[wp-hackers] Advertising on plugin pages

[Mike Schinkel]

"Peter Westwood" <peter.westwood at ftwr.co.uk> wrote:
> Dynamic advertising on a page within the admin sounds like 
> a bad idea, you are injecting html/javascript from a third 
> party into the trusted area of the system.

Although I'm not sure I'd want to see ads in the admin console because its a potential slippery slope, I wonder why it would require "injecting html/javascript from a third party?"  It seems that it could work like this:

1.) A scheduled event in the plugin checks a web service on the plugin author's site for a new ad image.
2.) If found the scheduled event downloads the new ad image to a local directory.
3.) The ad image is displayed from the same domain as the site with a simple hyperlink.
4.) When the ad is clicked it routes thru a click tracker on the plugin author's site and then on to the advertiser's site.

How does that create an issue with a trusted area of the system?

-Mike Schinkel
http://mikeschinkel.com/

P.S. I think Joost is asking a broader question: Have can a plugin author generate a revenue stream to support his efforts that doesn't require him or her to constantly do client-focused consulting and instead better target the needs of the general plugin user?  If we could come up with a community-acceptable way that can generate real income for plugin developers w/o retarding the open-source aspects that make the WP community so vibrant and valuable, this could benefit most on the hacker's list, no?