Ads on non-commercial websites: why and what to do with 'em?

[Kaonashi]

I used to believe that non-commercial sites where not covered with ads. Until I surfed the web on someone elses computer. On my own PC I got my ad defense in place. I use a hosts file combined with a custom userContent.css, so I hardly ever see ads.

So, when surfing the web somewhere else, I discovered that most sites at least display Google ads. They are the least irritating and for me the most acceptible way of displaying ads on a website but still I wonder... why? Why is Portable Freeware covered with Google ads plus some other ad system that linkifies words? I like the idea of people running a website because they are passionate about something. You run a website about free portable apps, I run a website about tweaking Windows for optimal performance, and so everybody contributes his share to the community, all for the love of it.

I understand that a website like Dropload needs to bring in some money to pay the hosting bill, because it obviously generates lots of traffic. But how much traffic do sites like Portable Freeware generate, I wonder? I mean, the cheapest hosting plan from GoDaddy.com costs only $3.56 per month, providing you with 5 GB storage and 250 GB data traffic per month. That's a whole lot of data traffic, or am I mistaken? I, personally, would rather pay that money than have ads on my website (and I did).

Maybe Andrew doesn't want to maintain this site "just for the love of it" but wants to see a little cash for all the time he spends on it. I wouldn't really understand that (unless he's making big bucks off of the advertisements on this site) but I'd respect it. Heck, I'd even pay a small fee to have access to a great site like this one! Most internet citizens though are used to online services being free and will quickly turn away from anything that's not. So instead of making a website 'paying members only' you choose to display ads on it, keeping it free for your visitors. So there rises my last question: is it bad blocking advertisements in my browser when visiting this site? Is that like cheating, 'not paying' for access to this site? Or does it not matter, does a webmaster only get paid when someone actually clicks a link, which I would probably never do?

I'd love to hear your (visitor's, Andrew's) thoughts on the things discussed above.

Cheers,

Kaonashi.


Screenshots: portablefreeware.com with and without ads.

[Andrew Lee]

On the issue on web ads, personally, I don't feel too strongly about them. The only type of ads I dislike are popup ads, because they are very disruptive to the browsing flow. But Firefox seems to take care of them nicely. I have not taken steps to eliminate other types of ads even though I know there are Firefox extensions to handle them, simply because they have not bothered me enough.

Do I do this "just for the love of it", or do I "want to see a little cash for all the time he spends on it"? Well, a little of both. I started the website partly to learn PHP programming, and partly to grapple with my large collection of portable software (I wanted some way to search them easily). So if all the ads were removed from the website tomorrow, or there is no one other than me using the site, I will still continue doing it.

But I wouldn't mind getting some ad dollars for the website too. Why not? It takes very little work to add the ads. Initially, Google AdSense was an obvious choice. Recently, I added the keyword-link ads from Kontera because their rep emailed me repeatedly and persuaded me to give it a try. Since she made it really easy for me, I have no reason to refuse. As you mentioned, this form of ads is gaining in popularity. Some sites like Tom's Hardware have been using them for ages.

On whether it is ethical to block ads or not. Personally, I feel the user has the right to do anything he pleases with his web browser. I don't think it's cheating, just like you shouldn't accuse someone fastforwarding through ads in a recorded TV show of cheating. The user can choose whether he wants to view your ads or not, right? If the ads don't bring in enough revenue, then you should consider changing your business model instead of bitching about users being unethical and so forth.

To summarize, the ads are there because they are easy to implement. A "paying members" site will take a lot more effort to implement, plus I don't think I like the idea anyway. If people are unhappy about certain types of ads, it should be easy to install some Firefox extensions and banish them permanently. That's it.

[Darkbee]

A similar topic came up on an Avant Browser forum and I came up with similar arguments to Andrew. If people block your links and don't generate income for you then that is your fault; you have a bad business model. It's a bit like someone selling mini oxygen tanks in convenient pocket packs and then getting angry because no one buys the product... bad business model (in this trivial example, the competition i.e. nature is offering a similar product for free!). Someone in a similiar situation to Andrew might reasonably expect to recoup some of the costs of running such a website but to expect to become a millionaire off of such a model is clearly a gross over estimation of the effectiveness of that model.

However, as with most things there are two sides to every coin. If users of a free, ad-supported, site start to complain that it's too slow or doesn't get updated often enough, then they really have no grounds to complain since they don't pay for the service. This is like complaining when you can't access your free webmail account because it is too busy. Did you pay for the service? No, ergo you have no right to complain. If you don't like it, tough luck, go elsewhere.

I recently encountered an example of this type of behaviour on the Statbar forum. Statbar is a free system monitoring application in the form of a nice toolbar that attaches to the top or bottom of the screen. It is freeware. It hasn't been updated for a while by the author's own admission since he has had to devote time to other things like ... um ... real life. Some people had the cheek to demand a release date for the next version and that is just plain wrong. If you don't pay, you have no rights to complain (Naturally, this doesn't always hold true but it is a fairly valid generalization that implies in this scenario).

As for blocking ads, if someone were to tell me that it is wrong and that I should no longer do it then I'd tell them where to go! Does anyone tell you that you can't go and make a cup of tea during the commercials? Does anyone tell you that you can't mute the tv if there are adverts that you don't want to listen to? I would hope not. I pay for Internet access therefore I should have a say in the traffic that is delivered over it.

End of rant.