A little story. In 2005 I was invited to keynote a conference about RSS in NYC. I was living in Florida at the time. I asked the conference promoters to pay for my expenses, since it was a for-profit venture and they were advertising my presence (and RSS is one of the few topics I'm a draw for). They said no, I had to pay my own way. So I had a little fun, offering a sponsorship opportunity, the way people were getting sponsors for their RSS feeds. It would be a little demo, with some humor, and get some exposure. Well, I got a taker, but when the conference promoters heard about it, they got very angry and said I could either pay my own way or not come at all. I didn't go.