We're in the money! We're in the money!

I didn't start this blog with any crazy dreams of becoming a blogosphere billionaire. But at some point shortly after I started it up, I reckoned I'd throw a few Google ads on the page, mostly out of curiosity about how the whole blog/ad revenue thing worked.  It turns out that the first thing I learned was that Google doesn't pay out anything until you reach $100.

For the first few months the totals piled up in numbers that were shocking to me, given the low traffic at a friends-and-family sort of blog devoted to beagle haiku, my own fantasy sports teams, and random photos of stuff.  Then the revenues dried up and the totals increased by mere pennies a month.  I reckoned that either a few friends and family members had tired of clicking on ads, or that Google had changed their payment algorithm to more accurately reflect the very limited desirability of the advertising demographic drawn by hound-based poetry.

Either way, my dream of making literally dozens of dollars a year while blogging from the comfort of my own home had come to a screeching halt.

Oh, I'd check in every few months to see if I'd come any closer to the magic $100 mark, but more to satisfy my abstract curiosity than my pecuniary interest.  I'd crossed the $99 mark a while ago, so I'd begun to wonder whether I could ever cross the magic $100 mark or if this was instead the Zeno's Paradox of the digital economy.

And then, lo and behold, what should I see in my e-mail inbox today?

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From: billing-noreply@google.com 
Time: Today at 12:51 AM

Please note that we've recently issued a payment to you for your Google AdSense earnings on Mar 25, 2014. Your payment has been sent and should be arriving shortly. For more information, please log into your account and visit your Payment summary page. You may also be able to find a reference number there to track or pick up your payment. 


Sincerely,
The Google Billing Team

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I'm gobsmacked!

I'd like to thank Katie the Beagle, Melanie Monagon's Drag-Racing Gremlin, and everybody in between. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with this windfall (I'm open to suggestions!) but I'll be sure you let my vast and profitable Patio Boat audience know what you bought me.

Now get out there and click on some ads. Let's get that next hundred dollars here by 2020 AD!