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"Half of our users block ads. Now what?"

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Carol Haynes:
No I have no sympathy either - if you want revenue from a website sell something people want - don't bombard me with crap from other sources.

If a website really needs to make money advertising something from another website then look for things you really like and can stand behind and become a reseller/partner.

Sorry I use an adblocker because it seems like 90% of the internet consists of flashing adverts for crap!

rgdot:
At the end of the day...
People block/skip/walkaway from TV ads too. Content creators and producers complaining about ad effectiveness or reach is not new.

40hz:
What do you think? Are the days of online ads numbered? Are we moving to a content-based society that will result in subscriptions for basic information?
-Josh (March 10, 2013, 07:44 AM)
--- End quote ---

There's an old bit of Zen instruction which goes: "When sitting, just sit. When standing, just stand. Above all, do not to wobble..."

I think it's reached the point when the web must leave its adolescence behind and emerge into adulthood. Which is to say it's time to graduate from school, stop sponging off your parents, and start to earn a living. It's also time to abandon all those "pfun" experiments and 'contrarian' theories (such as the "New Economy" and "Everything is free!") that haven't proven themselves, and move on to better (or at least more realistic) things.

In a nutshell:

It costs something in time and money to do most things worth doing. And people will either be willing to support it - or they won't. If they won't, the two remaining choices are to abandon the endeavor; or, scale it back and become a "patron of the art" by funding it yourself.

Trying to straddle the middle and somehow get somebody else to pay for it through indirect means doesn't work very well. It mostly just pisses off the people you're trying to serve. So do one or the other. Either get it to pay for itself - or pay for it yourself.

To paraphrase the Zen master: If you honestly need to sell, sell honestly. If not, then don't. Above all, do not spin in circles and make an ass of yourself trying to find a way around this.



 8)

wraith808:
Truthfully, and I think I'm not alone, I have no problems with ads on most sites.  However, bad people use them to do bad things- both to distribute malware, and to put obtrusive things before you that use flash, flashing graphics, and other things that make you want to burn your eyes out.  So I run one.  And I'm too lazy to whitelist.  Sometimes I do if there is an appeal.  But most times I just don't pay attention.

Until the advertisers solve the problems with the bad ads on networks, and make people really not care, this won't change.  But to get to that point, they have to stop trying to affect the numbers for one thing, and that will never happen.

And 40 effective summarizes why this approach of gaining revenue doesn't work well, so I'll stop rambling now. :)

cyberdiva:
Several people have mentioned their dislike of ads that flash, buzz, or are obnoxiousl distracting in other ways.  Do adblockers exist that do or can deal only with such ads?  I know that I started using an adblocker and flashblock to deal with ads (and, for that matter, non ads) that I found distracting.  I might  be happy to switch to one that targeted only those kinds of ads. 

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