The short answer is no. Yes, originally, .com = commercial. But this site, my personal blog, and my teaching blog are all .com, yet none of them has a single ad and none of them generate any kind of revenue.
However, because it is a .com a conference presenter insisted that I delete a link to a book she referred to and insert a link to her book.
Due to a misunderstanding of what a blog is and who actually has any rights to dictate its content (by my mentor, not me), I did end up linking to her book.
I did not change the blog post in the way she dictated. She insisted I take out a link to the book she used to frame her presentation and replace it at the beginning of the blog post with a link to her book. Financial renumeration was her main argument. “Why should he make money from my conference presentation?” Perhaps because she used his book to frame her conference presentation?
She was not happy with the fact that I mentioned she received an award and noted the book, with a link, there. She did not say thank you for that (which was done at the time of the conference). That was inadequate, in her opinion.
So I added the link to her book at the end of the post she was upset about and deleted all reference to her in the award notifications. When she wrote to thank me for adding the link to her conference presentation post, she noted that it had disappeared from the awards post.
Yes. That’s what happens when you do an end-run around me, requesting that others change my blog and manage to put me in a position where the integrity of someone else is at risk. That’s what happens when you don’t appreciate the publicity I voluntarily gave you and insist on a different kind of publicity.
Hahaha, making money. Please. Even if the site was “commercial” the ability to make money off the internet is a crapshot at best. There was a South Park episode where the boys made a viral video and demanded the “money” they earned from it. We think that because it’s even a little popular, the people must be making money off of it, which is completely false.
Most of the people making money off the internet is either off ads or their personal merchandise. Because a mention in your post will certainly guarantee a spike in books sales. Maybe Inter-Library Loan requests…
I think I’m spoiled because I’m on Twitter and embraced social media/the internet and I assume everyone knows and understands these things. I don’t even claim to be an expert. But, really? That’s astounding.
FAQ of Internet for Beginners on about.com has a good discussion of the history of .com as commercial versus now, when it has no particular signification.