Blogging and Advertising

It has been almost 7 years since I started this blog in January, 2008. I needed a  a way to promote my designs and I wanted to get to know my customers better, and blogging seemed to be the way to go. So,  I have been blogging since then (although sometimes infrequently) and I am happy to say that there are now 860 folks who follow the blog, and it gets  an average of 750 visits a day (more when I release a new free pattern or have a contest.) 
Although I have always thought of the blog as a way to show my new designs and share my thoughts on designing and crochet in general, I  realize that the world of crochet is changing, and I must change with it if I am going to survive as a designer.
Pattern sales are down for most designers, myself included. The internet, which makes it so easy to set up a crochet business and sell patterns directly to my wonderful customers,  also makes it easy for those who would try to profit from the  hard work of others. There are several foreign sites which have all of my patterns posted illegally for distribution, and they make money by running advertisements. These sites blatantly ignore all copyright laws, and I have been unable to get my patterns removed. I am not the only victim of these thieves, almost all of the large publishing companies and independent designers have been affected as well.
This has hurt my sales to the point that I have considered giving up designing. I also thought about setting up my own site  and posting all of my patterns for free to get advertising revenue. I thought if anyone was profiting from giving my patterns away, it should be me. But, I know I still have many wonderful, loyal fans who appreciate my efforts and support me as a designer. I feel that giving my patterns away now would not be fair to all of my good customers who have purchased my patterns in the past (and who continue to support me now.)

So, I have come up with an idea. I have added advertisements to this blog, which will hopefully bring me some income. I get paid when someone clicks on an advertisement, so the more visitors  I get, the better.
I know most people really only visit this blog to get free patterns and to enter my contests, so those are the things I will be focusing on in the future. I will probably be doing a blog makeover, and adding a index to make searching for the free patterns easier as I add more of them.
I will also be 'retiring' some of my paid patterns, and after a waiting period, I will be adding them to the blog (kind of like Disney pulling an old movie out of their vault, but when mine come back they will be free!)
One thing I will not do is add so many ads and popups that it becomes distracting. I want you to always enjoy visiting the blog.
So, I would like to ask for your help. If you like one of my free patterns, would you please share the link  to it with your friends? If you have any ideas for patterns (or types) of designs that you would like to see in the future, would you let me know? Since there are already thousands of free patterns for hats, cowls and scarves out there, I thought I would focus more on thread designs, but I would love to hear your suggestions. Do you have any questions on designing (or crocheting in general)  that you would like to see a post on?
I know I have a loyal group of folks who regularly read and comment on my blog. I want you to know that I appreciate each one of you. I have a long list of designs that I am anxious to make and share with you, and I hope you will enjoy them all!