great idea Mark. Perfectly legal move and I’m glad you’re getting sucked in.
Oh… in response to some comments:
Regarding the $0 share price… caused by an early bug… LBOs are there to compensate owners.
Regarding the resetting of the game… only player accounts *may* be reset to some initial state. No decision made.
Regarding the bots being turned off… only for the weekend folks.
Ahh… I think that’s it.
It’s funny to think in an effort to get virtual attention in BlogShares, you’re probably giving your sponsored links real attention as well.
There may be some utility in this fake economy after all. Who’d a thunk it? ;-)
Er…Mark? I had to perform a Leveraged Buyout, which means I’ve seized the 100 worthless shares I gifted you earlier. :D
I went to gift them straight back again, and discovered it had taken me over my transaction limit. :(
As SOON as I have a free transaction, I’ll bung you 100 shares again, plus a bonus 50 shares for your trouble. :)
Anyone started a futures market in this yet?
— David
This is a really cool idea. If only I had a blog…
I’ve given you 100 shares in Ramblings of Tech Addict. Sure enjoy your site Mark!
but you just split all your stock so much!! It’s not worth very much right now :(
— d
Keep up the good work Mark! Shared have been given, and the way I see it, there’s no gift better than something you already own (or something like that).
— nukie
This must be the only stock market in the world where people complain about low prices.
— Mark
whoa! i just clicked too soon and gifted you 100 shares of your own blog :-)
I guess this means you’ll have to add yourself to the “sponsored links” now :-)
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be working quite as we’d hoped; dive into mark was reindexed today, but his Outgoing links still total 2 according to the BlogShares bot.
— Cathy
So what is the backlog looking like? I just gifted 100 shares and was wondering how many takers you had and how long it would take to get up. ;)
thx.
— kpaul
Sponsors giving gifts now will go live on May 3.
— Mark
Of course (thanks murphy) as soon as I wrote that comment I scrolled back to the top and saw that announcement.
Sorry…
— kpaul
On manipulating the market:
http://scribbling.net/entry/325/
— Gina
Mark, how are you defining ‘political’?
What if I want to donate shares to your site with no referral to my site. Would that upset the ethic?
— gummi
So you’re saying you just want to give me shares out of the goodness of your heart and expect nothing in return? No, that doesn’t upset me at all. :)
— Mark
Yep! Not all that altruistic. I’ve gained a few ideas from your posts/site and I think I would be classed as a political blog, but that shouldn’t stop me tipping the balance. I was in two minds about registering. It all seems a bit too ‘free market’, but it’s all in good ‘thigh slapping’ fun. Ça marche.
— gummi
Here we go… 100 shares offloaded :-) It’s just a game anyway, right? ;-)