dataguy - 6:12 pm on Mar 3, 2012 (gmt 0)

Thanks to all who have commented. One of the problems with going to work 'for the man' is that I don't get to Webmaster World nearly as often. WW is actually how I got introduced to AdSense in the first place, so yeah, I can say 'thanks a million' to the folks here at Webmaster World and really mean it. (One of my goals has been to some day make it to the WW home page, and now I've done it. Thanks a million!)

To all those who cast aspersions on my business model, I can forgive you because you haven't seen my business model. When someone throws large amounts of money at you for doing things a certain way, you don't turn it down because earning the money is not a reliable business model. You try to maximize profit and otherwise invest the money into other things, as I have done.

Great link, @Sgt_Kickaxe. Larry Page's speech really does explain a lot.

My site is what is now called an 'article directory' but it was around long before that term became popular. I've always called it a writers' community, and it still primarily serves that purpose. It's easy to see why my website could mistakenly be considered a 'content farm'. I consider most article directories content farms myself.

@skunkr, you are so right and perhaps this is the best take-away from my story. We webmasters who have fought from the trenches of everyday website development really do have in-demand talent, and Google can't take that away from us. In my case, I was feeling pretty beat-down when I decided to start looking for a regular job, but the very first person I contacted about a job hired me, at much better pay and with much better benefits than I expected. Today they consider me a guru of all things Internet. And I guess I am.

As my wife says, geeks rule!