Let’s be real, almost all of us use AdBlock. Here’s why you should and why you shouldn’t.
Many years ago, almost every website was using horribly annoying ads and pop ups to get revenue from their site. It became so intrusive that people started creating Adblocks to prevent the ads from showing up at all. They worked like a charm, and kept updated as the ad technology kept updating. Of course, this meant websites didn’t get as much money since they weren’t pummeling your face with ads from all four corners of the earth!
Some websites have gotten around Adblock by creating paid articles. They will create an article that looks like a real article, but it’s really just an ad. Other websites have gotten really advanced and prevent the site from working in some form or another unless you turn off your Adblock. Two examples are SouthParkStudios.com (and any other website that uses Hulu) and now IGN.com, the company I work for! I wasn’t able to work on their wikis without disabling my Adblock.
Now, I’m not fully against ads. Hell, I turn off my AdBlock on smaller websites that need the revenue to grow. They also know how to do ads just right so they don’t annoy you. The bigger websites on the other hand still use pop ups, ads before videos, and sometimes the entire page shifts if a certain type of ad loads.
Where am I going with this? I believe if a website is too small to have product placements, partnership ad campaigns and all that stuff, you shouldn’t turn your Adblock on. There’s a setting in many Adblocks that allow you to exclude a specific domain. And if you’d be so kind, please exclude my domain! 🙂 I promise to never use ads pretending to be articles, I will never use pop ups, I won’t use video ads on my website, and all my videos on YouTube have the small ads on the bottom of the video instead of being interrupted by a video ad. I know I won’t make as much money since there aren’t ads everywhere, but I also have customer satisfaction in mind.
Alternatively, you can use my Amazon link when shopping at Amazon. This will give me a small kickback, and it won’t cost you a penny! You can also leave me a tip through paypal to show your appreciation for all my work. All of this goes towards my website. I still have a day job.
That’s all I have to say about this subject. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have something on your mind about this subject.