catapult published its 100th issue last Friday with “Busy is Good,” which, while only a number in the middle of two others, is still pretty neat.

Well, we’ve decided to finish our test of Google AdSense a little prematurely because it’s proving ineffective, both as a tool for generating revenue and networking online resources.

We’ve added a new music affiliate to our roster–you may have noticed the eMusic logo on the catapult home page. eMusic has a trial offer that allows you to download 50 free songs–from artists like Neko Case, Cat Power, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, The Decembrists and more–to see if you’d be interested in subscribing. And *cino will earn $6 per person who signs up for the trial (even if you don’t subscribe)!
eMusic is an online music retailer that sells independent music through subscription plans starting at $9.99 per month. But unlike other subscription models (Real Rhapsody, Napster, etc.), eMusic allows you to download tracks into your music library. For example, the $9.99 plan gives you 40 downloads per month.

We’ve published a new home page for *culture is not optional and will be adding sections to the site as we’re able. We’re hoping to have a much friendlier and more useful site in the near future. Updates to follow …

If you’ve visited catapult recently, you may have noticed the Google text ads on the issue and article pages. While we’ve resisted advertising to this point for practical and aesthetic reasons, we’re running a two month test with Google to see what kind of ads are served to our pages and what the possibility for revenue might be.
We’ll let you know in a few months what our verdict is; in the meantime, please feel free to give us your feedback on this venture.